Growing poly(methyl methacrylate) chains from the surface of zinc oxide nanoparticles via surface-initiated reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization

In the present work, we focus on fabrication of the novel nanocomposite, ZnO grafted with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), via surface-initiated reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization. A trithiocarbonate RAFT agent was anchored onto ZnO nanoparticles in a simple procedure using a ligand exchange reaction of S-benzyl S'-trimethoxysilylpropyltrithiocarbonate (BTPT) with hydroxyl groups on the surface of ZnO nanoparticles. BTPT-anchored ZnO nanoparticles were then used for surface-initiated RAFT polymerization of MMA to fabricate structurally well-defined ZnO-g-PMMA hybrid nanoparticles. The structure, property and morphology of PMMA-g-ZnO nanocomposites were investigated by fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), energy dispersive X-Ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and field emission scanning electronic microscopy (FE-SEM)