Preparation of hydrophobic organic-silicanano composites

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we use silica nanoparticles modified by methacryloxy propyl trimethoxylsilane (KH570) as the core material, and employ polymers including hexafluorobutyl methacrylate (HFMA), dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate (DFMA) and acrylic ester as the shell materials to prepare the hydrophobic inorganic–organic hybrid nanocomposites with a seed emulsion polymerization strategy. The size, morphologyandproperties of the core-shell structured nanoparticles are investigated by TEM and SEM. The results showthat the polymer nanocomposite has three concentric layers with silica nanoparticles in the center, acrylic polymer as the  internal shell and fluorosilicone polymer as the outmost shell. By controlling the ratio of the silica nanoparticles and monomers, we can achieve each composite particle has the core-shell structure with silica nanoparticles as the core and the thin layer of fluorosilicone polymer as the shell. Compared with the traditional polymer film, the nanocomposite film shows a hydrophobic property with a contact angle of up to 100 degree. Therefore, it is feasible to prepare hydrophobic organic–inorganic nanocomposites using the method proposed here.

KEYWORDS:

• core-shell structure
• inorganic–organic composite hydrophobicity
• polymer
• nano materials

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51408614, 51278496 and U1434204) and the Ministry of Railways Science and Technology Research and Development Project (Nos. 2014G010-A).