Structure and Optical Properties of Titania-PDMS Hybrid Nanocomposites Prepared by In Situ Non-Aqueous Synthesis
Dalod, Antoine Robert Marie; Grendal, Ola Gjønnes; Blichfeld, Anders Bank; Furtula, Vedran; Pérez, Javier; Henriksen, Lars; Grande, Tor; Einarsrud, Mari-Ann
Journal article, Peer reviewed
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Date
2017Metadata
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- Institutt for fysikk [2794]
- Institutt for materialteknologi [2663]
- Publikasjoner fra CRIStin - NTNU [39927]
Abstract
Organic-inorganic hybrid materials are attractive due to the combination of properties from the two distinct types of materials. In this work, transparent titania-polydimethylsiloxane hybrid materials with up to 15.5 vol. % TiO2 content were prepared by an in situ non-aqueous method using titanium (IV) isopropoxide and hydroxy-terminated polydimethylsiloxane as precursors. Spectroscopy (Fourier transform infrared, Raman, Ultraviolet-visible, ellipsometry) and small-angle X-ray scattering analysis allowed to describe in detail the structure and the optical properties of the nanocomposites. Titanium alkoxide was successfully used as a cross-linker and titania-like nanodomains with an average size of approximately 4 nm were shown to form during the process. The resulting hybrid nanocomposites exhibit high transparency and tunable refractive index from 1.42 up to 1.56, depending on the titania content.