Preparation and Characterization of Novel Hybrid Nanocomposites by Free Radical Copolymerization of Vinyl pyrrolidone with Incompletely Condensed Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane

A new series of hybrid nanocomposites based on poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) containing incompletely condensed polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (IC-POSS) with different percentages of POSS were prepared via free radical copolymerization. Incompletely condensed, phenyl-POSS (Na3O12Si7(C6H5)(7)) with the highly reactive group of trisodium silanolate was used to prepare desire IC-POSS by nucleophilic substitution reaction. The products were characterized by Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis techniques. The results of analysis confirmed that there are good interactions between IC-POSS and the PVP matrix. The thermal stability of the PVP was enhanced with the addition of small amounts of nano-filler. The solubility of the nanocomposites has been also tested and the results showed that with increasing the IC-POSS content the hydrophobicity of nanocomposites were increased.