Polymer Brushes via Controlled, Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP) from Graphene Oxide

Sun Hwa Lee; Daniel R Dreyer; Jinho An; Aruna Velamakanni; Richard D Piner; Sungjin Park; Yanwu Zhu; Sang Ouk Kim; Christopher W Bielawski; Rodney S Ruoff

doi:10.1002/marc.200900641

Polymer Brushes via Controlled, Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP) from Graphene Oxide

Macromol Rapid Commun. 2010 Feb 2;31(3):281-8. doi: 10.1002/marc.200900641. Epub 2009 Nov 24.

Authors

Sun Hwa Lee¹, Daniel R Dreyer, Jinho An, Aruna Velamakanni, Richard D Piner, Sungjin Park, Yanwu Zhu, Sang Ouk Kim, Christopher W Bielawski, Rodney S Ruoff

Affiliation

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering KAIST, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea.

PMID: 21590903
DOI: 10.1002/marc.200900641

Abstract

A method for growing polymers directly from the surface of graphene oxide is demonstrated. The technique involves the covalent attachment of an initiator followed by the polymerization of styrene, methyl methacrylate, or butyl acrylate using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The resulting materials were characterized using a range of techniques and were found to significantly improve the solubility properties of graphene oxide. The surface-grown polymers were saponified from the surface and also characterized. Based on these results, the ATRP reactions were determined to proceed in a controlled manner and were found to leave the structure of the graphene oxide largely intact.