Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, Vol.374, 237-240, 2012
Polystyrene-coated micro-sized particles by "in situ" surface initiated polymerization in accord with Langmuir model adsorption
This study describes the mechanism of adsorption of polystyrene chains PS "in situ" growth from micro-sized commercial silicate particles, i.e. Feldspar. The main aim is to derive adsorption isotherms from thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and size exclusion chromatography (SEC) data obtained during the direct polymerization of PS initiated by a pre-adsorbed radical initiator onto the inorganic surface. The adsorption isotherm plot indicates that the PS adsorption is in accord with the Langmuir Model. The amount of PS monolayer coverage increases with polymerization time, and it is highly dependent on the monomer diffusion to the surface during the hybrid inorganic/organic synthesis. Such behavior depends on the concentration gradient between monomer concentration in solution and that adsorbed by polymerization onto the micro-sized particles surface of Feldspar. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.