Abstract
Dimpled polymer-silica nanocomposite particles have the combined advantages of dimpled particles and polymer-silica nanocomposite particles. This study presents a novel approach to prepare these particles by interfacial swelling-based seeded polymerization. Polystyrene-silica (PS-SiO2) nanocomposite particles are first prepared by emulsion polymerization of styrene in the presence of glycerol-functionalized silica sols and then dimpled polymer-SiO2 particles are fabricated by interfacial swelling of butyl acrylate (BA)/toluene and subsequent seeded polymerization of BA with the PS-SiO2 particles as seeds. The effects of different parameters, such as the amount of surfactant used in the PS-SiO2/H2O dispersion, BA/toluene mass ratio, PS-SiO2/H2O mass ratio and stirring rate, on the formation of the dimpled particles are investigated. Optimization of the seeded polymerization conditions allows a relatively high percentage of dimpled particles to be achieved.
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