Image analysis of PVC / TiO2 nanocomposites SEM micrographs

Vishal Mathur; Bremananth R; Pramod Kumar Arya

doi:10.1016/j.micron.2020.102952

Image analysis of PVC / TiO₂ nanocomposites SEM micrographs

Micron. 2020 Dec:139:102952. doi: 10.1016/j.micron.2020.102952. Epub 2020 Oct 9.

Authors

Vishal Mathur¹, Bremananth R², Pramod Kumar Arya³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Engineering, Sur University College, Oman. Electronic address: wishalmathur@gmail.com.
² Information Systems and Technology Department, Sur University College, Oman.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, ICFAI Tech School, The ICFAI University Jaipur, India.

PMID: 33075610
DOI: 10.1016/j.micron.2020.102952

Abstract

The present paper deals with image analysis of Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) micrographs of PVC / TiO₂ nanocomposites prepared through solution casting technique at different wt% of TiO₂ nanofillers dispersed within the PVC matrix. The qualitative and quantitative dispersion of TiO₂ nanofillers is estimated through the proposed algorithm based on global threshold obtained from Otsu's method. The PVC-TiO₂- PVC molecular region map and TiO₂ nanofillers dispersion maps are obtained by background elimination technique with predefined threshold value and a global threshold value, respectively. The particle size distribution histograms are obtained in terms of TiO₂ nanofillers population versus available PVC/TiO₂ matrix areal spread. This study is carried out to correlate qualitative and quantitative dispersion of TiO₂ nanofillers within the PVC matrix with the variation of specimen properties accordingly.

Keywords: Image analysis; Micrographs; Nanofillers distribution; PVC/ TiO(2) nanocomposites; Scanning electron microscope.