A simple approach for surface hardening of polystyrene

One strategy in prolonging the lifetime of polymer materials is to improve their surface mechanical properties. A simple and easy method to modify the polymer surface based on the preferential segregation of inorganic materials is applied to a glassy polymer. We clearly show that the polystyrene film with a few nm-thick hybrid surface layer with hydrolyzed tetraethoxysilane exhibits excellent wear resistance and anti-oxidant properties.