Nanocomposites of PVC/TiO2 nanorods: Surface tension and mechanical properties before and after UV exposure

In this study, nanocomposites of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC), using the synthesized titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanorods and commercial nanopowder of titanium dioxide (Degussa P25) were produced by melt blending. The presence of TiO2 nanorods in PVC matrix led to an improvement in mechanical properties of PVC nanocomposites in comparison with unfilled PVC. The photocatalytic degradation behavior of PVC nanocomposites were investigated by measuring their structural change evaluations, surface tension, and mechanical properties before and after UV exposure for 500 h. It was found that mechanical and physical properties of PVC nanocomposites are not reduced significantly after UV exposure in the presence of TiO2 nanorods in comparison with the presence of TiO2 nanoparticles, which can be due to the amorphous structure of the synthesized nanorods. Therefore, it can be concluded that TiO2 nanorods led to an improvement in photostability and mechanical properties of PVC nanocomposites. The interfacial adhesion between TiO2 nanorods and PVC matrix was also investigated. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013