Non-covalent synthesis of thermo-responsive graphene oxide-perylene bisimides-containing poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hybrid for organic pigment removal

Liang Wang; Lai Jiang; Dan Su; Chen Sun; Minfang Chen; Kunli Goh; Yuan Chen

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2014.05.031

Non-covalent synthesis of thermo-responsive graphene oxide-perylene bisimides-containing poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hybrid for organic pigment removal

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2014 Sep 15:430:121-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2014.05.031. Epub 2014 May 29.

Authors

Liang Wang¹, Lai Jiang², Dan Su², Chen Sun², Minfang Chen², Kunli Goh³, Yuan Chen⁴

Affiliations

¹ Tianjin Key Laboratory of Organic Solar Cells and Photochemical Conversion, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, 391 Binshuixidao, Tianjin 300384, China. Electronic address: nkwangliang@gmail.com.
² Tianjin Key Laboratory of Organic Solar Cells and Photochemical Conversion, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, 391 Binshuixidao, Tianjin 300384, China.
³ School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 62 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637459, Singapore.
⁴ School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 62 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637459, Singapore. Electronic address: chenyuan@ntu.edu.sg.

PMID: 24998064
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2014.05.031

Abstract

In this work, thermo-responsive graphene oxide-perylene bisimides-containing poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hybrid (TGO) was successfully prepared via non-covalent π-π stacking interactions of GO and perylene bisimides-containing poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PBI-PNIPAM). PBI-PNIPAM was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide, using bifunctional N,N'-bis[6-(2-chloropropionamide)hexyl] perylene-3,4,9,10-tetracarboxylic acid bisimide (PBI-Cl) as the initiator. The obtained polymer was then characterized by (1)H NMR and fluorescence spectroscopy. The surface chemical states, morphology, and composition of TGO were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), respectively. This new hybrid showed reversible temperature-dependent self-assembly and disassembly at 35.9°C in water. Therefore, it may have great potentials as a convenient adsorbent for removing organic pigment, as exemplified as for removing methylene blue from water with excellent adsorption capacity of 568 mg/g, high removal efficiency of 99.5%, and facile temperature-controlled post-separation of the adsorbent.

Keywords: Graphene oxide; Hybrid; Organic pigment removal; Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide).