%0 Journal Article
%T Novel Nanocomposite Optical Plastics: Dispersion of Titanium in Polyacrylates
%A Gunjan Suri
%A Mukti Tyagi
%A Geetha Seshadri
%A Gurcharan Lal Verma
%A Rakesh Kumar Khandal
%J Journal of Nanotechnology
%D 2010
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2010/531284
%X Polyacrylates have become the preferred materials for optical applications replacing the conventionally used glass due to their superior optical clarity. The major disadvantage with polyacrylates is their low (1.40¨C1.50) refractive index besides their poor impact resistance. The improvements in refractive index as well as mechanical properties can be achieved by way of incorporation of metals or metal compounds in the matrix. A novel methodology for the incorporation of high refractive index metals into low refractive index polymeric materials to improve the refractive index and impact resistance of the latter has been developed. With the in-situ formation of nanoparticles of , the refractive index of polyacrylates improved from 1.45 to 1.53 and the Abbe number increased from 40 to 57. One of the interesting dimension of this study pertains to the possibility of tailor-making of the two key optical properties of materials by way of varying the amount of being formed in-situ. Thermal stability and impact resistance of nano dispersed (4.3% by wt. of Ti) polyacrylates are found to be better than the neat polyacrylates. Moreover, -containing polyacrylate is of light weight. TEM, SEM, and IR analysis confirms the in-situ formation of nanoparticles of . Gamma irradiation has been used as an eco-friendly technique for polymerization. The developed compositions can be cast polymerized into clear and bubble free material for optical applications. 1. Introduction Amongst the conventional materials used for optical applications, glass has been the most popular and till recently considered as the preferred candidate material. Glass, besides being a brittle and heavy material, is also prone to scratches. Plastics with optical properties as good as glass, if not better, have been found to be a better material than glass for various optical applications [1¨C7]. Apart from being light weight, optical plastics exhibit optical properties like refractive index, Abbe number, and transmittance superior to glass. These days, it has become possible to maneuver all of these properties by designing suitable optical plastics. However, it has been a challenge to manufacture optical plastics with high refractive index and high Abbe number. The other big challenge pertaining to the development of optical plastics concerns the tailor-making of properties. It has not been possible so far to have chemistries that can produce materials of varying properties as per requirements. For this, composite materials in devices such as lenses, coatings and filters are being extensively studied
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jnt/2010/531284/