Poly (acrylonitrile-co-methyl methacrylate) nanoparticles: I. Preparation and characterization

Abstract

This work concerns the preparation and characterization of poly (acrylonitrile-co-methyl methacrylate) Copolymer, P(AN-co-MMA), nano-particles using precipitation polymerization technique. Potassium per-sulfate redox initiation system was used to perform polymerization process in an alcoholic aqueous system. The impact of different polymerization conditions such as comonomer concentration and ratio, polymerization time, polymerization temperatures, initiator concentration and co-solvent composition on the polymerization yield and particle size was studied. Maximum polymerization yield, 70%, was obtained with MMA:AN (90%:10%) comonomer composition. Particle sizes ranging from 16 nm to 1483 nm were obtained and controlled by variation of polymerization conditions. The co-polymerization process was approved by FT-IR and TGA analysis. The copolymer composition was investigated by nitrogen content analysis. Copolymers with a progressive percentage of PAN show thermal stabilities close to PAN Homopolymer. SEM photographs prove spherical structure of the produced copolymers. The investigated system shows promising future in the preparation of nanoparticles from comonomers without using emulsifiers or dispersive agents. ª 2014 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

Synthesis, optimization, and characterization of poly (Styrene‐co‐Acrylonitrile) copolymer prepared via precipitation polymerization

“…The conversion yield increased from 5.7% to 93.6% with temperature increase from 35°C to 75°C. [20] In similar studies, the conversion yield for PAN was about 55% at 70°C. [25] Temperature increase causes more collisions between acrylonitrile and styrene comonomers.…”

“…Above 12%, monomer concentration, the initiator is totally consumed. [20] while poly (AN-co-DVB) yielded 22.5%, at the same concentration. During the experiment, different colors of the polymer appeared after drying at 55°C where styrene acrylonitrile copolymers turn yellow upon heating, The extent of discoloration is proportional to the acrylonitrile percent in the copolymer.…”

“…Temperature decrease generates a small number of free radicals due to the slow rate of the initiator redox reaction. [20] So, the conversion yield increased in the sequence: PAN < poly (AN-co-MMA) < poly (St-co-AN) < poly (AN-co-DVB). [22] While copolymerization between AN with DVB yielded about 80%.…”

“…Then, the conversion yield dropped till it reaches 30% at 90% ethanol. Poly (Stco-AN) > poly (AN-co-DVB) [21] > poly (AN-co-MMA) [20] F I G U R E 3 FT-IR spectrum of 100% PAN, 100% PSt, and poly The initiator solubility required a certain amount of water which was 30% of the cosolvent otherwise the effect of the initiator insolubility in ethanol appeared.…”

Evaluation of Acrylonitrile/Butyl Methacrylate/Halloysite Nanoclay Impregnated Wood Polymer Nanocomposites

“…Poly(acrylonitrile-co-methyl methacrylate) copolymers undergo the precipitation polymerization technique, which remarkably improves the thermal stability, as well as the surface morphology of the nanoparticles (Eldin et al 2014). The presence of nanoclay improves the modulus of elasticity of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) nanocomposites through melt compounding (Singh and Ghosh 2014).…”