Thermal and morphological investigation of the effect of POSS-(PEG2000)8 addition to UV curable PEGMEA/PEGDA formulation and simultaneously in situ formed silver nanoparticles

In this study, hybrid nanocomposites were synthesized by photo-crosslinking of poly (ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate/poly (ethylene glycol) diacrylate monomer system using 2- (carboxymethoxy) thioxanthone and POSS-(PEG₂₀₀₀)₈. Additionally, AgNO₃ was added to this formulation and in situ formation of silver nanoparticles onto hybrid nanocomposites were achieved in one-step. UV–Vis spectroscopy technique was used as a very useful tool for surface plasmon resonance band detection of silver nanoparticles. In addition to thermogravimetric analyses which were performed in nitrogen atmosphere to determine the thermal stability of the nanocomposites, dynamic light scattering, and scanning electron microscopy techniques were also used for size and morphology of silver nanoparticles in a hybrid network. TGA analyses proved that even the addition of a very low amount of POSS-(PEG₂₀₀₀)₈ made noteworthy contribution to thermal stability especially in the presence of silver nanoparticles in the hybrid network. The swelling capacities of the prepared films were examined at 1, 3 and 24 h in phosphate buffer solution (pH = 7.4). It was found that film containing only POSS-(PEG₂₀₀₀)₈ had the highest swelling ratio in the shortest time.