Polymer/Montmorillonite/Silver Nanocomposite Micro- and Nanoparticles Prepared by In-Situ Polymerization and Electrospraying Technique

Abstract

Polymer nanocomposite materials have the capacity for producing a synergetic association with surpassing merit properties which cannot be obtained from the individual components. Such materials can be obtained by simply mixing required organic and inorganic components. The introduction of inorganic material into the polymer matrix has proved to be an effective and low-cost method to improve the performance of the existing polymer materials (Okamoto et al., 2000; Ramos et al., 2000; Wu et al., 2006; Zhu et al., 2000). It has various applications, such as new biological materials (biosensors and biochips), biocompatible thin coatings for medical applications, biodegradable scaffolds, drug delivery system and filter systems (Matsumoto et al., 2005; Okuda et al., 1996; Salata et al., 1997; Sinha et al., 2004). The synthesis of polymer nanocomposites can be carried out by many different methods. For example, in-situ polymerization of monomers inside the galleries of the inorganic host has been one of the common methods for preparation of nanocomposites. Another common methods are based on melt intercalation, solventless melt intercalation, using microwaves, latex-colloid interaction, solvent evaporation, spray drying, shirasu porous glass membrane emulsification technique and electrospraying, etc. (Berkland et al., 2001; Ma et al., 1999; Messersmith et al., 1993; Mu et al., 2001; Oriakhi et al., 1995; Rosca et. al.,2004; Usuki et al., 1993). This article is concerned with fabrication of polymer nanocomposite particles by in-situ suspension polymerization and electrospraying which are represented as a traditional and current general method for synthesis of nanocomposite. The effectiveness of these nanocomposite particles are demonstrated with a field emission-type scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), a transmission electron microscopy (TEM), an optical microscope, a reflection type X-ray diffraction (XRD), a