Grafting amphiphilic brushes onto halloysite nanotubes via a living RAFT polymerization and their Pickering emulsification behavior.

Amphiphilic brushes of poly(4-vinylpyridine)-block-polystyrene (P4VP-b-PS) and polystyrene-block-poly(4-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P4VP) are grafted onto halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) via a surface reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) living polymerization through anchoring R group in RAFT agent S-1-dodecyl-S'-(R,R'-dimethyl-R″-acetic acid) trithiocarbonates (DDMAT). The characterization of TGA, TEM, and GPC show that amphiphilic brushes are successfully grafted onto HNTs in a living manner. To verify the amphiphilicity of HNTs grafted with block copolymers, their Pickering emulsification behavior in water/soybean oil diphase mixture is studied. The results show that modified HNTs can emulsify water/soybean oil diphase mixture and the emulsification performance is dependent on microstructure of amphiphilic brushes such as hydrophilic/hydrophobic segment size and sequence.