Hard nanocomposite comprising stereoregular syndiotactic polypropylene with chemically bonded gold nanoparticles

Abstract

AbstractAn effective method to synthesize directly a hard composite material containing uniformly dispersed nanogold particles chemically bonded with a stereospecific, crystalline polymer matrix has been developed. Syndiotactic polypropylene was synthesized and functionalized to have a hydroxyl terminal group (sPPOH) via a metallocene catalysis with a selective chain transfer. Next, sPPOH was activated to react with ethylene sulfide forming the thiol‐terminated polymer, sPPSH. sPPSH was then chemically bonded to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) formed in situ via a reduction of HAuCl4. The bonding between thiol and AuNP stabilized the AuNPs and led to the formation of sPPAuNPs composite containing uniformly‐dispersed AuNPs of a 19–40 nm size without noticeable aggregation. Furthermore, the chemical bonding of AuNPs has afforded sPPAuNPs a thermal degradation temperature (TD) 49.4 °C higher than the pristine sPP or sPPOH and 25.7 °C higher than sPPSH without any adverse effect on the crystalline temperature and melting temperature. In addition, the characteristic UV‐Vis absorption wavelength of sPPAuNPs remains the same at various temperatures, thus indicating the independence of optical property on temperature as well as the good thermal stability of the sPPAuNPs composite. 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FESEM, STEM, XPS, TGA and DSC were used to investigate the molecular structure, morphology and thermal properties of the resulting sPPAuNPs nanocomposite. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2010