Polystyrene/graphene oxide nanocomposites synthesized via Pickering polymerization

• GO was used as stabilizer in the PSt/GO Pickering emulsion polymerization.
• GO was incorporated to increase the thermal property compare with PSt homopolymer.
• The mechanism of Pickering emusion polymerization stabilized by GO is proposed, which provides an effective method to fabrication of polymer/inorganic composites.

The synthesis of graphene oxide (GO)—based nanocomposite materials, as environment-friendly nanostructures suitable for novel applications, has received significant attention in recent years. In this paper, a series of GO have been successfully fabricated utilizing the modified Hummers’ method. GO was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy (RS), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) respectively. The characterization results showed that GO nanosheets have hydrophilic oxygen-containing functional groups and were well exfoliated. The graphene oxide/polystyrene (PSt) nanocomposite emulsion was synthesized via Pickering emulsion polymerization in the presence of GO nanosheets as a sole emulsifier. TEM, SEM and XRD results all suggested the successful preparation of GO-stabilized PSt colloidal particles. The Pickering emulsion products showed that the average diameter of nanocomposite particles can be well controlled from 240 to 320 nm by variation of the GO content. The GO layer was wrapped on the surface of PSt microspheres. PSt/GO nanocomposites have higher crystallinity and better thermal stability than pure PSt. Graphene oxide was not only being used as an effective solid stabilizer for Pickering emulsion, but also dispersed homogeneously into the production of polystyrene as highly effective nanofiller.