A solvothermal process was developed to in situ prepare epoxy (EP)/TiO 2 hybrid precursors. The chemical structure of samples was confirmed by X-ray and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy. Field emission scanning electron microscope micrographs of cured EP/ TiO 2 hybrid composites showed that well-dispersed TiO 2 nanoparticles were successfully in situ formed in epoxy matrix through the solvothermal process. The thermogravimetic analysis, DSC, and gel content measurements showed that EP/TiO 2 hybrid precursors were fully cured with the glass transition temperature decreasing gradually. The effect of TiO 2 contents on optical and surface proper-ties was investigated in detail. The results indicated that epoxy/TiO 2 nanocomposites exhibited excellent UV shielding effect and high visible light transparency. The contact angle of EP/TiO 2 nanocomposites, when the content of silane-coupling agent (KH560) was 5 g and the content of tetrabutyl titanate (TBT) was 3 g, can reach as high as 101 , which was 36 higher than that of pure EP, representing for the increase of hydrophobicity.

Composites of high density polyethylene (HDPE) with the reinforcements of glass fiber (GF) and wood flour (WF) have been studied in this work. High-density polyethylene-grafted maleic hydride (HDPE-g-MAH) was used as a compatibilizer. In particular, the effect of GF, WF, and HDPE-g-MAH on the overall properties of GF/WF/HDPE composites (GWPCs in short form) was systematically studied. The results indicate that HDPE-g-MAH as a compatibilizer can effectively promote the interfacial adhesion between GF/WF and HDPE. By the incorporations of GF/WF, the heat deflection temperature can reach above 120 C, and the water absorption can be below 0.7%, also the tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact strength of GWPCs can surpass 55.2 Mpa, 69.4 Mpa, and 11.1 KJ/m 2 , respectively.

The copolymer of styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene triblock copolymer-g-polylactic acid (SEBS-g-PLA) was successfully prepared using a novel solvothermal synthetic method, in which the graft copolymerization of PLA and SEBS was simply performed in cholorform solution at 100-150 C with benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as initiator. The effect of various factors including the reaction temperature and time and the content of BPO and PLA on the graft copolymerization was investigated in detail. It is found that the optimal reaction condition for the grafted copolymers SEBS-g-PLA was 120 C for 5 h, while the optimal formulation of SEBS/PLA/BPO was 5 g/2 g/0.5 g in 30 mL chloroform. The properties and microstructures of the obtained SEBS-g-PLA copolymers were also studied. The tensile strength and elongation at break were higher than that of pure SEBS and improved with the increase of grafting degree. In addition, SEBS-g-PLA copolymer possessed two-phase structure with vague phase boundaries. The as-prepared SEBS-g-PLA copolymers can be used as the toughening component to improve the impact strength of PLA.