Transparent cyclic olefin copolymer/silica nanocomposites

In this work, melt blending of fumed nanosilica with cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) was carried out to prepare high strength transparent composites. The effects of various loadings (1, 2, 3 and 5 wt%) of nanosilica on the physical, mechanical, dynamic mechanical, thermal, tribological and optical properties of the COC composites were investigated in detail. The tensile test results showed that the nanocomposite with 3 wt% nanosilica content provides the highest tensile strength (55.6 MPa) compared with the nanocomposite with 5 wt% nanosilica content (54.6 MPa), which is believed to be significantly dependent on better dispersion. Moreover, the glass transition temperature (from tan δ) increased from 184 °C for pure COC to 194.3 °C for the COC composite with 3 wt% nanosilica. The scratch test and nano-indentation results showed that addition of nanosilica increased the stiffness and hardness of the composite, providing higher scratch resistance and lower frictional coefficient. UV-visible spectroscopy measurements showed that the nanocomposites have excellent optical transparency which is similar to that of the pure COC film. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry.