Nitroxide-Mediated Polymerization of Styrene Initiated from the Surface of Laponite Clay Platelets

Polystyrene chains were grown from the surface of synthetic Laponite clay platelets by nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP) of styrene using N-tert-butyl-N-[1-diethylphosphono-(2,2-dimethylpropyl)] (DEPN) as mediator. A novel water-soluble quaternary ammonium alkoxyamine was first synthesized and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMacromolecules Vol. 40; no. 21; pp. 7464 - 7472
Main Authors Konn, C, Morel, F, Beyou, E, Chaumont, P, Bourgeat-Lami, E
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington, DC American Chemical Society 16.10.2007
Subjects
Applied sciences
Chemical Sciences
Exact sciences and technology
Organic polymers
Physicochemistry of polymers
Polymerization
Preparation, kinetics, thermodynamics, mechanism and catalysts
Particle size
Surface reaction
Organic clay
Nitroxyl
Hydrodynamic radius
Laponite
Nanoparticle
Dispersion degree
Living polymer
Organic phosphonate
Experimental study
Solution polymerization
Molecular weight property relation
Free radical polymerization
Colloidal suspension
Morphology
Preparation
Styrene polymer
Nanocomposite
Graft polymers
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Summary:Polystyrene chains were grown from the surface of synthetic Laponite clay platelets by nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP) of styrene using N-tert-butyl-N-[1-diethylphosphono-(2,2-dimethylpropyl)] (DEPN) as mediator. A novel water-soluble quaternary ammonium alkoxyamine was first synthesized and intercalated into the clay galleries by cation exchange. Polystyrene chains with controlled molecular weights and narrow polydispersities were then grown from the organoclay. The kinetics of styrene surface NMP polymerizations were investigated and compared with model polymerizations mediated by free alkoxyamine initiator molecules. Both reactions exhibited similar kinetics behaviors indicating that the clay platelets did not affect the livingness of polymerization. The PS-functionalized clay particles were colloidaly stable into toluene, a good solvent for polystyrene, and could be redispersed into tetrahydrofuran (THF) and a series of monomers after drying. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis of the films cast from the suspensions revealed a fully exfoliated structure of the clay tactoids within the polymer matrix.
ISSN:0024-9297
1520-5835
DOI:10.1021/ma070283g