A Novel Route to Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Nanomaterials

Overview of Silica-Polymer Nanostructures for Waterborne High-Performance Coatings

Combining organic and inorganic components at a nanoscale is an effective way to obtain high performance coating materials with excellent chemical and physical properties. This review focuses on recent approaches to prepare hybrid nanostructured waterborne coating materials combining the mechanical properties and versatility of silica as the inorganic filler, with the flexural properties and ease of processing of the polymer matrix. We cover silica-polymer coupling agents used to link the organic and inorganic components, the formation of hybrid films from these silica-polymer nanostructures, and their different applications. These hybrid nanostructures can be used to prepare high performance functional coatings with different properties from optical transparency, to resistance to temperature, hydrophobicity, anti-corrosion, resistance to scratch, and antimicrobial activity.

Recent advances in organic–inorganic well-defined hybrid polymers using controlled living radical polymerization techniques

Controlled living radical polymerizations, such as ATRP and RAFT polymerization, could be utilized for the preparation of well-defined organic–inorganic hybrid polymers based on POSS, PDMS, silica nanoparticles, graphene, CNTs and fullerene.

Surface-initiated SET living radical polymerisation for the synthesis of silica–polymer core–shell nanoparticles

We report the use of surface-initiated single-electron transfer living radical polymerisation (SI SET-LRP) to prepare inorganic–organic core–shell nanoparticles with functional grafted chains of high molecular weight.

Surface-initiated controlled radical polymerizations from silica nanoparticles, gold nanocrystals, and bionanoparticles

This review summarizes recent progress in surface-initiated controlled radical polymerizations from silica nanoparticles, gold nanocrystals, and bionanoparticles.

The influence of nanosilica functionalization on the properties of hybrid nanocomposites

The aim of this research is to evaluate the effect of silica nanoparticles (SNs) modification on the physicochemical properties of some hybrid nanocomposites. SNs with high specific surface area were silanized by two complementary mechanisms using organosilanes with different functionalities, 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MPS), octyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS) or a mixture of them in order to generate a different interphase between the filler and the polymeric matrix. The SN silanization efficiency was investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectra, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Several types of hybrid nanocomposites based on dimethacrylate monomer and SN were synthesized by bulk polymerization process. The influence of the silanized SN on the methacrylic groups reactivity was studied using differential scanning calorimetry, and the thermostability of the hybrid nanocomposites was revealed by TGA. Additionally, the dynamic thermomechanical properties of the hybrid nanocomposites were determined by Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA).