Fundamental research on surface coating of titanium oxide

Organic-inorganic nanocomposites are able to combine desirable characteristics from both organic and inorganic components. Nanocomposites incorporating the properties of inorganic nanoparticles are widely used. However inorganic nanoparticles have a low affinity with an organic monomer. Therefore, agglomeration occurs in the organic polymer, so dispersion is difficult. As a solution to this problem, we focused on the surface modification of inorganic nanoparticles using a silane coupling agent. In this study titanium oxide (TiO2) was chosen as the inorganic nanoparticles. Also, vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES) was selected as a silane coupling agent, ethyl methacrylate (EMA) and methacrylic acid (MA) were selected as monomers. Then, particles were prepared and their characteristics were evaluated. From the characteristic evaluation results, it was found that the surface of TiO2 nanoparticle could be polymerized with the organic monomer, and its coating rate was 9.2%. Further, coating with an organic monomer, we succeeded in reducing the average particle size by coating with an organic monomer.