Abstract
The doping of nanomaterials into polymers creates novel nanocomposite materials with desired properties. The influence of these nanoscale fillers on the structure and optical and thermal stabilities of polymer are the crucial clue to introduce these novel nanocomposites to service life applications. In this work, cadmium doped zinc oxide (Cd0.5Zn0.5O) nanopowders with a uniform particle size of around 10 nm have been synthesized, purified, and blended with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) by solution mixing to prepare PVC/Cd0.5Zn0.5O nanocomposite films. The structure and morphology of PVC/Cd0.5Zn0.5O nanocomposite films have been characterized using transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that as the amount of nanoscale fillers increases the nanocrystals tend to aggregates and the size of these aggregates increases from 25 to 100 nm. The UV-vis spectra showed that the prepared PVC/Cd0.5Zn0.5O nanocomposite films are highly transparent. The transparency at higher concentrations slightly decreased as a consequence of light scattering due to large aggregates. The thermogravimetric results showed that a small amount of Cd0.5Zn0.5O nanopowders (< 0.6 wt%) without further surface modification can greatly improve the thermal stability of PVC. POLYM. COMPOS., 32: 1143-1147, 2011. (C) 2011 Society of Plastics Engineers