Facile Preparation of Polystyrene Grafted Calcium Carbonate Nanoparticles Via Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

Abstract

Polystyrene grafted calcium carbonate nanoparticles (PS-CaCO₃) were successfully prepared by the surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) of styrene from the chloroactic acid modified calcium carbonate nanoparticles (CA-CaCO₃), with Cu(I)Br/1,10-phenanthroline as catalytic system in toluene. The percentage of grafting (PG%) was found to be 230% after a polymerizing time of 24 hours with the conversion of monomer (C%) of 25%, calculated from the TGA results. The PS-CaCO₃ nanoparticles had been characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and transmission electron microscope (TEM).

Keywords:

• Atom transfer radical polymerization
• calcium carbonate nanoparticles
• chloroactic acid
• polystyrene
• surface-initiated