Hybrid organic-inorganic nanostructured acrylic films based on methacylate modified zirconium oxocluster

Organic-inorganic nanostructured acrylic films, based on methacrylate-modified zirconium oxocluster, were prepared by UV-induced polymerization, which yielded transparent and crack-free layers. TEM analysis evidenced that all the inorganic particles are well dispersed with no significant macroscopic agglomerations. FT-IR kinetic investigations showed that the presence of the zirconium oxocluster does not affect the photopolymerization rate or acrylic double bond conversion. An increase on T_g values of the cured films is evident at 15 wt.-% load of the inorganic filler. A thermal stability increase was also achieved in the presence of the zirconium oxocluster. Surface studies performed by XPS analyses showed the presence of homogeneously distributed zirconium oxoclusters, which induces important improvements of the surface hardness evidenced on the basis of the pencil test.