1 research outputs found
Tailor-Made Fluorinated Copolymer/Clay Nanocomposite by Cationic RAFT Assisted Pickering Miniemulsion Polymerization
Fluorinated polymers in emulsion
find enormous applications in
hydrophobic surface coating. Currently, lots of efforts are being
made to develop specialty polymer emulsions which are free from surfactants.
This investigation reports the preparation of a fluorinated copolymer
via Pickering miniemulsion polymerization. In this case, 2,2,3,3,3-pentafluoropropyl
acrylate (PFPA), methyl methacrylate (MMA), and <i>n</i>-butyl acrylate (nBA) were copolymerized in miniemulsion using Laponite-RDS
as the stabilizer. The copolymerization was carried out via reversible
addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) process. Here,
a cationic RAFT agent, <i>S</i>-1-dodecyl-<i>S</i>′-(methylbenzyltriethylammonium bromide) trithiocarbonate
(DMTTC), was used to promote polymer-Laponite interaction by means
of ionic attraction. The polymerization was much faster when Laponite
content was 30 wt % or above with 1.2 wt % RAFT agent. The stability
of the miniemulsion in terms of zeta potential was found to be dependent
on the amount of both Laponite and RAFT agent. The miniemulsion had
particle sizes in the range of 200–300 nm. Atomic force microscopy
(AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses showed the
formation of Laponite armored spherical copolymer particles. The fluorinated
copolymer films had improved surface properties because of polymer–Laponite
interaction