Polymer nanoparticles (PNPs) with monodispersed sizes and shapes have been received much attention in various industrial applications such as catalysts, coating materials, chemical sensors, drug deliveries, adsorbents and optoelectronic devices, owing to their distinctive properties. The key properties of these well-defined PNPs can be controlled and modified by the surface functional groups. As a result, many types of PNPs having specific functional groups on the surface have been developed so far in order to achieve the desired properties for a particular application. In this work we report a simple and efficient method of fabricating hyperbranched polymer nanoparticles (HB-PNPs) bearing phenolic units on the surface. The target HB-PNPs with size in the range of 300-400 nm were prepared in high reproducibility by the emulsifier-free polymerization. The obtained HB-PNPs showed high chemical, thermal and mechanical stability due to the cross-linking structure of polymers. Additionally, it was found that the phenolic surface groups of HB-PNPs are versatile to be served as an acid catalyst and functionalized with fluorescent dyes.

Synthesis and properties of surface functional hyperbranched polymer nanoparticles

256th National Meeting (2018)

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