Surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization from TiO2 nanoparticles

Two kinds of hydrophilic polymers, poly(oxyethylene methacrylate) (POEM) and poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PSSA), were grafted from TiO2 nanoparticles via the surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) technique. Chlorine modified TiO2 nanoparticles (TiO2-Cl), the ATRP initiators, were synthesized by the reaction of –OH in TiO2 with 2-chloropropionyl chloride (CPC). FT-IR, UV–vis spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) clearly showed that the polymer chains were successfully grafted from the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles. The hydrophilically modified TiO2 nanoparticles have a better dispersion in alcohol than unmodified nanoparticles, as revealed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was also found that the polymer grafting did not significantly alter the crystalline structure of the TiO2 nanoparticles according to the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. Grafting amounts were 10% of the weight for both TiO2-POEM and TiO2-PSSA nanoparticles, as determined by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).