Electrical and Optical Properties of Conductive and Transparent ITO@PMMA Nanocomposites

Abstract

In this work, nanocomposite films of indium tin oxide (ITO) nanowires in a PMMA matrix were obtained by tape casting. The electrical, optical and morphological properties of films were studied as a function of the amount of wires inserted in the composite, and it was used 1, 2, 5, and 10 wt %. Results confirmed that films transmittance decreases as the concentration of wires increases, attaining a minimum transmittance of 55% for 10 wt % of filler. On the other hand, the electrical resistance of composites was found to decrease by increasing the filler amount and the dc characterization indicate that percolation occurs for about 5 wt % of wires. The morphological studies carried out by TEM were considered to be in good agreement with the electrical results and confirm that for 5% of filler, the ITO nanostructures are in contact with one another inside the polymer. Moreover, we made computational simulation of 1D structures in a general matrix and it was found that percolation should occur for about 12 wt %. Although computational results indicate higher amount of wires necessary for percolation than we found experimentally, both results illustrate that using one-dimensional nanostructures as filler in composites enables obtaining percolation for a smaller amount of filler than when using, for instance, nanoparticles. Therefore, the simple processing technique employed here can be used to obtain transparent and conductive composites with several useful applications.

Design of Heat-Conductive hBN–PMMA Composites by Electrostatic Nano-Assembly

“…PMMA also exhibits an amorphous polymer processing dimensional stability that allows it to be used as a host in composite material fabrication [1]. Various PMMA composite materials with desired properties were reported such as functional transparent composites [2][3][4] and infrared (IR) shielding composites [5].…”

Influence of pH in Obtaining Indium Tin Oxide Nanoparticles by Microwave Assisted Solvothermal Method

“…The indium tin oxide (ITO) composition stands out among other conductive oxides (fluorine-doped tin oxide, antimony tin oxide, aluminum-doped zinc oxide, indium zinc oxide) due to both the high electrical conductivity, and optical transmittance, which can reach up to 90% in the visible spectrum [1][2][3][4][5] . Therefore, it is easy to find out different kind of applications for TCOs, such as: optoelectronic devices (electrochromic displays, touch and liquid crystal screen, light emission diode, solar cells), resistive films (windshield plane, anti-static coating, and heat mirrors), photothermal converter, composites, gas sensor, and shielding for microwave [6][7][8][9] . The synthesis of ITO nanostructures has been reported by several methods, like co-precipitation of precursor metal 10,11 , carbothermal reduction 12 , microwaveassisted hydrothermal and solvothermal 13 , sol-gel 14,15 , organic templates 16 and microwave-assisted process in solid state 17,18 , and the morphology of obtained materials is highly dependent on the chosen method, enabling to obtain nanoparticles, nanowires, nanorods, and other morphologies.…”

Assessment of thermal, morphological, and mechanical properties of poly(methyl methacrylate)/glass flake composites

“…In recent decades, there has been a strong emphasis on the development of polymeric nanocomposites in which polymers were filled with organic or inorganic fillers of which at least one of their dimensions is smaller than 100 nm. Hybrid nanocomposites are one of the main categories of nanocomposites that are of great interest for both industry and academic research laboratories, because of their unique chemical and physical properties . Two fundamental factors that have a large influence on the final properties of hybrid nanocomposites are the dispersion of nanoparticles in polymer matrix and the interfacial interaction between organic and inorganic components .…”