Covalent attachment of polystyrene on multi-walled carbon nanotubes via nitroxide mediated polymerization

Abstract

A new method to attach polymers on carbon nanotubes has been studied. We used nitroxide mediated polymerization (NMP) to graft polystyrene from multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). Carboxyl groups on MWNTs were activated with thionyl chloride (SOCl2) to give acyl chloride derivative (MWNT-COCl). NMP initiator was introduced to MWNT by esterification of 1-hydroxy-2-phenyl-2-(2',2',6',6'-tetramethyl-1'-piperidinyloxy)ethane (HO-PE-TEMPO) with acyl chloride groups of MWNTs. The obtained MWNT-PE-TEMPO was used for initiation of bulk polymerization of styrene, yielding polystyrene-grafted MWNTs (MWNT-g-pSt). The resulting composites of MWNT-g-pSt were analyzed by TEM, SEM, FT-IR and TGA.