Xu Anli, Zhang Tongtong, Zhan Chengdong, Wei Hongxin, Ip Hiu To, Hong Liangzhi, Ngai To
Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.
Department of Chemistry, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin N.T., Hong Kong, China.
Langmuir. 2022 May 10;38(18):5454-5463. doi: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c03441. Epub 2022 Apr 28.
Polymer/inorganic colloidal nanocomposites can be prepared via Pickering emulsion polymerization (PEP); however, this process usually requires the use of surfactants, auxiliary comonomers, and volatile organic compounds. Herein, we report a versatile and efficient method for synthesizing stable monodisperse polymer/silica colloidal nanocomposite particles via PEP. First, silica nanoparticles were modified by depositing a multifunctional polydopamine (PDA) film. The outermost PDA film could enhance the precipitation of oligomeric polymer radicals on the silica surface, which is crucial for the preparation of stable polymer/inorganic colloidal nanocomposites via PEP. Notably, this PDA modification approach can employ different initiator systems, such as cationic initiators and redox initiator couples, and can be applied to various monomers and monomer pairs (St, St/BA, MMA, MMA/BA, Vac, Vac/BA). The influence of the concentration and size of polydopamine-coated silica (SiO@PDA) on the colloidal nanocomposite was investigated. Increasing the diameter of SiO@PDA and decreasing the concentration of SiO@PDA both lead to the formation of larger nanocomposite particles. Considering its wide applicability, the proposed PDA modification approach can be applied to other functional inorganic particles to prepare multifunctional polymer/inorganic nanocomposite particles.
聚合物/无机胶体纳米复合材料可以通过皮克林乳液聚合（PEP）制备；然而，这个过程通常需要使用表面活性剂、辅助共聚单体和挥发性有机化合物。在此，我们报道了一种通过PEP合成稳定的单分散聚合物/二氧化硅胶体纳米复合粒子的通用且高效的方法。首先，通过沉积多功能聚多巴胺（PDA）膜对二氧化硅纳米粒子进行改性。最外层的PDA膜可以增强低聚物自由基在二氧化硅表面的沉淀，这对于通过PEP制备稳定的聚合物/无机胶体纳米复合材料至关重要。值得注意的是，这种PDA改性方法可以采用不同的引发剂体系，如阳离子引发剂和氧化还原引发剂对，并且可以应用于各种单体和单体对（苯乙烯、苯乙烯/丙烯酸丁酯、甲基丙烯酸甲酯、甲基丙烯酸甲酯/丙烯酸丁酯、醋酸乙烯酯、醋酸乙烯酯/丙烯酸丁酯）。研究了聚多巴胺包覆的二氧化硅（SiO@PDA）的浓度和尺寸对胶体纳米复合材料的影响。增加SiO@PDA的直径和降低SiO@PDA的浓度都会导致形成更大的纳米复合粒子。考虑到其广泛的适用性，所提出的PDA改性方法可以应用于其他功能性无机粒子，以制备多功能聚合物/无机纳米复合粒子。
