Villalva Julia, Rapakousiou Amalia, Monclús Miguel A, Fernández Blázquez Juan Pedro, de la Vega Jimena, Naranjo Alicia, Vera-Hidalgo Mariano, Ruiz-González María Luisa, Pedersen Henrik, Pérez Emilio M
IMDEA Nanociencia, Campus de Cantoblanco, Calle Faraday 9, 28049 Madrid, Spain.
IMDEA Materials Institute, Calle Eric Kandel 2, 28906 Getafe, Madrid, Spain.
ACS Nano. 2023 Sep 12;17(17):16565-16572. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.3c02255. Epub 2023 Aug 21.
Poor individualization and interfacial adhesion prevent single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT)-polymer composites from reaching outstanding mechanical properties. With much larger diameters, but common structural features (high aspect ratio and absence of functional groups for covalent or supramolecular attachment with the polymer), carbon fibers face similar problems, which are addressed by covering the fibers with a thin layer of polymer. This sizing strategy has allowed carbon fibers to become the filler of choice for the highest performing materials. Inspired by this, here we investigate the use of the mechanical bond to wrap SWNTs with a layer of polymeric material to produce SWNTs mechanically interlocked with a layer of polymer. We first validate the formation of mechanically interlocked nanotubes (MINTs) using mixtures of SWNTs of relatively large average diameter (1.6 ± 0.4 nm), which are commercially available at reasonable prices and therefore could be technologically relevant as polymer fillers. We then design and synthesize by ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) a polymer decorated with multiple U-shaped molecules, which are later ring-closed around the SWNTs using metathesis. The obtained hybrids contain a high degree of individualized SWNTs and exhibit significantly increased mechanical properties when compared to the matrix polymer. We envision that this strategy could be employed to produce SWNTs interlocked with polymer layers with various designs for polymer reinforcement.
个体化不足和界面黏附性差阻碍了单壁碳纳米管（SWNT）-聚合物复合材料获得优异的机械性能。碳纤维的直径大得多，但具有常见的结构特征（高长径比且缺乏用于与聚合物进行共价或超分子连接的官能团），也面临类似问题，通过在纤维表面覆盖一层薄聚合物来解决这些问题。这种上浆策略使碳纤维成为高性能材料的首选填料。受此启发，我们在此研究利用机械键合用一层聚合物材料包裹单壁碳纳米管，以制备与一层聚合物机械互锁的单壁碳纳米管。我们首先使用平均直径相对较大（1.6±0.4纳米）的单壁碳纳米管混合物验证了机械互锁纳米管（MINT）的形成，这种单壁碳纳米管以合理价格商业可得，因此作为聚合物填料在技术上可能具有相关性。然后，我们通过开环易位聚合（ROMP）设计并合成了一种装饰有多个U形分子的聚合物，这些分子随后通过易位反应在单壁碳纳米管周围闭环。所获得的杂化物包含高度个体化的单壁碳纳米管，与基体聚合物相比，其机械性能显著提高。我们设想，这种策略可用于制备与聚合物层互锁的单壁碳纳米管，这些聚合物层具有各种用于增强聚合物的设计。
