A novel silane coupling agent with peroxy groups used as an initiator in the graft polymerization of AN or MMA on nano-TiO2

Abstract

A novel peroxy group-containing silane coupling agent was synthesized and anchored on the surface of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (nano-TiO2) to form an immobilized-initiator-modified nano-TiO2 species. In this study, the kinetic parameters of the peroxy group-containing silane were tested and assessed using DSC. The pre-exponential factor (Ad) was 8.973 × 108 and the activation energy (Ea) was 80.736 kJ mol−1. Moreover, the empirical Arrhenius equation was determined to be ln Kd = − 80.736/RT + ln(8.973 × 108). To obtain continuous polymers, acrylonitrile (AN) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) were polymerized using the novel peroxy group-containing silane and FeSO4 as an initiator system. The number average molecular weights (Mn of PAN = 3×104 and Mn of PMMA = 1.4 × 105) and polydispersity indexes (PDI of PAN = 2.76 and PDI of PMMA = 1.65) were determined by GPC. It was suggested that the redox initiation system can generate highly reactive species on the surfaces of inorganic nanoparticles. The nano-TiO2-grafted polymers were successfully obtained.