Synthesis of P(MMA-co-MAA)/TiO₂ Nanocomposites via Surface Thiol-Lactam Initiated Radical Polymerization

Abstract

Poly(methylmethacrylate-co-methacrylic acid) were covalently wrapped onto TiO₂ nanoparticles through surface thiol-lactam initiated radical polymerization via grafting from approach. Initially, the surface of TiO₂ nanoparticles was modified by (3-mercapto)propyl trimethoxysilane to get thiol functionalized TiO₂ nanoparticles (TiO₂-SH). A radical polymerization of methylmethacrylate and methacrylic acid was subsequently conducted to afford chemically bonded copolymer with TiO₂ nanoparticles by employing two component initiating system consisting of TiO₂-SH and butyrolactam. The TiO₂ nanocomposites were identified by taking advantage of FT-IR, XPS, and EDX. The physical structure of the nanocomposites was studied by using XRD. The morphology of the nanocomposites was investigated by TEM and SEM analyses. TGA scan showed that the inclusion of TiO₂ nanoparticles improved the thermal stability of the copolymer to a certain extent. Additionally, dynamic laser light scattering measurement of the TiO₂ nanocomposites was carried out in order to get the size distribution of nanocomposites.

Keywords:

• TiO₂ nanoparticles
• PMMA
• PMAA
• polymer brush
• TLIRP
• surface initiated polymerization
• grafting from

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the grant from the Industrial Source Technology Development Program (Project No. 10035163) of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) of Korea and by the Joint Program of Cooperation in Science and Technology through NRF grant funded by the MEST (no. 2011-0025680).