Thursday, October 04, 2012

Nano-TiO 2 /polyurethane composites for antibacterial and self-cleaning coatings

P A Charpentier, K Burgess, L Wang, R R Chowdhury, A F Lotus and G Moula



Grafting from polymerization was used to synthesize nano-titania/polyurethane (nTiO 2 /polyurethane) composite coatings, where nTiO 2 was chemically attached to the backbone of the polyurethane polymer matrix with a bifunctional monomer, 2,2-bis(hydroxymethyl) propionic acid (DMPA). This bifunctional monomer can coordinate to nTiO 2 through an available –COOH group, with two available hydroxyl groups that can react with diisocyanate terminated pre-polyurethane through step-growth polymerization. The coordination reaction was monitored by FTIR and TGA, with the coordination reaction found to follow first order kinetics. After step-growth polymerization, the polyurethane nanocomposites were found to be stable on standing with excellent distribution of Ti in the polymer matrix without any significant agglomeration compared to simple physical mixtures of nTiO 2 in the polyurethane coatings. The functionalized nTiO 2 –polyurethane compo...



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