Tailored composite polymer–metal nanoparticles by miniemulsion polymerization and thiol‐ene functionalization

Abstract

A simple and modular synthetic approach, based on miniemulsion polymerization, has been developed for the fabrication of composite polymer-metal nanoparticle materials. The procedure produces well-defined composite structures consisting of gold, silver or MnFe2O4 nanoparticles (∼10 nm in diameter) encapsulated within larger spherical nanoparticles of poly(divinylbenzene) (∼100 nm in diameter). This methodology readily permits the incorporation of multiple metal domains into a single polymeric particle, while still preserving the useful optical and magnetic properties of the metal nanoparticles. The morphology of the composite particles is retained upon increasing the inorganic content, and also upon redispersion in organic solvents. Finally, the ability to tailor the surface chemistry of the composite nanoparticles and incorporate steric stabilizing groups using simple thiol-ene chemistry is demonstrated.

Polimerização RAFT em Miniemulsão

“…Para sintetizar nano-hidrogéis por meio de polimerizações com reticulação, é quase sempre necessário usar um sistema inverso; ou seja, um sistema em que a fase contínua seja de caráter apolar e a fase dispersa polar, estabilizada por um surfactante lipofílico [13] . Quando se deseja carregar as nanopartículas com produtos orgânicos ou inorgânicos, solúveis ou não no meio reacional, o sistema heterogêneo de polimerização mais viável para sintetizar essas nanopartículas híbridas [131][132][133] é a polimerização em miniemulsão, em função da facilidade para dispersar o meio reacional na presença de outros materiais, solubilizados ou não na carga de monômeros [134,135] . Por isso, não surpreende que os nano-hidrogéis sejam produzidos majoritariamente por miniemulsões inversas.…”

Synthesis of Nanosized (<20 nm) Polymer Particles by Radical Polymerization in Miniemulsion Employing in situ Surfactant Formation

“…[7,8] Microemulsion CLRP, generating particle diameters well below 100 nm, have been conducted using nitroxide-mediated radical polymerization (NMP), [17,[19][20][21][22][23] atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), [24,25] and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. [26][27][28] Miniemulsion polymerization [29] is an attractive method for implementation of CLRP [7,8] as well as for preparation of organic/inorganic hybrid and hollow polymeric nanoparticles [30][31][32] in the particle diameter range 50-1 000 nm.…”

Current view on biomedical applications of synthetic metal-polymer nanocomposites

“…Till date, there are huge literatures on synthesis, properties, and applications of different nanocomposites of polymer-metal [21], [22], [23], [24]. Recent literature survey provides information on their synthesis by in-situ and ex-situ techniques and their biomedical applications.…”