High-performance of nanoparticles and their effects on the mechanical, thermal stability and UV-shielding properties of PMMA nanocomposites

Hesham Moustafa, Darwish Darwish, Ahmed Youssef, Sameh Reda, Abdelaziz El-Wakil
2017 Egyptian Journal of Chemistry  
T HE TARGET of this work is to choose a suitable nanoparticle for preparing a highly ultraviolet (UV)-shielding from poly (methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) nanocomposites at low concentration and to decrease the destructive effects of UV radiation. Morphologies of the synthesized nanoparticles were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM). Whereas, pure PMMA and its nanocomposites were characterized by using dynamic mechanical analysis
more » ... tensile testing, UV-visible spectra (T%), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The obtained results showed a good correlation between the tensile properties, DMA and TGA analysis depending on the type of nanoparticles used in the PMMA matrix, especially in case of ZrO 2 and ZnO. Furthermore, UV-vis spectra were analyzed ranging from 200 nm to 800 nm. It showed that UV radiation is significantly blocked from 100% to 0.2 % in the UV range between 200 nm and 360 nm for pure PMMA and to 0.08 % for PMMA/CeO 2 nanocomposite and to 0.01 % for PMMA/ CeO 2 with various types of nanoparticles. After 360 nm, pure PMMA and PMMA/CeO 2 were a little bit affected by UV lights, whereas the PMMA based on different nanoparticles was not affected. This result demonstrates that these nanocomposites could be strongly candidates for the sunscreens or for several fields that related to the UV photodegradation effects.
doi:10.21608/ejchem.2017.1932.1159 fatcat:4u3ndrdkrfecpcsxrfbhkfqer4