Clouding observed for surface active, mPEG-grafted silica nanoparticles

Sanna Björkegren; Lars Nordstierna; Andreas Sundblom; Anders Palmqvist

doi:10.1039/c9ra00361d

Clouding observed for surface active, mPEG-grafted silica nanoparticles

RSC Adv. 2019 Apr 30;9(23):13297-13303. doi: 10.1039/c9ra00361d. eCollection 2019 Apr 25.

Authors

Sanna Björkegren^{1

2}, Lars Nordstierna¹, Andreas Sundblom², Anders Palmqvist¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology SE-412 96 Göteborg Sweden.
² Nouryon SE-445 80 Bohus Sweden sanna.bjorkegren1@nouryon.com.

Abstract

Temperature-dependent phase-separation, clouding, has been observed in suspensions of silica nanoparticles surface-functionalized with methyl-poly(ethylene glycol) silane. Interparticle interactions and conformational changes of the grafted poly(ethylene glycol) chains influence the observed cloud points, and can be controlled by electrolyte concentration and pH. These findings open new routes to tailoring properties of Pickering emulsions.