Preparation of Ni-g-polymer core–shell nanoparticles by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization

✍ Scribed by Renxu Chen; Shane Maclaughlin; Gianluigi Botton; Shiping Zhu

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 423 KB
• Volume: 50
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0032-3861
• DOI: 10.1016/j.polymer.2009.07.012

✦ Synopsis

Surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (si-ATRP) technique was successfully employed to modify Ni nanoparticles with polymer shells. ATRP initiators were covalently bonded onto Ni nanoparticle surfaces by a combination of ligand exchange and condensation reactions. Various kinds of polymers including poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(n-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) were grafted from the immobilized initiators. The grated polymer shells gave Ni nanoparticles exceptionally good dispersion and stability in solvents. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and transmission electron spectroscopy (TEM) were employed to confirm the grafting and to characterize the nanoparticle core-shell structure. Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) studies of cleaved polymer chains revealed that the grafting polymerization was well controlled. The magnetic properties of Ni-g-polymer nanoparticles were also studied.