pH-Responsive Dispersion and Electrostatic-Driven Self-Assembly of Poly(acrylic acid) Grafted Carbon Black

Abstract

The dispersion and self-assembly behavior of inorganic-polymer hybrid nanoparticles is a key point in the applications of these outstanding novel materials. In this work, the pH-responsive properties of core-shell nanoparticles of poly(acrylic acid) grafted carbon black (CB-g-PAA) dispersed in water were characterized by dynamic light scattering. The immobilized PAA chains were shown to control the level of CB-PAA nanoparticles dispersion in aqueous mixtures. The electrostatic-driven self-assembly of these hybrid particles, induced by cationic surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and star polyelectrolyte HPC-star-poly(2-(dimethy ethyl ammonium iodide) ethyl methacrylate) (HPC-star-poly(DMEAIEMA)), as the counter species was also characterized.

Keywords :

• CB-g-PAA
• electrostatic-driven self-assembly
• pH-responsive