Graphene functionalized with poly(vinyl alcohol) as a Pickering stabilizer for suspension polymerization of poly(methyl methacrylate)

Two types of thermally reduced graphenes (TRGs) having different lateral sizes were non-covalently modified with poly(vinyl alcohol) to endow water-dispersibility. The modified TRGs were examined as Pickering stabilizers for the suspension polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA). They were effective graphene-based Pickering stabilizers for the system with almost all of the polymerized composite microparticles having a regular spherical shape. The particle size of the composite microparticles was tunable by the size or the amount of modified TRG used as stabilizer. The almost perfect core-shell structure of the composite microparticles effectively enhanced the thermal stability of the core PMMA. In addition, when the core-shell microparticles were compression molded into a monolith, the obtained composite exhibited an ultra-low percolation threshold of electrical conductivity of around 0.04 vol%. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.