A novel route for the synthesis of poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-methyl methacrylate) grafted titania nanoparticles via ATRP

A new method is presented for grafting poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-methyl methacrylate) (P(HEMA-co-MMA)) chains from the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). First, the ATRP initiators were immobilized onto the TiO2 surface by using 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane coupling agent and 2-bromoisobutyryl bromide. Then the copolymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate with methyl methacrylate was initiated and propagated on the TiO2 surface by ATRP. The resulting composite nanoparticles were characterized by means of XPS, FT-IR, 1H NMR, GPC and TGA. The results indicated that the grafting of copolymer chains from the TiO2 surface was successful. This method opens up new avenues for the preparation of TiO2-polymer nanocomposites.