High Toughness and Light Transmittance of PMMA Composite Prepared via In-Situ Polymerization with Incorporating Self-Assembled Dendritic Gel Networks

Abstract

High toughness and light transmittance PMMA composite was prepared via in-situ thermal polymerization with gel networks self-assembling from dendritic gelators. Significant improvements of PMMA composite's toughness could be achieved by adding a small amount of dendrimers, without losing its light transmittance. Phase morphology, mechanical properties and optical performance of the composite were investigated with SEM, DMTA, impact strength test and UV–Vis spectrophotometer, respectively. The results showed that gel networks constructed from the dendrimers’ self-assembling kept intact during in-situ polymerization, while the PMMA composite containing very small amount(≤1.0 wt%) of G₂-C₁₂-G₂orgelator-1 exhibits higher storage modulus, toughness and glass transition temperature than those of PMMA homopolymer.

Keywords:

• PMMA
• dendritic gelators
• gel network
• toughness
• in-situ polymerization

Acknowledgement

Financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No: 51173167,21004052) and Zhejiang Provincial Innovative Research Team (Grant No: 2009R50004,G9717101052) are gratefully acknowledged.