‘Green’ synthesis of silver polymer Nanocomposites of poly (2-isopropenyl-2- oxazoline-co- N-vinylpyrrolidone) and its catalytic activity

Metal-polymer nanocomposites are of great interest and mainly focused on advanced catalytic and sensor applications. Resulting from this, new copolymers composed of poly(2-isopropenyl-2-oxazoline) (PIPOx) and poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PNVP) segments were prepared from highly water soluble 2-isopropenyl-2- oxazoline (IPOx) and N-vinylpyrrolidone (NVP) monomers. Finally, silver polymer nanocomposites of poly(2-isopropenyl-2-oxazoline-co-N-vinylpyrrolidone) were synthesized and reporting for the first time. All polymerizations were done in an aqueous phase with potassium persulfate as an initiator at 60 °C. The reaction time varied from 1 to 6 h in accordance with stoichiometric ratios of PIPOx and PNVP, leading to insoluble copolymers; which are termed as PIPOx_PNVP (75:25), PIPOx_PNVP (50:50), PIPOx_PNVP (25:75) and PIPOx_PNVP (10:90). Only, PIPOx_PNVP (10:90) showed adequate swelling behavior in water and some other organic solvents. All the polymers were distinguished by various physicochemical spectroscopic techniques such as UV/Visible spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and FTIR analysis. Thermogravimetry (TGA) and Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to investigate thermal stability of the samples. The metalo-polymer nanocomposites (PIPOx_PNVP-SNCs) showed an apparently improved stability even when the composites were stored in air, at room temperature. The PIPOx_PNVP-SNCs showed a remarkable catalytic activity during the reduction of 4-nitrophenol (4-NP) to 4-aminophenol (4-AP) in the presence of sodium borohydride.