In this study, nanocomposites of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC), using the synthesized titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) nanorods and commercial nanopowder of titanium dioxide (Degussa P25) were produced by melt blending. The presence of TiO 2 nanorods in PVC matrix led to an improvement in mechanical properties of PVC nanocomposites in comparison with unfilled PVC. The photocatalytic degradation behavior of PVC nanocomposites were investigated by measuring their structural change evaluations, surface tension, and mechanical properties before and after UV exposure for 500 h. It was found that mechanical and physical properties of PVC nanocomposites are not reduced significantly after UV exposure in the presence of TiO 2 nanorods in comparison with the presence of TiO 2 nanoparticles, which can be due to the amorphous structure of the synthesized nanorods. Therefore, it can be concluded that TiO 2 nanorods led to an improvement in photostability and mechanical properties of PVC nanocomposites. The interfacial adhesion between TiO 2 nanorods and PVC matrix was also investigated.

In this study, nanocomposites of rigid poly(vinyl chloride) (UPVC) using the synthesized carbon-coated titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) nanoparticles and commercial powder of titanium dioxide (with rutile structure) were prepared by melt blending. The presence of carbon-coated TiO 2 nanoparticles with rutile structure in UPVC matrix led to an improvement in photo stability of UPVC nanocomposites in comparison with commercial UPVC. The photocatalytic degradation behavior of nanocomposites was investigated by measuring their structural changes, surface tension, and mechanical and morphological properties before and after UV exposure for 700 h. It was found that mechanical and physical properties of UPVC nanocomposites are not considerably reduced after UV exposure in the presence of carbon-coated TiO 2 nanoparticles even in small percentage of nanoparticles in comparison with the presence of commercial TiO 2 particles. Therefore, it can be concluded that UPVC/TiO 2 nanocomposite with low content of carboncoated TiO 2 nanoparticles(0.25 wt %) illustrated high stability under light exposure.

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