Investigation into the effect of ZnO nanorod coating on the thermal-mechanical and dielectric properties of ITO coated PET

ITO coated PET films are promising substrates for flexible, wearable sensors. The sensor functionality can be added by depositing a semiconductor layer on the ITO coating. This study investigates if such functionalization affects the basic thermomechanical properties of the substrate material. ZnO nanorods were grown directly on the ITO/PET surface from pre-made ZnO nanoparticle seeds. The samples were characterized by UV–Vis spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and powder X-ray diffractometry. Their thermomechanical properties such as thermal degradation profile, glass transition temperature, as well as melting and crystallization transitions were studied by thermogravimetric analysis, modulated differential scanning calorimetry, dynamic mechanical analysis, and dielectric relaxation spectroscopy. Our findings indicate that even though the thermomechanical properties are clearly affected by the presence of the ZnO nanorod coating to some extent, the sensor substrate material remains usable because the original characteristics of the ITO/PET substrate do not deteriorate significantly.The financial support of the Hungarian Research Development and Innovation Office through the grant NKFIH K 120115 is acknowledged.Peer reviewe

Removal of Acid red 1 by TiO2 nanoparticles coated polyethersulfone membrane under UV irradiation

PES membranes with different pore sizes (0.05 and 0.2 micrometer) were coated with commercial TiO2 P25 and synthetized TiO2 nanoparticles. In order to test the photocatalytic activity of Acid red 1 dye solutios were filtered through the modified membranes. Coated membranes had lower fluxes compared to the neat membranes, contact angle measurements showed the changes of wettability of the membranes