Synthesis and Characterization of Polyvinylpyrrolidone Silica Core-Shell Nanocomposite Particles

In this work, a novel and facile strategy for making a new type of polymer/silica nanocomposte particle was proposed. Colloidally stable polyvinypyrrolidone (PVP)/silica core-shell nanocomposite particles have been successfully synthesized using an azo initiator via seed polymerization of N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (NVP) and VFSs (VFSs) that were derived from vinyl triethoxysilane (VTES). It was suggested from the FTIR and TGA analysis that the copolymerization reaction of NVP with VFSs has been thoroughly carried out. In addition, SEM images showed that PVP/silica nanocomposite particles have relatively rough surface due to surface polymerization in comparison with VFSs. Furthermore, TEM results proved that the size of VFSs had considerable effects on the appearance of PVP/silica nanocomposite particles. Generally, it presented that several silica nanoparticle cores with an average size of 78 nm mainly pack together within each nanocomposite particle after seed polymerization. Interestingly, the average shell thickness was 59 nm for most PVP/silica nanocomposite particles with cores about 242 nm. However, when the core size was large enough to about 504 nm, a series of PVP/silica nanocomposite particles with a relative thin shell were observed.