Polystyrene brushes/TiO2 nanoparticles prepared via SI-ATRP on polypropylene and its superhydrophobicity

CONTRERAS, CINTIA BELÉN; WEIBEL, DANIEL EDUARDO; STRUMIA, MIRIAM CRISTINA

JOURNAL OF POLYMER RESEARCH

SPRINGER

Año: 2021 vol. 28 p. 1 - 1

1022-9760

urface initiated-atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) is a powerful tool for careful control of the materials surface properties, such as their wettability. In this study, superhydrophobic self-cleaning propylene (PP) surfaces were obtained by dipping the PP sticks into xylene at 125 °C containing dispersed hybrid core-brush TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs). The TiO2 NPs were functionalized with (3-chloropropyl) triethoxysilane (CLE) and they were employed for styrene grafting polymerization using CLE as an SI-ATRP initiator. DRIFT, TEM, SEM, WCA, optical profilometry, TGA and SAXS techniques were used for characterization. TEM images of the (NPs-CLEa)-g-PS revealed that the shell brush sizes were (10.4 ± 0.5) nm, (11.5 ± 0.5) nm and (18.8 ± 0.5) nm for a (CLE/xylene ratio), equal to 5/95, 10/90 and 20/80 respectively; indicating the dependence of the polymer grafting on the initiator ratio. The hierarchical micro-nanostructure generated on PP sticks, the WCA and hysteresis also dep