Preparation and characterization of polymer/inorganic nanoparticle composites through electron irradiation

In this paper, we report a new method to prepare the polymer/inorganic nanoparticle composites using electron irradiation-induced polymerization. The mixture of nanoparticles and MMA solution were co-irradiated by 1.6 MeV electron beam to a dose of 10, 20 and 30 kGy at a dose-rate of 60 kGy/h in air at room temperature. The products after irradiation were extracted using a soxhlet extractor with boiling xylene and investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transmission infrared (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), optical absorption spectra (OAP) and photoluminescence (PL). The FTIR and XPS results show that there exist some unextractable PMMA in the nanocomposites after extraction, indicating a strong interaction between the PMMA and nanoparticles. PL results show that new luminescence peaks appear at 415 and 420 nm for the nanocomposites of anatase and γ -Al2O3. C 2006 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc