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B. Feichtenschlager, S. Pabisch, H. Peterlik, M Sajjad, T. Koch, G. Kickelbick:
"Ordering Phenomena of Organic Moieties on Nanoscopic Surfaces: Tailoring the Interface in Organic-Inorganic Nanocomposites";
Poster: Junior Scientist Conference 2010, Vienna; 2010-04-07 - 2010-04-09; in: "Proceedings", (2010), ISBN: 978-3-200-01797-9; 221 - 222.

Long alkyl chain capping agents increase the compatibility between inorganic and organic moieties at the interface in polymer nanocomposites resulting in a better dispersibility of inorganic nanobuilding blocks in the organic matrix. However such long alkyl chains tend to form very well ordered structures which can decrease the dispersibility because of interparticle alkyl-bilayer formation. In our work we investigate ZrO₂ nanocrystals with 22 nm diameter and present two strategies to overcome this effect: On the one hand the mixing of two different capping agents can break this ordering phenomenon and on the other hand flexible chains like polysiloxane may not form such structures. The alkyl chain ordering is investigated via infrared spectroscopy and the aggregation behaviour is studied via dynamic light scattering and small angle x-ray-scattering.

nanoparticles, nanocomposites, surface modification, hybrid materials, zirconium oxide, phosphonic acids, self assembled monolayers

Project Head Guido Kickelbick:
Chemisch massgeschneiderte Grenzflächen in Nanokompositen