Polymer Composite Optical Materials

由于硬度、耐磨性、拉伸模量、抗压强度和热变形温度的提高，以及热膨胀系数的降低，填充玻璃纤维和二氧化硅颗粒的聚合物具有许多商业应用。二氧化硅纤维或颗粒不规则地分散和团聚，纤维可能被剪切定向。关于分散二氧化硅的三维顺序如何影响复合材料的机械性能，目前还一无所知。我们已经合成了第一个分散相有序为胶体晶体的复合材料。在接下来的资助期间，我们将(1)更完整地表征胶体硅-聚合物复合材料的晶体结构，以回答薄膜光学衍射的一些令人困惑的问题，(2)制备具有更小分散颗粒和更宽衍射波长范围的光学衍射滤光片，(3)制备使用弹性体基质的可调滤光片。(4)在丙烯酸基体中制备聚苯乙烯乳液的胶体晶体共混物作为衍射滤光剂；(5)将我们对胶体晶体薄膜光学性能的研究扩展到热性能和力学性能；(6)通过固体核磁共振光谱表征二氧化硅-PMMA复合材料；(7)合成一种新的胶体晶体分散体家族，其中C60的衍生物被捕获在聚苯乙烯和PMMA乳液中。这项研究可能会导致几种新型光学滤光片和改进弹性体的发展。＊＊＊

9503626 Ford Polymers filled with glass fibers and silica particles have many commercial applications due to increased hardness, abrasion resistance, tensile modulus, compressive strength, and heat distortion temperature, and to a lower coefficient of thermal expansion. The silica fibers or particles are irregularly dispersed and agglomerated, and the fibers may be oriented by shear. Nothing is known yet about how three- dimensional order of dispersed silica influences the mechanical properties of a composite. We have synthesized the first composites having the dispersed phase ordered as colloidal crystals. During the next grant period we will (1) characterize the crystal structures of the colloidal silica-polymer composites more completely to answer a number of puzzling aspects of the optical diffraction of the films, (2) prepare optical diffraction filters having smaller dispersed particles and a wider range of diffraction wavelengths, (3) prepare tunable filters using elastomeric matrices, (4) prepare blends of colloidal crystals of polystyrene latexes in acrylic matrices as diffraction filters, (5) extend our studies of the optical properties of the colloidal crystalline films to thermal and mechanical properties, (6) characterize the silica-PMMA composites by solid state NMR spectroscopy, and (7) synthesize a new family of colloidal crystalline dispersions in which derivatives of C60 are trapped in polystyrene and and PMMA latexes. %%% This research could lead to the development of several types of novel optical filters and improved elastomers. ***