TiO2/Poly(thiourethane-urethane)-urea nanocomposites: Anticorrosion materials with NIR-reflectivity and high refractive index

Publication date: 16 June 2017
Source:Polymer, Volume 119
Author(s): Nagaraj Goud Ireni, Murugan Karuppaiah, Ramanuj Narayan, K.V.S.N. Raju, Pratyay Basak
Herein, we showcase an effective strategy to develop multifunctional nanocomposite materials that can serve as an excellent NIR-reflective, high refractive index and anticorrosive coatings. A series of multifunctional nanocomposite coatings of TiO2/Poly(thiourethane-urethane)-urea are developed and evaluated for their performance. TiO2 nanoparticles (TiNPs) are grafted with a sulfur-rich hyperbranched polyol (SHBP) to impart surface functionalization and active participation in network formation. Each stage of modifications are followed with detailed characterizations employing ¹H/¹³C-NMR, mid-FTIR, ESI-MS for structural elucidations of the targeted compositions while TGA, DSC, DMTA, TEM, FE-SEM are employed for assessing thermal, mechanical and morphological properties of the modified TiNPs and cured hybrid coatings. The UV–Vis–NIR studies and ellipsometry results revealed that these coatings exhibited notable NIR-reflectance (∼90%) which is hitherto undocumented for such materials. Coupled with appreciable transmittance in the visible region and high refractive index (>1.6) at 550 nm they demonstrate good optical properties. Additionally, anticorrosion performance of these coatings evaluated under corrosive conditions displayed a significant corrosion resistance, ∼10⁻⁶ mm per year. The findings of this study suggest the success in amalgamating multiple properties in one composition by tailoring the architecture of the polymer-nanohybrid matrix.

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