A novel approach for the preparation of acrylate-siloxane particles with core-shell structure

Abstract

It is well known that polysiloxane has excellent properties, such as water repellency, low surface energy, biocompatibility, etc. Its application, however, is subject to some limit due to poor cohesiveness and poor film-forming properties. Recently, many efforts have been made to overcome such flaws. It is found that polyacrylate is in common consideration for its good cohesiveness and excellent film-forming properties. This is why there have been so many descriptions of core-shell PSi-PA (PSi, polysiloxane as core; PA, polyacrylate as shell) particles in the literature. Unfortunately, their hydrophobicity is considerably different; therefore, the reversed morphological PA-PSi particles are scarcely available. In the work reported here, core-shell PA-PSi structures with poly(butyl methacrylate) (PA) as the core and PSi as the shell were successfully prepared by dispersion polymerization. Characterization of the PA-PSi particles was carried out using transmission electron microscopy, particle size analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and static contact angle measurements. © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry.