Preparation of Poly(methyl methacrylate)/Diamond Nanoparticle Composites via ATRP

Abstract

Functionalization of diamond nanoparticales (DNPs) was conducted with 4-ethylbenzoic acid (EBA) in a less-destructive mild polyphosphoric acid (PPA)/phosphorous pentoxide (P2O5) medium to afford 4-ethylbenzoyl-functionalized DNPs (EBA-g-DNP). Subsequently, the bromination of EBA-g-DNP using N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) yielded ？-brominated EBA-g-DNP (BrEBA-g-DNP), which was used as an initiator for methyl methacrylate (MMA) via atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Poly(methylmetacrylate) grafted DNP (PMMA-g-DNP)was prepared from the reaction between MMA and BrEBA-g-DNP in the presence of copper(I) bromide in anhydrous N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP). The resultant PMMA-g-DNP was characterized by using FT-IR, TGA, 1H NMR, SEM, TEM and etc.TEM images provided clearvisual evidence for the formation of a core？shell structure-a hard DNP core and a soft PMMA shell.