Amirsaeid Pakdel - Department of Polymer Engineering and Color Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology
Hormoz Eslami
Saeed Pourmahdian

Nanocomposites have been increasingly studied because of their unique characteristics. Their nano-size building blocks change their behavior in manufacturing process dominantly. Many processes have been envisaged to overcome the resulting problems like phase dispersion and agglomeration. In this context, emulsion polymerization that conventionally produces latexes in nanometer range has been utilized extensively to synthesize hybrid nanostructures in the last decade. We used a new single step process to produce inorganic nanoparticles of silica fixed on polymer particles. In this novel process, simultaneous polymerization prevents the agglomeration of surface active, nano-sized silica particles. These nano-sized structures have widespread applications in different fields such as vehicles for the delivery and controlled release of chemical payloads is an active field of research with applications in areas including pharmaceuticals functional foods, agrochemicals, cosmetics to name a few. We used methyl methacrylate as monomer and silica as mineral emulsifier to produce these structures. In this study, we show that a single step process of precipitation and polymerization can be used under controlled process conditions e.g. amount of carbon dioxide and silica. Moreover, we studied the effect of added cationic surfactant on the morphology of final hybrid nanostructures

Nanocomposite; Emulsion Polymerization; Surfactant