Polymer swelling by scCO₂ was mainly studied to understand many industrial processes, especially in the field of pharmacy for drug delivery or polymer processing by CO₂-assisted extrusion. Curiously, the approach of polymer swelling by scCO₂ was just occasionally used to functionalize polymer matrixes with inorganic nanoparticles to produce organic-inorganic nanocomposites. Based on the numerous application fields of these organic-inorganic nanocomposites (automotive, aeronautic, pharmacy, chemistry...), we have developed a simple and direct method using supercritical fluids for the synthesis of polymer / metal nanocomposites. The incorporation of copper nanoparticles into two kinds of polymer matrixes (HydroxyTelechelic Polybutadiene (HTPB) as hydrophobic material and PolyEthylene Glycol (PEG) as hydrophilic one) is proposed as model system to study:

• the swelling of these polymers by scCO₂
• the viscosity of the polymer / CO₂ systems
• the nucleation and growth of copper nanoparticles into the polymer matrixes

After a brief overview on the potential application of organic-inorganic nanocomposites, we will describe the swelling of both polymers (HTPB and PEG) by scCO₂ based on in situ IR spectroscopy. The interpretation of these results will be discussed thanks to ab initio calculations. The viscosity dependence of both polymers with CO₂ density will be also investigated. Finally the formation of copper nanoparticles in HTPB and PEG matrixes will be studied, especially with in situ UV-visible spectroscopy and High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy. A good knowledge of the system will allow proposing a correlation between the thermodynamical behaviour of the polymer / CO₂ systems and the nucleation and growth phenomena of formation of copper nanoparticles.

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