In this paper

polyacrylate/SiO2 nanocomposites were prepared by combining non-aqueous sol-gel reaction of tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) and miniemulsion polymerization of acrylates. Firstly

kinetics of non-aqueous sol-gel process of TEOS was investigated by gelation time measurement and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The results showed that it was beneficial to get spherical silica particles if molar ratio of formic to TEOS was more than 6. Then the silica sol was modified by silane coupling agent 3-methacryloylpropyltrimethoxysilane (KH-570). The miniemulsion polymerization of acrylates in the presence of modified silica sol in the comonomer droplets was studied. The polymerization kinetics was similar as normal miniemulsion polymerization. Introducing silica sol reduced the homogeneity of monomers droplets and the stability of the dispersed droplets

so that with increasing the contents of silica sol

the particle sizes increased and the particle size distribution became wider. The latex particle morphologies of the nanocomposites were the struture of several silica microdomains encapsulated by polyacrylate.