Polymer thin films are proving to be increasingly important because of their indispensable role in applications such as coatings, polymer-based bulk heterojunctions, nanolithography, and sensors. Zinc oxide (ZnO) and silicon oxide (SiO2) nanoparticles have emerged as fascinating metal oxide semiconductor nanomaterials.Recently, there has been much interest in polymer film modification onto semiconductor nanoparticles due to their efficiency in tunable wavelength light emission, which has led to increased application of luminescent nanoparticles making their study very intriguing. For such purposes, controlling the surface functionalization is important and can be tailored by the attachment of organic acids via self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). In this study, metal oxide nanoparticles (ZnO and SiO2) were modified using SAMs with carboxylic, hydroxamic, phosphonic, and sulfonic acid functional groups. The modified nanoparticles were then characterized using infrared spectroscopy (IR), solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (SS-NMR), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Electrochemical analyses were performed to analyze the charge transfer effect of the modified samples using cyclic voltammetry (CV).The effects that various polymers have on the modified nanoparticles have been studied.  Here, the polymers were grafted onto the surface by surface-initiated free radical polymerization (SIP) using azo-initiators. These attachments that may alter the photoreceptive abilities of the nanoparticles by the creation of polymer brushes using styrene, Bis[2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl] phosphate, and 4-Allyloxy-2-hydroxybenzophenone. The modified nanoparticles were characterized via the instrumentation listed, and changes in physical or chemical properties were noted.

Controlling surface properties of metal oxide nanoparticles using self assembled monolayers and polymer brushes

244th National Meeting (2012)

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