THESIS - ROC CH ... - FINAL - resubmission.pdf - University of Guelph
THESIS - ROC CH ... - FINAL - resubmission.pdf - University of Guelph
THESIS - ROC CH ... - FINAL - resubmission.pdf - University of Guelph
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7.4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION<br />
7.4.1 PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS WITH TIO2/SPI BLEND FILM<br />
Preliminary experiments focused on incorporating TiO2 nanoparticles with SPI films<br />
characterizing any changes during extrusion and subsequent mechanical properties <strong>of</strong> the films.<br />
The compatibility <strong>of</strong> TiO2 was evident from the formulation stage due to the hydrophilic nature <strong>of</strong><br />
both SPI and TiO2 leading to uniform blending. Extrusion with same parameters were carried<br />
out with ease and resulted with homogenous film with no visual signs <strong>of</strong> phase separation<br />
(Figure 7.1).<br />
Figure 7.1: SPI incorporated with TiO2 blend film as it exits the lip die showing a homogenous film<br />
formation indicating good compatibility<br />
The differing particle sizes <strong>of</strong> TiO2 obtained from P25 (21 nm) and P90 (14 nm) was<br />
apparent through the difference in appearance with various loadings (Figure 7.2). Due to the<br />
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