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A series of hyper-branched polyimide (HBPI)/mesoporous SiO2 nanocomposite films were prepared from a fluorinated anhydride (6FDA), a fluorinated triamine (TFAPOB), and mesoporous SiO2 nanoparticles (NPs). The anhydride-terminated precursor of HBPI was functionalized using a coupling agent prior to mixing with SiO2 NPs. The morphologies and thermal-optical properties of the nanocomposite films were investigated, with particular focus on their optical transparency, refractive indices (n), and thermo-optical (TO) coefficients. The absolute values of TO coefficients (|dn/dT|) of HBPI film (50.8 ppm/K) were significantly reduced to 13.4 ppm/K by homogeneous dispersion of 15 wt% of SiO2 NPs. The HBPI/SiO2 composite films exhibited high thermal stability without significant weight loss of up to 400 °C in air. The films also exhibited small coefficients of linear thermal expansion (CTEs) within the range 30–40 ppm/K. In addition, enhanced interfacial interactions between SiO2 and HBPI significantly improve the optical transparency with cutoff wavelengths shorter than 450 nm. The refractive indices of HBPI/SiO2 composite films were found to range from 1.477 to 1.502, which agrees well with the calculated values. This study shows that the incorporation of SiO2 NPs in multi-functional HBPI matrix is a promising approach to prepare high performance thermally stable films for thermo-optic applications. |
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