Surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of various hydrophilic methacrylate monomers on submicrometer-sized silica particles in aqueous media at 20 °C leads to polymer-grafted silica particles whose colloid stability depends on the nature of the grafted polymer. These new organic−inorganic hybrid particles have been extensively characterized by thermogravimetry, elemental microanalyses, FT-IR spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. They are expected to be interesting model colloids for evaluating theories of steric stabilization.

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