Chemical functionalisation of titania nanotubes and their utilisation for the fabrication of reinforced polystyrene composites

Abstract

Titania nanotubes have been functionalised using allyltriethoxysilane and propyltriethoxysilane. The functionalised nanotubes were characterised by FT-IR and Raman spectroscopy, TGA, TEM, elemental analysis and sedimentation studies. It was possible to form stable suspensions of the functionalised nanotubes in THF. The stability of these suspensions was further enhanced by addition of polystyrene. This allowed us to prepare polystyrene–TiO₂ nanotube composite films by a solution casting technique. These composite films have shown up to 18% increase in Young's modulus and up to 30% increase in tensile strength at extremely low nanotube loading levels.