Synthesis of Water-Based Dispersions of Polymer/TiO2 Hybrid Nanospheres

Nanomaterials

Lu Jin²  Hua Wu¹  Massimo Morbidelli¹ 

[1] Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Institute for Chemical and Bioengineering, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland; E-Mail

关键词: hybrid;    TiO₂;    nanocomposite;    mini-emulsion;    microchannel;    intense turbulent shear;   

DOI  :  10.3390/nano5031454

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

We develop a strategy for preparing water-based dispersions of polymer/TiO₂ nanospheres that can be used to form composite materials applicable in various fields. The formed hybrid nanospheres are monodisperse and possess a hierarchical structure. It starts with the primary TiO₂ nanoparticles of about 5 nm, which first assemble to nanoclusters of about 30 nm and then are integrated into monomer droplets. After emulsion polymerization, one obtains the water-based dispersions of polymer/TiO₂ nanospheres. To achieve universal size, it is necessary to have treatments with intense turbulent shear generated in a microchannel device at different stages. In addition, a procedure combining synergistic actions of steric and anionic surfactants has been designed to warrant the colloidal stability of the process. Since the formed polymer/TiO₂ nanospheres are stable aqueous dispersions, they can be easily mixed with TiO₂-free polymeric nanoparticle dispersions to form new dispersions, where TiO₂-containing nanospheres are homogeneously distributed in the dispersions at the nanoscale, thus leading to various applications. As an example, the proposed strategy has been applied to generate polystyrene/TiO₂ nanospheres of about 100 nm in diameter.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.