Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5187352 | Polymer | 2008 | 14 Pages |
Abstract
Silsesquioxane microgel nanoparticles characterized by low diameters (below 30Â nm) and reduced polydispersity can be produced in an acid-catalyzed sol-gel process in an aqueous microemulsion. Suitable surface modification of such structures leads to macroinitiators for atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). This polymerization method was applied in order to graft polystyrene chains onto the surface of the microgels. Well-defined structures exhibiting a core-shell architecture were produced with the Mw of grafted polymers ranging from 8.5 to about 30Â kg/mol. The products were extensively characterized with light scattering, X-ray scattering, thermal analysis (TGA/DSC) and microscopy (TEM/SEM) to obtain information on parameters characterizing polystyrene brush. Polymer-grafted nanoparticles will be used for the modification of homopolymer and block copolymer matrices.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Chemistry
Organic Chemistry
Authors
Leszek Jakuczek, Jochen S. Gutmann, Beate Müller, Christine Rosenauer, Danuta Å»uchowska,