“Grafting From” ‐Living Cationic Polymerization of Poly(isobutylene) from Silica‐Nanoparticle Surfaces

This publication discusses the development of new methods for producing organic-inorganic core-shell-nanoparticles (NP's) via a combination of grafting-from techniques and living cationic polymerization reactions. Based on the surface initiated, quasiliving cationic polymerization of isobutylene, polymeric shells of polyisobutylene (PIB) were attached onto nanoparticles (silica NP's of different sizes, r=12-40 nm) with a high degree of precision. Grafting-from polymerization provides an ideal method to control the number of polymer chains per particle by means of the degree of initial derivatization and the length of the polymeric chains. The resulting nanocomposite materials were analyzed using DLS, TEM, GPC, TGA, DSC.