Glass transition temperature changes of melt-blended polymer nanocomposites containing finely dispersed ZnO quantum dots

We report the linear increase in the glass transition temperature, Tg, with nanofiller weight content. ZnO quantum dots dispersed by melt-blending in a poly(methyl methacrylate) host were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical analysis showing that the Tg of the system is described by a power law of the interparticle distance, hp, where the percolation exponent, n, was 0.55 to 0.64. Our analysis demonstrates that the characteristic length of the polymer in PNCs is in the range of 0.41–0.90 nm. Our results suggest that polymer nanocomposites can be described by the quantitative models of polymer thin films.