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 solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance, and thermal analysis was performed by differential scanning calorimetry to evaluate the thermal transition temperature (T _g). All results showed that styrene/silica nanocomposites were obtained. The material with 2.5 % SiO₂ showed the best characteristics.