A friendly approach for surface treatment of SiO2 nanoparticles by biosafe vitamin B1 for synthesis of poly(vinyl chloride)/SiO2 nanocomposite films with improved properties

It is clear that, poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) is a white and brittle solid polymer with low thermal stability which has limited its applications [1].Incorporation of various inorganic nanofillers is an effective method to overcome this problem [2].In this study, SiO2nanoparticles (NPs) incorporated into PVC matrix to prepare nanocomposites with better mechanical, physical, and thermal properties. To prevent aggregation and to achieve a uniform dispersion of SiO2NPs into the PVC matrix, the SiO2 NPs were modified with vitamin B1 (VB1). Nanocomposites (NCs) were prepared with different percentage of modified SiO2 NPs (3, 5 and 7 wt %)(Figure 1). The results indicated that PVC/SiO2-VB1 NCs exhibited better thermal stability, flexibility than pure PVC in three weight percentages.