Xin's paper on photocatalytic surface-initiated polymerization has been published by  ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces. Congratulations! Xin is a visiting student from Beijing Jiaotong University. This project was finished under collaborations of different research teams. 

Title: Photocatalytic surface-initiated polymerization on TiO2 toward well-defined nanostructures. 

Authors:  X. Wang, Q. Lu, X. Wang, J. Joo, M. Dahl, B. Liu*, C. Gao*, Y. Yin*

Link to the publisher: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1021/acsami.5b09551

Abstract: We demonstrate the use of TiO2 nanospheres as the photoinitiator for photocatalytic surface-initiated polymerization for the synthesis of various inorganic/polymer nanocomposites with well-defined structures.  The excitation of TiO2 by UV light irradiation produces electrons and holes which drive the free radical polymerization near its surface, producing core/shell composite nanospheres with eccentric or concentric structures that can be tuned by controlling the surface compatibility between the polymer and the TiO2.  When highly porous TiO2 nanospheres were employed as the photoinitiator, polymerization could disintegrate the mesoporous framework and give rise to nanocomposites with multiple TiO2 nanoparticles eventually distributed in the polymer spheres.  Thanks to the well-developed sol-gel chemistry of titania, this synthesis is well extendable to the coating of the polymers on many other substrates of interest such as silica and ZnS by simply pre-modifying their surface with a thin layer of titania.  In addition, this strategy could be easily applied to coating of different types of polymers such as polystyrene (PS), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM).  We expect this photocatalytic surface-initiated polymerization process could provide a platform for the synthesis of various inorganic/polymer hybrid nanocomposites for many interesting applications.

中文简介：

本工作以二氧化钛纳米球为光引发剂，通过高分子聚合反应制备具有规整结构的有机无机杂化材料。在紫外光的照射下，二氧化钛晶体上发生电子和空穴的分离，从而诱导了单体在其表面的自由基聚合，形成同心或偏心的核壳结构纳米球。当使用介孔二氧化钛为光引发剂时，在聚合过程中发生介孔二氧化钛骨架的解体，在聚合物纳米球中形成均匀分散的二氧化钛纳米粒子。该方法具有很好的普适性，显示出良好的应用前景。

本工作第一作者王欣是来自北京交通大学的访问学生，该课题是依托加州大学河滨分校、北京交通大学和西安交通大学等单位开展的,论文发表在材料领域权威期刊ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces（影响因子：7.145）上。