Journal article
Carbon Nanotube-Polymer Hybrids: Structure and Periodic Functionalization
Polymeric materials science and engineering, Vol.93
01 Oct 2005
Abstract
Due to their extraordinary mechanical, electrical and optical properties, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted great attention in recent years. 1 In order to transfer their outstanding properties from nano- to micro- scale, one essential step involves assembling and processing of CNTs, 2 which is hindered by their intrinsic poor solubility and processibility. 3 It has been recognized that, to disperse CNTs for processing purposes, their surface has to be modified; so emerges the field of CNT functionalization. 4 Both the chemical functionalization technique and non-covalent wrapping method have been employed. 4 A number of surfactants such as octyl phenol ethoxylate as well as rigid conjugated molecules have been successfully used to modify CNT surface chemistry. It is anticipated that these molecules form strong ? -stacking with CNT, resulting in surfactant/functional molecules coated CNTs and hence CNT surface properties can be altered. In another parallel research field, carbon materials, in various forms, have been known to be able to induce polymer crystallization. Epitaxial growth of polymers such as polyethylene (PE), Nylon 6, etc. on graphite surface has been observed using scanning tunneling microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. 5 Carbon fibers (CFs), which are ~ 10 mu m in diameter, have been used to induce polymer crystallization (transcrystallization). 6 It has also been demonstrated that a number of polymers (such as polypropylene, PE, Nylon 6,6, Poly(phenylene sulfide), etc.) can epitaxially grow on CF surface. This motivated us to investigate carbon nanotube (CNT) induced polymer crystallization and use this technique for CNT functionalization. We report a novel method to periodically functionalize CNTs using controlled polymer crystallization. By controlling crystallization condition, polymer single crystals were periodically decorated on both single walled and multi walled CNTs (SWNT and MWNTs). The periodicity of the polymer single crystals can be controlled to be 20-70 nm. Polymer nanocomposite with controlled tube-to-tube distance has been achieved. Since polymers can be easily removed by etching/dissolution, this method could open a new route for periodically introducing multiple functionality onto individual CNTs.
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Details
- Title
- Carbon Nanotube-Polymer Hybrids: Structure and Periodic Functionalization
- Creators
- Christopher LiLingyu LiBing LiMichael Birnkrant
- Publication Details
- Polymeric materials science and engineering, Vol.93
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Materials Science and Engineering
- Identifiers
- 991019170154504721