Nanosize Polyacrylamide/SiO₂ Composites by Inverse Microemulsion Polymerization

Nanosize polyacrylamide/silica (PAM/SiO2) composites were prepared by water- in-oil (W/O) microemulsion process. In this system, aqueous solution of acrylamide containing disperse 10 nm size silicon dioxide was used as the dispersed phase of the microemulsion while the dispersion medium was sodium bis (2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT)/toluene solution. The size of the synthesized PAM/SiO2 nanocomposites was 38–76 nm as determined by dynamic light scattering (DLS). The incorporation of nanosize silica filler reduces the particle size of PAM latex. It had also been found that the size of composite particles decreases with increasing filler loading along with better polydispersity. The presence of silica particles in the polymer latex particles and interaction of polymer chains with silica particles in hybrid nanocomposites were characterized by Fourier transform infra red spectrophotometry (FTIR), thermogravimetry analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The TGA results showed improved thermoresistance and high thermal stability behavior of hybrid composites. The DSC measurements revealed that the incorporation of filler favors crystallization, increases the enthalpy of melting and thermal stabilization of the synthesized composite particles. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to study the morphology and topography of the prepared nanocomposites.