Thermal Study of Polystyrene/Aerogel Nanocomposites Synthesized by RAFT Polymerization

Living radical polymerization has received significant attention in the recent years, as it allows production of polymers with controlled molecular weight, narrowpolydispersity, and complex macromolecular architectures. Among controlled free radical polymerization techniques, reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) isarguably the most versatile technique with respect to the types of monomer and reaction conditions. RAFT polymerizationhas also been used to prepare polymer nanocomposites with various nanoparticles such as silica and graphene [1, 2].Aerogels have attracted significant attention due to their extraordinary properties, such as large specific surface area, low apparent density, low thermal conductivity, and highporosity, which originate from their nanoporous nanostructure [3, 4]. In this work, polystyrene /aerogel nanocomposites wereprepared via RAFT polymerization technique and effect of nanoparticle loading on thermal properties of nanocomposites has been studied.