Monodisperse Porous Silica/Polymer Nanocomposite Microspheres with Tunable Silica Loading, Morphology and Porosity

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 23; no. 23; p. 14977
• Main Authors: Steinbach, Julia C, Fait, Fabio, Mayer, Hermann A, Kandelbauer, Andreas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 29.11.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Alcohol; Ammonia; Catalysis; Condensates; design of experiment; Glycol dimethacrylates; Material properties; Microspheres; Morphology; Nanocomposites; Nanoparticles; Particle size; Polyethylene glycol; Polymerization; Polymers; Pore size; Porosity; Porous materials; porous microspheres; Precursors; rational design; Response surface methodology; Silica; Silicon Dioxide; Single-nucleotide polymorphism; Sol-gel processes; sol-gel processing; Specific surface; Water; rational design; design of experiment; porous microspheres; sol-gel processing; response surface methodology; nanocomposites
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms232314977

Hybrid organic/inorganic nanocomposites combine the distinct properties of the organic polymer and the inorganic filler, resulting in overall improved system properties. Monodisperse porous hybrid beads consisting of tetraethylene pentamine functionalized (glycidyl methacrylate- -ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) particles and silica nanoparticles (SNPs) were synthesized under Stoeber sol-gel process conditions. A wide range of hybrid organic/silica nanocomposite materials with different material properties was generated. The effects of n(H O)/n(TEOS) and c(NH ) on the hybrid bead properties particle size, SiO content, median pore size, specific surface area, pore volume and size of the SNPs were studied. Quantitative models with a high robustness and predictive power were established using a statistical and systematic approach based on response surface methodology. It was shown that the material properties depend in a complex way on the process factor settings and exhibit non-linear behaviors as well as partly synergistic interactions between the process factors. Thus, the silica content, median pore size, specific surface area, pore volume and size of the SNPs are non-linearly dependent on the water-to-precursor ratio. This is attributed to the effect of the water-to-precursor ratio on the hydrolysis and condensation rates of TEOS. A possible mechanism of SNP incorporation into the porous polymer network is discussed.