Surface polymerization of hydrophilic methacrylates from ultrafine silica sols in protic media at ambient temperature: A novel approach to surface functionalization using a polyelectrolytic macroinitiator

A convenient one-pot synthesis of polymer-grafted nano-sized silica particles using atom transfer radical polymerization (see Figure) is described. Physical adsorption of a cationic macroinitiator allows polymerization of a range of hydrophilic methacrylates. A high degree of coverage of the silica sol particles by the grafted polymer chains was indicated.