Homogeneous dispersion of SiO2 nanoparticles in an hydrosoluble polymeric network

The main difficulty still encountered in the elaboration of polymer/silica nanocomposites is the control of the nanoparticles dispersion homogeneity and the stability of the nanoparticle dispersion in the surrounding substance. The innovative point of this work is the elaboration of hybrid networks in aqueous solution performed with ASE (alkali swellable emulsion) thickeners grafted with silica nanoparticles. The thickening ability of the polymer should favour silica nanoparticles dispersion in fluid matrices. Two ASE copolymers were realised by copolymerisation in emulsion of MA (methacrylic acid) and EA (ethyl acrylate) and/or TFEM (trifluoroethyl methacrylate). The substitution of a part of EA by TFEM gave fluorinated ASE copolymers. Their free acid functions were then coupled with different ratio of amine functionalized silica nanoparticles to afford nanocomposites. The amounts of silica nanoparticles in the copolymers were determined by thermogravimetric experiments. Depending on the silica nanoparticles/copolymer ratio in basic aqueous solutions we achieved stable translucent gel like aqueous suspensions of silica nanoparticles containing 1 wt.% of the polymer/SiO2 nanocomposite.