Synthesis of SiO2/polystyrene hybrid particles via an esterification method

SiO2/polystyrene (SiO2/PS) hybrid particles are synthesized successfully by an esterification method under extremely mild conditions, for instance, ambient temperature, moisture, and atmospheric pressure. The resulting hybrid particles are characterized by XPS, FTIR, SEM, DLS, TGA, and DSC techniques. Results show that the resulting hybrid particles have core-shell structure with PS on the outside and SiO2 in the core, and the particle size increases from 230 to 260 nm upon the PS grafting. The grafted PS accounts for about 32.2 wt.% of the total amount of hybrid particles. Meanwhile, PS segments attached on the SiO2 particle surface have better thermal stability and higher glass transition temperature than those of the pristine carboxyl-terminated PS.