Journal
NANOMATERIALS
Volume 12, Issue 14, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/nano12142328
Keywords
adjustable refractive index; nanocomposite; zirconia nanoparticle; sol-gel method; surface modification
Categories
Funding
- National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) - Korean government [NRF-2017M1A2A2087815, NRF-2018R1D1A1B07051197, NRF-2020R1A4A2002590, NRF-2016R1A5A1012966]
- CNU Research Program - Chungnam National University
- National Research Foundation of Korea [2017M1A2A2087815] Funding Source: Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information (KISTI), National Science & Technology Information Service (NTIS)
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Highly transparent nanocomposite films with adjustable refractive index were fabricated by dispersing SiO2-modified ZrO2 nanoparticles in PDMS. The surface modification of the nanoparticles was controlled by varying the reaction time, and characterized using various techniques. The resulting nanocomposite films exhibited excellent optical transparency and adjustable refractive index.
Here, highly transparent nanocomposite films with an adjustable refractive index were fabricated through stable dispersion of ZrO2 (n = 2.16) nanoparticles (NPs) subjected to surface modification with SiO2 (n = 1.46) in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) (n = 1.42) using the Stober method. ZrO2 NPs (13.7 nm) were synthesized using conventional hydrothermal synthesis, and their surface modification with SiO2 (ZrO2@SiO2 NPs) was controlled by varying the reaction time (3-54 h). The surface modification of the NPs was characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and ellipsometry. The surface modification was monitored, and the effective layer thickness of SiO2 varied from 0.1 nm to 4.2 nm. The effective refractive index of the ZrO2@SiO2 NPs at lambda = 633 nm was gradually reduced from 2.16 to 1.63. The 100 nm nanocomposite film was prepared by spin-coating the dispersion of ZrO2@SiO2 NPs in PDMS on the coverslip. The nanocomposite film prepared using ZrO2@SiO2 NPs with a reaction time of 18 h (ZrO2@SiO2-18h-PDMS) exhibited excellent optical transparency (T-average = 91.1%), close to the transparency of the coverslip (T-average = 91.4%) in the visible range, and an adjustable refractive index (n = 1.42-1.60) as the NP content in the film increased from 0 to 50.0 wt%.
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