Nondestructive Functionalization of Graphene by Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization: An Ideal Nanofiller for Poly(p‑phenylene benzobisoxazole) Fibers
A direct and nondestructive strategy for growing polymers from the surface of graphene is demonstrated. The technique involves the covalent attachment of an initiator via one-step cycloaddition of a diarylcarbene, followed by the polymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) using atom transf...
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Published in | Macromolecules Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 1422 - 1429 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
American Chemical Society
28.02.2017
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Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | A direct and nondestructive strategy for growing polymers from the surface of graphene is demonstrated. The technique involves the covalent attachment of an initiator via one-step cycloaddition of a diarylcarbene, followed by the polymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The functionalization strategy is shown to significantly increase the solubility of the resulting materials (PHEMA-G) and leave the structure of the graphene largely intact. Importantly, the PHEMA-G/poly(p-phenylene benzobisoxazole) (PBO) composite fibers could be obtained by a one-pot polymerization and dry-jet wet spinning process. The nanocomposite fibers exhibited a tensile strength of 3.22 GPa (51.2% higher than PBO) and Young’s modulus of 139.3 GPa (33.7% higher than PBO) at very low PHEMA-G loading (1.0 wt %). This represents an excellent reinforcing efficiency, better than other reports of the graphene/PBO fibers system, and indicates that this material is suitable for applications in composite science. |
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ISSN: | 0024-9297 1520-5835 |
DOI: | 10.1021/acs.macromol.6b02694 |