Functionalization of silica particles towards cationic polyelectrolytes using vinylformamide and 1,3-divinylimidazolidin-2-one as monomers

The use of vinylformamide and 1,3-divinylimidazolidin-2-one, bisvinylethyle ne-urea (BW), as well as of the poly(vinylformamide-vinylamine) copolymer ( PVFA-co-PVAm) for silica surface functionalization has been investigated. V arious procedures such as grafting from, crosslinking surface polymerizatio n, and post-functionalization of adsorbed PVAm chains have been experimenta lly applied. The advantage of the different synthetic methods is discussed with regard to the resulting surface structure of the organic/inorganic hyb rid materials.