Synthesis of dodecylamine-functionalized graphene quantum dots and their application as stabilizers in an emulsion polymerization of styrene.

Pickering emulsions have attracted considerable interest due to their potential applications in many fields, such as the food, pharmaceutical, petroleum and cosmetics industries. The study reports the synthesis of dodecylamine-functionalized graphene quantum dots (d-GQDs) and their implementation as stabilizers in an emulsion polymerization of styrene. First, d-GQDs are prepared by thermal pyrolysis of citric acid and dodecylamine in 0.1M ammonium hydroxide. The resulting d-GQDs consist of small graphene sheets with abundant amino, carboxyl, acylamino, hydroxyl and alkyl chains on the edge. The amphiphilic structure gives the d-GQDs high surface activity. The addition of d-GQDs can reduce the surface tension of water to 30.8mNm and the interfacial tension of paraffin oil/water to 0.0182mNm. The surface activity is much better than that of previously reported solid particle surfactants for Pickering emulsions and is close to that of sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate, which is, a classical organic surfactants. Then, d-GQDs are employed as solid particle surfactants for stabilizing styrene-in-water emulsions. The emulsions exhibit excellent stability at pH 7. However, stability is lost when the pH is more than 9 or less than 4. The pH-switchable behaviour can be attributed to the protonation of amino groups in a weak acid medium and dissociation of carboxyl groups in a weak base medium. Finally, 2,2'-azobis(2-methylpropionitrile) is introduced into the Pickering emulsions to trigger emulsion polymerization of styrene. The as-prepared polystyrene spheres display a uniform morphology with a narrow diameter distribution. The fluorescent d-GQDs coated their surfaces. This study presents an approach for the fabrication of amphiphilic GQDs and GQDs-based functional materials, which have a wide range of potential applications in emulsion polymerization, as well as in sensors, catalysts, and energy storage.