Abstract
Nanocomposites consisting of a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)/polyvinyl chloride (PVC) blend containing zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles were prepared. The changes of the structural, optical and thermal properties of the PVDF/PVC blend before and after addition of ZnO were studied. The shift of intensity in IR bands suggested an interaction and compatibility between the blend and ZnO. The structural properties, crystallinity and grain size of the samples were studied using X-ray diffraction. The average grain size was approximately 16 nm confirmed by TEM observations. The X-ray peak positions of ZnO in doped samples were located in the same positions as those of pure ZnO indicating the crystal structure of ZnO was not altered by its incorporation into PVDF/PVC. The estimated values of the optical energy gap from UV/Vis spectra for indirect transition decrease with increasing ZnO due to charge transfer between PVDF/PVC and ZnO nanoparticles. The thermogravimetric analysis curves showed nearly identical behaviors for all samples. Samples that contained ZnO exhibited less weight loss compared to the pure blend attributed to crosslinking formation between the blend and ZnO. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images revealed that ZnO was uniformly distributed inside PVDF/PVC polymeric matrices and was superimposed on an amorphous background.