Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Degree

Master of Engineering Science

Program

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Supervisor

Paul Charpentier

Abstract

Self-cleaning titanium dioxide (TiO2) based polyurethane and polyester nanocomposites were synthesized, characterized and tested in this thesis. A monomer functionalization method (“grafting from” polymerization) was used for synthesizing both novel nano-TiO2 coordinated polyurethanes (nano-TiO2-PU) and nano-TiO2/polyester nanocomposites. This technique provides the advantage of directly attaching nanoparticles to the polymer backbone.

For polyurethane synthesis, two different methods (one-shot and pre-polymer) were explored. Using several characterization techniques, product from the pre-polymer method showed better mechanical properties; therefore, the pre-polymer method was chosen for subsequent nano-TiO2-PU synthesis. In the nano-TiO2-PU synthesis, the first step, monomer functionalization, was confirmed using TGA and FTIR characterization. The self-cleaning properties of nano-TiO2-PU products were examined and demonstrated. As for polyesters, nano-TiO2 was mixed with two commercial polyesters to investigate their self-cleaning and mechanical properties. With the addition of nano-TiO2, nano-TiO2/polycaprolactone (PCL) showed good self-cleaning properties and nano-TiO2/poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) showed enhancement in the mechanical properties.

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