Utilizing polymers for shaping the interfacial behavior of carbon nanotubes.
Utilizing polymers for shaping the interfacial behavior of carbon nanotubes.
复制标题
利用聚合物塑造碳纳米管的界面行为。
作者：
R. Yerushalmi‐Rozen;I. Szleifer
利用碳纳米管的一个主要障碍是它们倾向于成束并包装成绳，绳进一步缠结成网络，使得管不溶于水性和有机液体，因此几乎不可加工。如最近所示，物理吸附的嵌段共聚物可用于在水性和有机介质中剥离和分散碳纳米管。在这种方法中，附着在CNT上的聚合物层之间的熵排斥引起聚合物装饰管之间的空间排斥。管-聚合物相互作用相对较弱，不依赖于界面的详细化学性质，并且它们的范围由聚合物层的分子量和密度而不是单体的化学组成来调节。结合理论建模和实验研究，我们表明，这种方法可用于工程的碳纳米管在各种系统中的界面行为。
A major obstacle for utilization of carbon nanotubes is their tendency to bundle and pack into ropes that further entangle into networks, rendering the tubes insoluble in aqueous and organic liquids, and thus almost un-processable. As was shown recently, physically adsorbed block-copolymers may be used for exfoliating and dispersing carbon nanotubes in aqueous and organic media. In this approach entropic repulsion among polymeric layers attached to CNT induce steric repulsion among the polymer-decorated tubes. The tube-polymer interactions are relatively weak, do not depend on the detailed chemistry of the interface and their range is tuned by the molecular weight and density of the polymeric layers, rather than by the chemical composition of the monomers. Combining theoretical modeling and experimental studies we demonstrate that this approach may be used for engineering the interfacial behavior of carbon nanotubes in a variety of systems.