Organic-inorganic nanocomposite particles can be prepared by Pickering emulsion polymerization. Attempts to prepare polystyrene/silica nanocomposite particles without the addition of auxiliary comonomers, surface modification of silica sols or alcoholic silica sols or use of functionalized silica nanoparticles have not yielded satisfactory results. In this study, we demonstrated a versatile approach to prepare polystyrene/silica and poly(styrene-co-butyl acrylate)/silica nanocomposite particles by subjecting commercially available non-functionalized silica nanoparticles through Pickering emulsion polymerization. Monodisperse nanocomposite particles with a high silica incorporation efficiency were fabricated. We investigated the effects of the silica content, initiator content and pH value on the properties of the prepared nanocomposite particles. Mechanistic investigations of the system showed that the silica nanoparticles did not require surface polymerization. Two aspects facilitated the adhesion of silica nanoparticles onto the growing latex particles: wetting of hydrophilic silica nanoparticles by more hydrophobic oligomers, and electrostatic interaction between the silica nanoparticles and oppositely charged oligoradicals.

有机-无机纳米复合颗粒可以通过Pickering乳液聚合制备。在不添加辅助共聚单体、二氧化硅溶胶或醇二氧化硅溶胶的表面改性或使用官能化二氧化硅纳米粒子的情况下制备聚苯乙烯/二氧化硅纳米复合颗粒的尝试没有产生令人满意的结果。在这项研究中，我们展示了一种制备聚苯乙烯/二氧化硅和聚（苯乙烯-co-丙烯酸丁酯)/二氧化硅纳米复合粒子通过皮克林乳液聚合使市售的非官能化二氧化硅纳米粒子。制备了具有高二氧化硅掺入效率的单分散纳米复合颗粒。我们研究了二氧化硅含量、引发剂含量和 pH 值对制备的纳米复合颗粒性能的影响。该系统的机理研究表明，二氧化硅纳米粒子不需要表面聚合。两个方面促进了二氧化硅纳米粒子在生长的乳胶粒子上的粘附：亲水性二氧化硅纳米粒子被更疏水的低聚物润湿，以及二氧化硅纳米粒子和带相反电荷的寡自由基之间的静电相互作用。