A mechanistic investigation of Pickering emulsion polymerization

Pickering emulsion polymerization offers a versatile way of synthetising hybrid core-shell latexes where a polymer core is surrounded by an armour of inorganic nanoparticles. A mechanistic understanding of the polymerization process is limited which restricts the use of the technique in the fabrication of more complex, multilayered colloids. In this paper clarity is provided through an in-depth investigation into the Pickering emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) in the presence of nano-sized colloidal silica (Ludox TM-40). Mechanistic insights are discussed by studying both the adsorption of the stabiliser to the surface of the latex particles and polymerization kinetics. The adhesion of the Pickering nanoparticles was found not to be spontaneous, as confirmed by cryo-TEM analysis of MMA droplets in water and monomer-swollen PMMA latexes. This supports the theory that the inorganic particles are driven towards the interface as a result of a heterocoagulation event in the water phase with a growing oligoradical. The emulsion polymerizations were monitored by reaction calorimetry in order to establish accurate values for monomer conversion and the overall rate of polymerizations (R-p). R-p increased for higher initial silica concentrations and the polymerizations were found to follow pseudo-bulk kinetics.