Polymer-ceramic nanocomposites

Abstract

Steady state fluorescence (SSF) and photon transmission (PT) techniques were used for studying film formation from TiO 2 and Al 2 O 3 covered polystyrene (PS) latex particles. These films were annealed at elevated temperatures in 10 min time intervals above glass transition (T g ) temperature of polystyrene. Fluorescence emission, I p and transmitted photon, I tr intensities were measured after each annealing step to monitor the stages of film formation. Films present dramatic increase in both I tr and I p above the certain onset temperature called minimum film forming temperature, T 0 . Dissolution of annealed PS film, with high TiO 2 content presented a nice, ordered nano-sized ceramic structure, which may predict the construction of nano-layer photonic crystals. It was observed that latex particles are encapsulated above a critical Al 2 O 3 content of 33 wt% which corresponds to the critical occupation probability of p c =0.33 at which the film obey the site-percolation model with a critical exponent of 0.45.