One-pot route to graft long-chain polymer onto silica nanoparticles and its application for high-performance poly(l-lactide) nanocomposites

Abstract

A facile “one-pot” synthetic route to modify SiO₂ nanoparticles with long-chain polymer was developed. The structure and morphology of SiO₂ grafted with poly(L-lactide) (SiO₂-g-PLA) were characterized by FTIR, TGA, GPC, and TEM. Furthermore, a series of PLA/SiO₂-g-PLA nanocomposites were prepared with different nanofiller loadings, and their related performances were investigated. As an effective nucleating agent, the SiO₂-g-PLA had a positive effect to improve the crystallization rate and increase the crystallinity. Meanwhile, the PLA nanocomposites presented outstanding mechanical properties including excellent toughness and high stiffness. In addition, the PLA materials kept good transparency with less than 3 wt% nanofillers. Overall, this work provides a useful method for preparing high-performance polymer nanocomposites.