Surface Modification of Wood Flour via ARGET ATRP and Its Application as Filler in Thermoplastics

Abstract

Wood flour is particularly suitable as a filler in thermoplastics because it is environmentally friendly, readily available, and offers a high strength-to-density ratio. To overcome the insufficient interfacial adhesion between hydrophilic wood and a hydrophobic matrix, a thermoplastic polymer was grafted from wood flour via surface-initiated activators regenerated by electron transfer-atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ARGET ATRP). Wood particles were modified with an ATRP initiator and subsequently grafted with methyl acrylate for different polymerization times in the absence of a sacrificial initiator. The successful grafting of poly(methyl acrylate) (PMA) was demonstrated using attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and water contact angle (WCA) measurements. To confirm the control over the polymerization, a cleavable ATRP initiator was immobilized on the particles, allowing the detachment of the grafted polymer under mild conditions. The grafted particles were incorporated into a PMA matrix using solvent casting and their influence on the mechanical properties (Young’s modulus, yield strength, and toughness) of the composite was investigated. Tensile testing showed that the mechanical properties improved with increasing polymerization time and increasing ratio of incorporated grafted particles.

Tuning the Mechanical Properties of Poly(Methyl Acrylate) via Surface‐Functionalized Montmorillonite Nanosheets

“…In order to tune the mechanical properties of polymers, the incorporation of particles into a polymer matrix is a well‐known strategy. [ 6–9 ] This approach shows extraordinary versatility, as all known polymers can be combined with a great diversity of particles ranging from natural fillers, such as layered silicates [ 10–12 ] or wood particles, [ 6 ] over synthetic inorganic particles, like silica, [ 13,14 ] carbon black, or carbon nanotubes, [ 15 ] to metal particles like gold, [ 16–18 ] silver, [ 16,18 ] or metal oxides, like magnetite. [ 19 ] In doing so, an exceptionally broad range of materials can be created.…”

Photoinduced Metal-Free Surface Initiated ATRP from Hollow Spheres Surface

“…Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) is one of the most versatile and robust methods for synthesis of polymers with controlled molecular weight (MW), molecular weight distribution (MWD), structure, and functionality [15,16]. Surface-initiated ATRP has been successfully used to graft polymers from a variety of solid surfaces of different shapes and materials, such as α-Fe 2 O 3 rods [17], iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles [18], SBA-15 [19], wood flour [20], and so on. However, ATRP is also practically discouraged due to the disadvantage of using ATRP metal catalysts, such as Cu + and Fe 2+ , which result in the presence of an inevitable metal residue in final products [21,22,23].…”

Surface-Induced ARGET ATRP for Silicon Nanoparticles with Fluorescent Polymer Brushes

“…Firstly, the ARGET ATRP initiator was grafted from the SNPs surface and used to initiate styrene polymerization on SNPs surface, which can make resulted in SNPs-g-PS hybrid materials. Owing to the livingness of the ATRP process [45,46,47] (which also can be verified by 1H-NMR in this work), the end group of the PS block can be reinitiated to continue the polymerization on SNPs surface with the hydrophilic monomer, HEMA and HEMA-RhB, resulting in the SNPs- g -PS- b -PHEMA- co -PHEMA-RhB. The purpose of this study is to obtain hybrid materials with good dispersion in different solvents, and to endow this material with certain fluorescence characteristics, so as to further broaden the application of SI-ARGET ATRP.…”