Thermal Study of PMMA-ZnO Polymer Nanocomposites Using Differential Scanning Calorimeter

Polymer matrix based nanocomposites have become a prominent area of current research and development due to significant improvement in polymer properties at very low filler contents. In present work Polymethylmethacrylate-Zinc oxide (PMMA-ZnO) nanocomposites have been prepared via solution casting method. X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern confirms the formation of nanocomposites. Thermal characterization of PMMA-ZnO nanocomposites have been carried out using Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC). Results reveal that the glass transition temperature (T _g) increases with the increase of heating rate and ZnO content due to stiffening of polymer chains. An effort has also been made for the non-isothermal kinetics at glass transition using Kissinger, Moynihan and Lasocka model.