| Volume 3, Issue 01 - 2007 |
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| 2 |
GRAFTING OF POLYMER CHAINS ONTO NANO-SILICA PARTICLES VIA PEROXIDE BULK POLYMERIZATION |
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| Pages 13-21 |
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| R. Y. SUCKEVERIENE, A. TZUR, M. NARKIS AND A. SIEGMANN* |
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Department of Chemical Engineering, Technion - IIT, Haifa 32000, Israel
* Department of Materials Engineering
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| Received 1 April 2007 ; accepted 4 June 2007 |
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| The dispersability of inorganic nano-particles in polymer matrices is improved by grafting polymers onto the particles surface, which reduces agglomeration and increases the affinity of the grafted surface to the polymer matrix. This paper describes an in-situ bulk polymerization process in the presence of inorganic nano-particles. In this peroxide bulk polymerization process two essential polystyrene (PS) fractions are formed: An attached PS fraction to the particles surface which cannot be detached by hot xylene extraction and a free unattached fraction which dissolves in xylene. The ratio of attached PS fraction to silica increases with decreasing the peroxide concentration, within the studied peroxide concentration (0.1-1.0% benzoyl peroxide). The Tg of the attached PS fraction is higher than the Tg of the free PS fraction. The thermal resistance (TGA in air) of the attached PS fraction is higher than that of the free PS fraction. |
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