Surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) of styrene from chitosan particles

Polystyrene grafted chitosan particles (PS-Chitosan) were successfully prepared by the surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) of styrene from the macroinitiators, bromo-acetyl chitosans with their surface amino and hydroxyl groups, in toluene system with the catalysts of 1,10-phenanthroline and Cu(I)Br. The conversion of monomer (C%) and the percentage of grafting (PG%) increased with the increasing of the polymerizing time and they reached 5.31% and 19.12% after a polymerizing time of 5 h, respectively. The products were characterized by elemental analysis (EA), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD).