Controllable synthesis of silica nanoparticle size and packing efficiency onto PVP-functionalized PMMA via a sol-gel method

This study aimed to investigate synthesis and adsorption behavior of silica nanoparticles onto polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-functionalized poly(methyl methacrylate) under various conditions such as methanol/water ratio, ammonium hydroxide concentration, polymer contents, tetraethylorthosilicate contents, and total volume of solvent via sol-gel method. First, the copolymerization of methyl acrylate as a comonomer and 1-dodecanethiol as a chain transfer agent increased the thermal stability of the product; however, the uniformity of the PMMA particles decreased because of the chain transfer reaction. Second, the adsorption behavior and size of silica nanoparticles could be controlled by adjusting the silica synthesis conditions. The adsorbed silica particle size was greatly influenced by the ammonium hydroxide concentration and the addition of water further enhanced the size increase. However, increasing the water content reduced the packing efficiency of the adsorbed silica particles. Increasing the PVP-functionalized PMMA content at a fixed TEOS content linearly decreased the silica particle size. But TEOS concentration did not significantly affect the silica particle size. (c) 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci. 2020, 58, 662-672