Core-shell magnesium hydroxide/polystyrene hybrid nanoparticles prepared by ultrasonic wave-assisted in-situ copolymerization

In this paper, vinylated magnesium hydroxide (MH) nanosheets were prepared with 3-(trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate (gamma-MPS) and pristine MH nanosheets, then the MH/polystyrene (PS) hybrid nanoparticles were prepared by ultrasonic wave-assisted in-situ copolymerization of vinylated MH nanosheets and styrene (St). The morphology, thermal stability and chemical structure of the final products were investigated in detail with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Fourier-transform infrared spectra (FTIR). The TEM and FTIR results showed that the uniformly-dispersed core-shell structure of MH/PS nanocomposites with MH-cores and PS-shell was formed. TGA indicated that the covalent interaction between PS and MH improved the thermal stability of PS. A possible formation mechanism of the MH/PS core-shell nanocomposites was also proposed. Crown Copyright (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.