No 3, Vol. 5, 2003 
 

OPTICAL FILMS BASED ON POLY(P-PHENYLENE VINYLENE) (PPV) AND ITS NANOCOMPOSITES

Duangporn Saramas1, David C. Martin2 and Rathanawan Magaraphan3

1 The Petroleum and Petrochemical College, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, THAILAND
2 Materials Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering,
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

Abstract

Nanocomposites of poly(p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV) were studied. The natural sodium-montmorillonite was cation exchanged with bis(hydrogenated tallowalkyl) dimethyl quaternary ammonium chloride. Content of modified montmorillonite had varied from 30-60 wt% in pure PPV. These polymer/layered silicate nanocomposites were synthesized and consisted of different organically-modified clays, proven by TGA, WAXD, FTIR, and TEM. Barrier property and color tunability improved with increasing organophilic clay content. The rate of photoluminescence decay in polymer-clay nanocomposites drastically reduced compared to that of pristine polymer. The results showed important implications for enhanced lifetime of polymer-clay nanocomposites based optoelectronic devices.

full paper (pdf, 110 Kb)