Latently-reactive conjugated polymer-coated single-walled carbon nanotubes

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Fong, Darryl
Copyright Year	2019
Abstract	Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are intensely investigated nanomaterials that exhibit intriguing physical and optoelectronic properties. Although SWNTs are highly regarded in terms of their potential societal impact, commercialization of SWNT applications has been dampened by the difficulty in SWNT processability and purification. Current commercially viable carbon nanotube syntheses produce complex mixtures of metallic and semiconducting SWNTs, as well as amorphous carbon and metal catalyst particles. Furthermore, the ability to decorate carbon nanotube surfaces to modulate their properties is non-trivial, especially if concurrent preservation of optoelectronic properties is desired. To date, the issues of SWNT solubilization, sorting, and functionalization have been approached in a piecemeal fashion. Conjugated polymers, which are macromolecules that possess extended π-systems, have the potential to address all of these issues simultaneously. In my Thesis, I explore conjugated polymer structures to investigate (i) factors that influence dispersion selectivity, and (ii) the decoration of polymerSWNT complexes by incorporating reactive moieties into the polymer structure. The work presented in this Thesis begins by examining the ability of conjugated polymers to sort SWNTs. To date, the selective dispersion of metallic SWNTs is unrealized. In Chapter 2, I examine the effect of the electronic nature of the conjugated backbone on the selective dispersion of SWNTs by preparing SWNT dispersions preand post-methylation of a pyridine-containing conjugated polymer. In doing so, I prepare a series of polymers with identical degrees of polymerization and dispersity (to minimize extraneous selectivity factors) and find that electron rich π-systems disperse only semiconducting SWNTs, while electron poor
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Language	English
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Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article