Synthesis of polymeric nanoparticles containing reduced graphene oxide nanosheets stabilized by poly(ionic liquid) using miniemulsion polymerization

Abstract

Polymeric nanoparticles containing reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanosheets have been prepared by aqueous miniemulsion radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) utilizing poly(ionic liquid) (PIL) as stabilizer to effectively disperse the rGO nanosheets in the monomer phase. The PIL that gave the best results in terms of rGO dispersibility was a block copolymer of the ionic liquid monomer 1-(2-methacryloyloxyethyl)-3-butylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide ([Mbim][TFSA]) and MMA, the concept being that the MMA units impart solubility in the MMA monomer droplets whereas the IL units act as adsorption sites for rGO. The rGO dispersibility in vinyl monomer was demonstrated to be superior using the above PIL block copolymer compared to the corresponding statistical copolymer or PIL homopolymer. Overall, the approach developed demonstrates how PILs can be employed to conveniently switch (turn ON/OFF) the dispersibility of PIL/rGO via anion exchange reactions, which can be an efficient strategy for synthesis of polymer/rGO nanocomposite materials.

Water-Borne Polymer/Graphene Nanocomposites

“…Due to established π−π interactions, rGO was successfully dispersed in monomers, even in the case of the addition of methacrylic monomer to the ionic monomer. The small lateral dimensions allowed encapsulation of the rGO platelets within the polymer particles, which, to the best knowledge of the authors, is the first example of encapsulation of rGO platelets within small colloidal polymer particles . Based on these findings, the authors further attempted to apply this method to polymerization in miniemulsion styrenic and methacrylic monomers .…”

“…Miniemulsion polymerization was used by Tokuda et al to prepare poly(ionic liquid)/rGO composite particles . The authors selected ionic monomer containing an imidazolium ring due to the possibility of establishing π−π interactions with rGO, which has lateral dimensions of less than 100 nm.…”

Preparation of Methacrylate Polymer/Reduced Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite Particles Stabilized by Poly(ionic liquid) Block Copolymer via Miniemulsion Polymerization

“…[47][48][49][50] In previous work, we reported the preparation of polymeric nanoparticles containing rGO nanosheets via aqueous miniemulsion radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) utilizing poly(ionic liquid) (PIL) as stabilizer to effectively disperse the rGO nanosheets in the monomer phase. [51] In the present work, to investigate the properties of the polymer/rGO composite films, poly(n-butyl methacrylate)…”

Nanocomposite of Graphene Oxide Encapsulated in Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA): Pre-Modification, Synthesis, and Latex Stability

“…This method has also been applied to prepare hollow hybrid polymer/GO nanoparticles [31,[38][39][40] and GO was coated on the surface but not encapsulated into polymer nanoparticles. A few researchers described for the synthesis of exfoliated GO/polymer nanocomposites prepared with pre-modified GO via miniemulsion polymerization using a reactive surfactant, 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid (AMPS) [19], poly(ionic liquid) (PIL) [41], and r-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxy silane (MPS) [42]. The monomer type, the addition of conventional surfactant, pH value, and ionic strength, have proved to affect the polymerization kinetics, latex stability, nanocomposite properties, and the intercalation degree for both traditional miniemulsion polymerization or picking miniemulsion polymerization [39,43,44].…”