Synthesis of polystyrene-grafted carbon nanocapsules
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A novel polymeric composite material, polystyrene (PS)-grafted carbon nanocapsules (CNCs), has been prepared. sec-butyllithium was first used to introduce negative charges on CNCs, and these CNC carbanions acted then as initiators for anionic polymerization of styrene. Based on a weight loss at the decomposition temperature of the butyl groups, the quantity of the butyls attached to the CNC surface was determined as 1.18 wt%, corresponding to 0.25 mol% initiator per mol of carbon atom on the CNC surface. Furthermore, the decomposition temperature of butylated CNCs was lower than that of the pristine CNCs by nearly 200 °C. The polystyrene content in our PS-grafted CNC sample was approximately 20%, and the molecular weight of the grafted PS on the surface of CNCs was calculated as 1200 gmol−1. Compared with the molecular weight of the ungrafted PS, the molecular weight of grafted PS was lower, thus indicating rates of initiation and/or propagation for CNC-bound carbanions lower than those of the free sec-butyllithium. The PS-grafted CNCs had good dispersion in toluene, tetrahydrofuran, cyclohexane, and other common organic solvents in which polystyrene was dissolvable and thus indicated good compatibility when further blended with other styrenic polymers. The PS-grafted CNCs were characterized and examined by Fourier transform infrared, thermogravimetric analysis, atomic force microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The electron microscopy images indicated that the PS-grafted CNCs were homogeneous composites containing uniform polymer/CNC ratios.
I. INTRODUCTION
Carbon nanocapsules (CNCs) were first discovered along with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in 1991 in the production process of carbon nanotubes.1 In recent years, CNCs have gained intense scientific interests2–6 because of their special fullerene structure and optoelectronic properties, and they have been studied in various forms such as metal-filled CNCs,7–15 superconductive encapsulated YC2,16 radioactive nanoparticles,17 medicalgrade active carbons, electromagnetic shielding materials, and carbon electrodes in lithium batteries.18 A CNC consists of only carbon atoms and can be considered theoretically as a polyhedral carbon cluster made up of multiple graphite layers with a balls-withina-ball structure. Because the graphite layers of a CNC comprise curved carbon networks similar to those of
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Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/JMR.2007.0017 132
http://journals.cambridge.org
J. Mater. Res., Vol. 22, No. 1, Jan 2007 Downloaded: 13 Mar 2015
fullerene (C60) and carbon nanotubes, it has been considered that the chemical properties of CNCs, CNTs, and C60 may also be similar. Methods for grafting polymer chains onto C60 or CNTs, incorporating C60 or CNTs into the main chain of a macromolecule, or attaching C60 onto a polymer backbone have been reported previously in the literature. Sun an
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