TY - JOUR
TI - Preparation and characterization of physico-mechanical and structural properties of phthalimide derivative polymeric nanocomposites
AU - Bilici Vildan Ozkan
AU - Kaya Esin
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2022
VL - 26
IS - 4
SP - 3055
EP - 3065
PT - Article
AB - In this study, phthalimide derived polymer-TiO2 nanocomposites were prepared  by direct mixing method and their mechanical properties were compared. The  high content filler polymer nanocomposites with sufficient interface bonding  with the polymer matrix have been prepared to maximize the properties of the  filler. In the direct mixing method, the polymer obtained by free radical  polymerization of the monomer was mixed with TiO2 in high weight  percentages. The pulse-echo method was used to characterize the elastic  constants of the polymer and polymer-TiO2 nanocomposites through detection  of the ultrasonic waves. Transverse and longitudinal ultrasonic velocities  have been used to calculate Young's modulus of these samples. The ultrasonic  velocity and Young's modulus values of polymer-TiO2 nanocomposites showed a  linear relationship with the weight percentage of the polymer, which is due  to the strong and effective interaction between the particles resulting  from by reinforcing TiO2 to the polymer structure. The clustering that  emerged with the increase in the amount of reinforcement in the SEM images  became more pronounced and it was observed that pure polymer and TiO2 were  homogeneously distributed. The porosity and hardness measurements of the  polymer and polymer-TiO2 nanocomposites were examined. The hardness and  porosity of the polymer structure approximately increased as the percentage  values of TiO2 increased. Moreover, TGA results of polymer nanocomposites  obtained by direct mixing showed that the thermal stability increased  linearly as the weight ratio increase of TiO2 in comparison with the pure  polymer.