How Many Phosphoric Acid Units Are Required to Ensure Uniform Occlusion of Sterically Stabilized Nanoparticles within Calcite?

Polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA) mediated by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization offers a platform technology for the efficient and versatile synthesis of well-defined sterically stabilized block copolymer nanoparticles. Herein we synthesize a series of such nanoparticles with tunable anionic charge density within the stabilizer chains, which are prepared via statistical copolymerization of anionic 2-(phosphonooxy)ethyl methacrylate (P) with non-ionic glycerol monomethacrylate (G). Systematic variation of the P/G molar ratio enables elucidation of the minimum number of phosphate groups per copolymer chain required to promote nanoparticle occlusi…