Refractive index engineering of transparent ZrO2–polydimethylsiloxane nanocomposites

Abstract

Transparent ZrO 2 -polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) nanocomposites with high refractive index were prepared by dispersing ZrO 2 nanoparticles in a PDMS matrix via ligand molecule engineering. The ligand molecule consists of a diamine head group that adsorbs strongly onto the ZrO 2 nanoparticles, and a siloxane tail group with a double-tailed structure that can be easily stretched within the PDMS matrix and yields a greater steric hindrance compared to single-tailed structure. The transmission electron micrograph shows that the designed Si-based ligand molecule has a role to play in keeping ZrO 2 nanoparticles fully-dispersed even after the ZrO 2 nanoparticles were transferred into the PDMS matrix. UV-vis spectra indicate that ZrO 2 -PDMS nanocomposite had a high transparency of 93.3% in the whole visible range. The refractive index of the ZrO 2 -PDMS nanocomposite could be varied from 1.39 to 1.65 simply by increasing the ZrO 2 content from 0 to 20.8% v/v.

Influence of ZrO2 nanoparticles and thermal treatment on the properties of PMMA/ZrO2 hybrid coatings

“…From these results and optical images (Fig. 6b), it is evident that the presence of even a small percentage of ZrO 2 leads to a dramatic transparency loss, which can be attributed either to the obtained structural phase or to the presence of agglomerated ZrO 2 nanoparticles since these can act as a strong scattering center [30], and therefore, causes haze or even turbidity; in fact, previous studies have shown that size, structural phase and distribution of inorganic particles have critical importance for transparency of polymer/inorganic particle composites [31,32]. Besides, the formations of small crystalline domains embedded in the amorphous PMMA also contribute to the percentage reduction of transmittance in the visible range.…”

Influence of dental resin material composition on cross-polarization-optical coherence tomography imaging

“…However, the process of the final composite mixture with nanoparticles remains challenging with several proprietary techniques employed to reduce the agglomeration of nanoparticles. 31 Despite the limitations of this study, there were still some important conclusions when comparing our combined chemical and structural analysis with the CP-OCT imaging results.…”

Highly transparent poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline)-TiO2 nanocomposite coatings for the conservation of matte painted artworks

“…There are not many inorganic nanoparticles with the same optical properties of TiO 2 (high refractive index, transparency in the visible with UV absorption). Some high refractive index polymer nanocomposites reported in literature were prepared with ZrO 2 (n=2.16 at 589 nm) 24 and ZnO (n=2.00 at 589 nm) 25 that, like TiO 2 , show also photocatalytic properties 26 . Moreover, TiO 2 is most often used as inorganic phase due to the higher refractive index and its easier preparation in both laboratory and industry 27 .…”