Facile preparation of thermoresponsive fluorescent silica nanopaprticles based composites through the oxygen tolerance light-induced RAFT polymerization

Poly(NIPAM-AcFl)/SiO2 nanomaterials were successfully prepared through a convenient oxygen tolerance light-induced RAFT polymerization. The successful preparation of the resulting Poly(NIPAM-AcFl)/SiO2 nanocomposites have been confirmed based on various characterization data. These Poly(NIPAM-AcFl)/SiO2 nanocomposites showed temperature responsive coil-to-globule transition behavior in aqueous solution, because of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic transformation of the H-bond when the temperature was greater than the lower critical solution temperature (LCST). More importantly, this facile RAFT polymerization based on photocatalysis would pave the way for the fabrication of other polymer/inorganic nanomaterials with great application potential in different fields. Compared with the traditional surface-initiated radical polymerization, our method possesses the advantages of no metal contamination, room temperature reaction condition and the oxygen tolerance properties could be the promising facile way for preparation of various nanocomposites. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.