Fabrication and characterization of thermo-responsive GO nanosheets with controllable grafting of poly(hexadecyl acrylate) chains

• Published in: Journal of materials science Vol. 53; no. 6; pp. 4103 - 4117
• Main Authors: Ruirui, Cao, Sai, Chen, Huanbing, Liu, Haihui, Liu, Xingxiang, Zhang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.03.2018; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Addition polymerization; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical bonds; Chemical Routes to Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Classical Mechanics; Crystallography and Scattering Methods; Energy storage; Functional materials; Graphene; Materials Science; Monomers; Nanosheets; Polymer Sciences; Polymerization; Reagents; Sensors; Solar energy; Solid Mechanics; Temperature sensors; Textiles; Thermal stability; Nanosheets; Thermo-responsive Properties; Hexadecyl Acrylate; Surface-initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (SI-ATRP); Temperature-sensitive Drug
• ISSN: 0022-2461; 1573-4803
• DOI: 10.1007/s10853-017-1864-1

A series of novel poly(hexadecyl acrylate)-grafted-graphene oxides (PHDA- g -GOs) were fabricated as thermo-responsive GO nanosheets via diazonium addition and surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP). Various spectroscopic and microscopic evidences confirm the successful fabrication of the thermo-responsive GO nanosheets. The thermo-responsive property and thermal stability of the PHDA- g -GOs were determined by DSC and TGA. Furthermore, we have demonstrated the ability to systematically tune the chain length of polymer molecules covalently bonded to GO nanosheets by SI-ATRP. Comparing the thermo-responsive GO samples, the ∆ H m and ∆ H c increased as the molar ratio of monomer to initiator increased. Moreover, the T mo , T co , ∆ H m and ∆ H c values of the PHDA- g -GO3 (with a molar ratio of monomer to initiator as 1000:1) are 31.2, 31.4 °C, 79 and 76 J/g, respectively. Meanwhile, the thermo-responsive GO nanosheets have good thermal stability and shape stability. Therefore, the thermo-responsive GO nanosheet is a very promising functional material and can be used in more areas, such as the fabrication of temperature-sensitive drugs, reagents, fibers and textiles, solar energy storage and temperature sensor.