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Influence of TiO2 nanofiller geometry on the rheological and optical properties of poly(acrylic acid)-based nanocomposite hydrogels |
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| Authors: | Myleidi Vera Claudio Mella Daniel Palacio Srivathsava Surabhi Bruno Boury Karim Bouchmella Jong-Ryul Jeong Bruno F. Urbano |
| Affiliation: | 1. Departamento de Polímeros, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile;2. Departamento de Física y Química, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Providencia, Chile Contribution: Investigation (equal), Methodology (equal), Writing - original draft (equal), Writing - review & editing (equal);3. Departamento de Polímeros, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile Contribution: Investigation (equal), Methodology (equal), Writing - original draft (supporting);4. Laboratorio de Nanocompuestos, Departamento de Ingeniería de Materiales (DIMAT), Facultad de Ingeniería (FI), Universidad de Concepción (UdeC), Concepción, Chile Laboratorio de Nanociencias y Nanotecnología, Facultad de Ciencias Físico Matemáticas (FCFM), Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL), San Nicolás de los Garza, Nuevo León, Mexico Contribution: Investigation (equal), Writing - original draft (equal), Writing - review & editing (equal);5. ICGM, CNRS, Univ. Montpellier, ENSCM Montpellier, Montpellier, France Contribution: Investigation (equal), Writing - original draft (equal), Writing - review & editing (equal);6. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Energy Science and Technology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea Contribution: Methodology (equal), Writing - original draft (equal), Writing - review & editing (equal) |
| Abstract: | The properties of macroscopic polymer nanocomposites are highly dependent on the nanoparticle–polymer interfacial region, which varies with the morphology of the nanoparticles. Herein, we used TiO2 nanofillers with very low aspect ratio, the same chemical composition, and surface functions, but different geometries (nanospheres and nanoplates) dispersed in a poly(acrylic acid) matrix to analyze the influence of the nanoparticle geometry on the properties of nanocomposite hydrogels. The geometry was found to affect the swelling and rheological properties of the nanocomposite polymers. Particularly, the yield strain (from 25% to 130%), modulus (from 17,500 to 25,000 Pa), and brittleness of nanoplates based nanocomposite increased more significantly. Finite-difference time-domain simulations demonstrated that nanoplates increased the wavelength of the absorption maxima (224 nm for NS to 240 nm for NP) and charge distribution. The results obtained in this research indicate that the nanofiller shape markedly influences the rheological properties of the nanocomposite polymers, opening the door to further research focused on polymer–nanofiller interactions, and their effect on the macroscopic properties of the nanocomposites. |
| Keywords: | aspect ratio FDTD simulations hydrogels nanoplates nanospheres |
