The use of multinuclear solid-state NMR to evaluate polystyrene/silica composites

Organic–inorganic hybrid materials have attracted much interest because of their novel and specific characteristics. One method to obtain these materials is in situ polymerization through free-radical polymerization. In this study, styrene monomers were covalently linked to silica (SiO2) using the suspension polymerization technique. In the reaction process, benzoyl peroxide was used as an initiator; poly(vinyl alcohol) was used as a suspension agent and water was used as the reaction environment. The styrene/silica composites were characterized in relation to chemical structure and microstructure using solution and solidstate nuclear magnetic resonance, and thermal analysis was performed by differential scanning calorimetry to evaluate the thermal transition temperature (Tg). All results showed that styrene/silica nanocomposites were obtained. The material with 2.5 % SiO2 showed the best characteristics.