Morphology and Thermal Properties of Polystyrene-Organoclay Nanocomposites by RATRP in Miniemulsion

In the recent decades polymer-caly nanocomposites have attracted much attention in both industrial and academic researches. Addition low content of clay into the polymermatrix results significantly improvement in several properties of prepared nanocomposites. Among different methods forpreparation of nanocomposites, in situ polymerization is preferred since it almost results in exfoliated morphology [1]. Application of controlled living radical polymerization (CRP)and particularly atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) are appropriate and interesting procedures to prepare welldefinedpolymer-organoclay nanocomposites. Miniemulsion polymerization is the most straightforward aqueous dispersedsystem to conduct ATRP reactions, in which monomer and metal complex are initially located in droplets where polymerization process takes place [2]. In this research,reverse atom transfer radical polymerization (RATRP) in miniemulsion has been employed to synthesize polystyreneorganoclaynanocomposites. Morphology and thermal properties of the products are investigated