A Study of Nanosilica Release From “Weathered” Polymer Nanocomposites at Different Temperatures Using ICP-OES

Published

June 15, 2014

Author(s)

Savelas A. Rabb, Deborah S. Jacobs, Li Piin Sung, Tinh Nguyen, Lee L. Yu

Abstract

The impact of nanoparticles on the environment and, more importantly, the human population has been of great interest for the past few years. Release of these nanoparticles from different materials from wear or climate exposure has been explored to aid in the assessment of risk to the ecosystem. In our studies, the release and surface accumulation of silica nanoparticles on polymer nanocomposites due to weathering under controlled conditions (i.e. humidity, temperature, and UV radiation) has been investigated. Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) is one of the techniques utilized to ascertain the release of nanosilica. Previous results have shown the surface accumulation of nanosilica to increase gradually over a period of 10 weeks. Significant accumulations could be observed after a week of exposure. Current experiments studied the release of nanosilica as a function of temperature up to 16 weeks. The surface of the nanocomposites was rinsed with H2O to emulate a rain event at the end of each exposure period (2 weeks). The release of nanosilica during each period of exposure was not significantly different due to large variability among the replicates. However, most of the release amounts were between 10 ug Si and 40 ug Si for each exposure. Net total release ranged from 114 ug Si to 308 ug Si for the various temperatures. Temperature did not appear to be a major factor, with the exception of 60 °C at weeks 8 and 10, in the release of nanosilica. These results will contribute to establishing an accurate and predictive model for the release of silica nanoparticles from UV-irradiated polymer nanocomposites.

Proceedings Title

TechConnect World Technical Proceedings

Conference Dates

June 15-18, 2014

Conference Location

National Harbor, MD

Conference Title

Nanotech Conference 2014

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

nanocomposites, release, ICP-OES, silica, nanoparticles, UV radiation, surface accumulation

Citation

Rabb, S. , Jacobs, D. , Sung, L. , Nguyen, T. and Yu, L. (2014), A Study of Nanosilica Release From “Weathered” Polymer Nanocomposites at Different Temperatures Using ICP-OES, TechConnect World Technical Proceedings, National Harbor, MD, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=916018 (Accessed October 10, 2025)