Photopolymerization of Product Blending Methyl Methacrylate with Reactive Mesogen RM257 using the UV Curing Method
A.Afrizal (a*), Setia Budi (a), Silfia Afriani (a), Annisa Ambarwati (a), Umar Kalmar Nizar (b)

(a) Chemistry, Universitas Negeri Jakarta, East Jakarta 13220, Indonesia
*afrizal[at]unj.ac.id
(b) Chemistry, Universitas Negeri Padang, Air Tawar Padang, West Sumatra 25173, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract. The purpose of this research is to identify the photopolymerization of product blending methyl methacrylate with reactive mesogen RM257 using the UV Curing method with time variations. UV radiation had a role in the formation of new polymer with the addition of Benzoyl Peroxide (BPO) initiator. Polymerization was carried out at a temperature of 125^{o}C in time variations of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes. Then the sample were characterized using FTIR and SEM. The FTIR spectrum shows that thin film has the same pattern absorption in all the time variations. The absorption peak appears at 2700-2900 cm^{-1} indicating of -CH_{3} bonds, 1660-1820 cm^{-1} indicating of C=O bonds, and 1000-1300 cm^{-1} indicating of C-O bonds. The SEM characterization was carried out at 1000x, 5000x, 10000x and 15000x magnifications. Samples with a time variation of 15 minutes had the best uniformity of morphological shape and visible molecular shape of rods in all samples which is a characteristic of reactive mesogen. XRD characterization was carried out at an angle range of 2\theta 10^{o}-90^{o}, there were sharp peaks with moderate intensity at 2\theta 13.90^{o} and 16.83^{o}, high intensity appeared at 2\theta 44.66^{o}, this indicates that the thin film is semicrystalline.

Keywords: Liquid Crystal, Methyl Methacrylate, Reactive Mesogen RM257, UV Curing, Polymer

Topic: Chemistry