Nitroxide-mediated graft copolymerization of styrene from cellulose and its polymer/montmorillonite nanocomposite

Nitroxide-mediated polymerization was successfully employed for well-defined graft copolymerization of styrene (St) monomer from cellulose (Cell) backbone. For this purpose, Cell was acylated by 2-bromoisobutyryl bromide, and then 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy (TEMPO) was immobilized onto Cell backbone using a nucleophilic substitution reaction to produce Cell-TEMPO macroinitiator. Afterward, St monomer was grafted onto Cell backbone through "grafting from" technique. The successful synthesis of Cell-g-polystyrene (PSt) copolymer was confirmed using Fourier transform infrared and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies and scanning electron microscopy analysis. Finally, Cell-g-PSt/montmorillonite nanocomposite was fabricated through solution intercalation approach. The thermal properties and structural morphology of the resultant nanocomposite were investigated using thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry and transmission electron microscopy, respectively.