Facile and Controllable Assembly of Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes on Polystyrene Microspheres

• Published in: Chinese journal of polymer science Vol. 32; no. 6; pp. 711 - 717
• Main Authors: Li, Yun-xing, Gao, Yan, Yang, Cheng, Wang, Zhao-qun, Xue, Gi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Chemistry, CAS 01.06.2014
• Subjects: Assembly; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed Matter Physics; Dispersions; Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering; Microspheres; Multi wall carbon nanotubes; Particulate composites; Polymer Sciences; Polystyrene resins; Thermogravimetry; Transmission electron microscopy; 乙烯基吡咯烷酮; 可控组装; 复合粒子; 多壁碳纳米管; 扫描电子显微镜; 空间稳定剂; 聚苯乙烯微球; 透射电子显微镜; Heterocoagulation; Multiwalled carbon nanotube; Polystyrene microsphere; Structural control; Colloid thermodynamics
• ISSN: 0256-7679; 1439-6203
• DOI: 10.1007/s10118-014-1424-y

Herein a facile and controllable heterocoagulation between polystyrene （PS） microspheres and multiwalled carbon nanotubes （MWCNTs） is introduced based on colloid thermodynamics. The MWCNTs play the role of steric stabilizer for stabilizing the metastable PS microspheres and thus immobilize spontaneously on the surface of PS microspheres. The synthesized MWCNTs-coated PS composite particles have been extensively characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetry and Raman spectroscopy. The results indicate that the structure and morphology of the resultant MWCNTs-coated PS composite particles are significantly affected by the weight ratio of PS and MWNCTs and the amount of poly（vinylpyrrolidone） that is injected into PS dispersion before they are mixed with MWCNTs. Therefore, these composite particles have the potential to produce MWCNTs-based composite materials with controllable mass loading and dispersity of MWCNTs.