Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering Studies in Colloidal Silica/PMMA Nanocomposites

PERUZZO, P.J.; ANBINDER, P.S.; PLIVELIC, T.S.; AMALVY, J.I.

Activity Report 2010 - Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory

Editora Cubo

Año: 2011 p. 1 - 2

1518-0204

In polymer nanocomposites the polymer chains are confined to the nanoscale (i.e. 1-10 nm dimensions). The properties of nanocomposites are different from those obtained by simple mixing the polymeric and the inorganic phases. Polymer nanocomposites have many potential applications, including fire retardant coatings, transparent abrasion resistant coatings, synthesis of uniform microporous silica powders for chromatography columns, microelectronics and nonlinear optics. The properties of those nanocomposites are related to the morphology and previous work for characterizing it was performed using XPS, ESI-TEM and SAXS. The SAXS measurements on silica/PMMA nanocomposites particles show a complex pattern as a result of interaction between silica nanoparticles. Using the SAXS data from previous proposals and the morphology information from previous work, the scattering curves are modeled using atwo density model of a concentrated set of nanosilica particles in a PMMA matrix.