Synthesis, Characterization and Evaluation of Thermal, Adsorption and Antioxidant Studies of Amino Functionalized Poly(methyl methacrylate)/Titanium dioxide Nanocomposites

[Display omitted] •Functionalization of PMMA with compound containing amino functional group.•Morphological studies of PMMA, functionalized PMMA composites and polymer nanocomposites.•Thermal properties of PMMA, functionalized PMMA composites and polymer nanocomposites.•Antioxidant activities of PMMA, functionalized PMMA composites and polymer nanocomposites.•CR dye adsorption properties of PMMA, functionalized PMMA composite and polymer nanocomposite. The present work reports Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) functionalized with different amino compounds i.e. 2-amino pyridine and 2-nitro aniline. The functionalized polymer (FP1 and FP2) of PMMA doped with titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (1 wt% and 3 wt%) with a simple solution mixing method to develop polymer nanocomposite. The functionalized PMMA were characterized by FT-IR and NMR. The surface morphology and crystalline nature of polymer nanocomposite was determined by SEM and XRD. The thermal behavior of polymer nanocomposite were analyzed by thermogravimetric (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The thermal stability of polymer nanocomposites was improved by incorporation of TiO2 nanoparticles. In case of sample (PS2) polymer nanocomposite shows degradation temperature (Td) increases 13 °C and the glass transition temperature (Tg) increases 12 °C. TiO2 nanoparticles were embedded into the polymer array which makes the surface of polymer nanocomposite porous, which improves Congo red (CR) dye adsorption. The CR dye adsorption from PMMA to FP1 and PC2 samples were inversely proportional to the pH scale 4–10. The CR dye adsorption increases 50% to 54% from PMMA to PC2 by an effect of contact time. By increasing the concentration of CR dye, the adsorption decreases and the maximum value of adsorption was found 86.57% at 10 ppm for PC2 sample. FP1 sample showed good antioxidant activity i.e. 67.13%. These results showed that the synthesized polymer nanocomposites were low-cost material for water treatment, industrial effluents and preservatives for food beverages.