  We have studied high temperature thermal behavior of 1H, 1H, 2H,
2H-Perfluorooctyl-trichlorosilane (FOTS) and Octyltrichlorosilane (OTS)
molecules self assembled on titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles using
advanced microscopy and spectroscopy technique such as Scanning Electron
Microscope (SEM), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). FOTS SAM and OTS SAM coated
TiO2 nanoparticles were heated to different temperature range from room
temperature (RT) to 550oC. We characterized nano-microstructure and size
distribution of FOTS SAM and OTS SAM coated TiO2 nanoparticles, which were
heat-treated to different peak temperatures, using SEM and DLS techniques. The
thermal stability and degradation of FOTS SAM and OTS SAM coated TiO2 were
carried out using FTIR spectroscopy. We found that FOTS SAM on TiO2 is very
stable up to 450oC and OTS on TiO2 is stable up to 250oC. Peak frequency, peak
intensity and full width half maxima (FWHM) of symmetric and asymmetric CF2 and
CH2 confirms our observation. In this study, we successfully synergized the
surface and temperature sensitive characteristics of FOTS/OTS SAM and TiO2
nanoparticles in order to use them for highly demanding surface and temperature
sensitive nanotechnology applications
