Preparation of well-defined hybrid materials by ATRP in miniemulsion

Preparation of hybrid organic/inorganic nanoparticles using silica particles by an atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) miniemulsion with an activators generated by electron transfer (AGET) process has been reported. Compared to the bulk polymerization, ATRP in miniemulsion allowed the preparation of silica/poly(n-butyl acrylate) (BA) with a higher monomer conversion and a higher polymerization rate without macroscopic gelation. It was also observed that the presence of some free polymer chains can result from a small contribution of transfer reactions, chain shear in processing, or residual free initiators remaining after functionalization of silica particles. The approach can be applied to the synthesis of several well-defined polymers with complex architectures based on multifunctional initiators.