Issue 10, 2010
From the journal:

Journal of Materials Chemistry

Single-layer graphenenanosheets with controlled grafting of polymer chains†

Ming Fang,a   Kaigang Wang,a   Hongbin Lu,*a   Yuliang Yanga  and  Steven Nuttb  

* Corresponding authors

a The Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers of Ministry of Education, Department of Macromolecular Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
E-mail: hongbinl@fudan.edu.cn
Fax: +86-21-55664589
Tel: + 86-21-55664589

b Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Abstract

Single-layer graphene nanosheets (SLGNs) are prepared by reduction of well-exfoliated graphite oxide aided by a surfactant (sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, SDBS). Grafting density and polystyrene (PS) chain lengths are controlled by modulating the concentrations of diazonium compound and monomer during the grafting reaction of the initiator and the succeeding atomic transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectra and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are used to confirm the single-layer structure of graphene sheets, covalent bonding at the interface, and distribution uniformity of grafting PS chains at the SLGN surface. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is performed to assess the control of grafting density and chain length. PS chains grafted on the SLGN surface exhibited remarkably confined relaxation behavior. An increase in the glass transition temperature (Tg) of up to 18 °C is observed for high grafting density, low molecular weight polymer-grafted graphene samples. The low grafting density, high molecular weight sample shows an increase in Tg of ∼9 °C, which is attributed to superior heat conduction efficiency. The measured thermal conductivity for the PS composite film with 2.0 wt% SLGNs increase by a factor of 2.6 compared to that of the pure PS.

Graphical abstract: Single-layer graphene nanosheets with controlled grafting of polymer chains

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B919078C
Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 Sep 2009
Accepted
19 Nov 2009
First published
21 Jan 2010

J. Mater. Chem., 2010,20, 1982-1992

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Single-layer graphene nanosheets with controlled grafting of polymer chains

M. Fang, K. Wang, H. Lu, Y. Yang and S. Nutt, J. Mater. Chem., 2010, 20, 1982 DOI: 10.1039/B919078C

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