Controlloing the architecture of organic-inorganic hybrid Nanomaterials
In order to couple nanoparticles with polymeric systems, an important issue is the creation of a well-defined interface to facilitate the dispersion of the cores in a liquid carrier or a polymeric matrix. A versatile approach is the creation of a macromolecular brush on the particle surface by surface-initiated polymerization. We present several systems involving brush particles based on polystyrene, hydrophilic methacrylates and polyesters. Other architectures involve crosslinked core-shell particles and magnetic microgels.