Grafting of titanium dioxide microspheres with a temperature‐responsive polymer via surface‐initiated atom transfer radical polymerization without the use of silane coupling agents |
| |
Authors: | Eugene A Smirnov Maria A Meledina Alexey V Garshev Vitaly I Chelpanov Sven Frost Jan U Wieneke Mathias Ulbricht |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. Department of Material Science, Moscow State University, , 119991 Moscow, Russia;2. Lehrstuhl für Technische Chemie II, Universit?t Duisburg‐Essen, , 45141 Essen, Germany;3. CeNIDE – Center for Nanointegration Duisburg‐Essen, , 47057 Duisburg, Germany |
| |
Abstract: | Titania microspheres with narrow size distribution and diameters of about 1 µm were prepared and subsequently functionalized using surface‐initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of N‐isopropylacrylamide. The ATRP initiator was immobilized on the particle surface via acylation of surface hydroxyl groups with α‐bromoisobutyryl bromide. Subsequently, an established ATRP reaction system was used for the preparation of titania surface‐grafted poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNiPAAm). Characterization was performed with electron microscopies, X‐ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy and dynamic light scattering. It was found that the particle size in aqueous dispersions changed reversibly with temperature as expected for a shell of PNiPAAm, a polymer with a lower critical solution temperature at 32 °C. This confirmed the successful preparation of functional, stimuli‐responsive TiO2 microparticles via a straightforward controlled surface‐initiated polymerization method. |
| |
Keywords: | graft copolymers atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) temperature‐responsive polymers stimuli‐sensitive polymers titania microspheres |
|
|