Facile synthesis of waterborne UV-curable polyurethane/silica nanocomposites and morphology, physical properties of its nanostructured films

Waterborne UV-curable polyurethane (WUPU)/silica nanocomposites were prepared by in situ method using aqueous silica sol. SEM examinations of hybrid films indicated that the nanosilica were well dispersed in the matrix. Atomic force microscopy revealed that the microphase separation between polyurethane and silica was significantly affected by the amount of silica incorporated. DMA analysis showed that the nanocomposite films with silica nanoparticles showed a single tan delta peak, which implies that soft and hard segments of polyurethane are well phase mixed. The nanostructure films displayed enhanced storage modulus, tensile strength without sacrificing high elongation at break. The resulting transparent hybrid films are promising for a number of applications, e.g. for high performance water-based UV-curable coatings. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.