This article describes the fabrication of SiO2 nanoparticles grafted with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) via a fascinating reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization by adopting “grafting from” approach. The silane coupling agent, Sbenzyl S’-trimethoxysilylpropyltrithiocarbonate, was anchored onto SiO2 nanoparticles in a simple procedure using a ligand exchange reaction. | Journal of Science and Technology 54 (1A) (2016) 285-291 PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SIO2/POLY(METHYL METHACRYLATE) CORE/SHELL NANOCOMPOSITES VIA RAFT POLYMERIZATION Long Giang Bach1, *, Bui Thi Phuong Quynh1, Le Xuan Tien2 1 NTT Institute of Hi-Technology, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam * Email: blgiangntt@ Received: 17 September 2015; Accepted for publication: 26 October 2015 ABSTRACT This article describes the fabrication of SiO2 nanoparticles grafted with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) via a fascinating reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization by adopting “grafting from” approach. The silane coupling agent, Sbenzyl S’-trimethoxysilylpropyltrithiocarbonate, was anchored onto SiO2 nanoparticles in a simple procedure using a ligand exchange reaction. RAFT agents-anchored SiO2 nanoparticles were then used for the surface-initiated RAFT polymerization of MMA to fabricate structurally well-defined, core-shell SiO2-g-PMMA nanocomposites. The structure and properties of the assynthesized nanocomposites were investigated by Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectrophotometry (FT-IR), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM). Keywords: RAFT polymerization, SiO2 nanoparticles, poly(methyl methacrylate), core-shell nanocomposites. 1. INTRODUCTION In recent years, an increasing number of interests have been devoted to preparation of organic-inorganic nanohybrids due to their potential applications in various fields including chemistry, physics, electronic, optics, material science, and biomedical science [1 - 3]. One of the main advantages of such nanostructured multiphase materials is that various features arising from dissimilar materials can be combined in one entity to develop a wide spectrum of fascinating properties. In .
