Photo-Stability of Polymethyl Methacrylate Incorporated with Vanillin and Metal Oxide Nanoparticles

Abstract

The material poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, is used for many different purposes, ranging from high-resolution electron beam lithography for microelectronics manufacturing through medical uses such as intraocular lenses and bone cements to the manufacture of automobile taillight covers and as a shatterproof replacement for glass in aquaria, signs, and window coverings. Photostabilization is necessary to protect polymeric materials from photodegradation and photooxidation caused by aging and ultraviolet (UV) radiation. It is imperative, therefore, to modify polymeric compounds for increased resistance against degradation due to extended exposure to UV light. There have been recent advances, which have led to the development of different polymeric materials that can be used as potential photostabilizers. This work focuses on the surface modification of the polymer PMMA through incorporating inorganic metal oxide nanoparticles in the polymer backbone. Upon reacting PMMA with ethylenediamine, an amino group will react with vanillin to produce the respective Schiff's base. Incorporation of nano metal oxides (TiO₂, NiO, and CuO) leads to the formation of inorganic metal oxide nanoparticles into the polymer chains. Films of the treated PMMA were made and subjected to UV irradiation to investigate the effect of the additives on the photostabilization of PMMA. The effects of additives and the type of metal oxide on the photostabilization of PMMA were evaluated by infrared spectroscopy, weight loss, surface morphological investigation, and determination of the rate constant of decomposition. PMMA treated with organic nano metal oxides showed low photodegradation as compared to pure organic-treated PMMA.

Received: 25 March 2026 | Revised: 14 May 2026 | Accepted: 23 June 2026

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Author Contribution Statement

Great Iruoghene Edo: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Project administration. Emad Yousif: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Resources, Data curation, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration. Mohammed H. Al-Mashhadani: Resources, Data curation, Writing – review & editing, Visualization, Supervision, Project administration.