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Updated: Jun 10, 2026
Functionalization of Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes with Thermo-reversible Block Copolymers and Characterization by Small-angle Neutron Scattering
Published on: June 1, 2016
A new model for quantifying the extent of interaction between soluble polyphenylene-vinylenes and single-walled
Christopher J Collison1, Susan Spencer, Amanda Preske
1Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Rochester Institute of Technology, 84 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, New York 14623-5603, USA. cjcscha@rit.edu
Abstract:
The ability to disperse and, hence, manipulate single-walled carbon nanotubes is critical for their use in organic photovoltaic devices, either as a transparent electrode or as an electron acceptor material. We present data to quantify the physical interaction of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with two soluble phenylene vinylene conjugated polymers, poly[2'-methoxy-5-(2'-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] and poly(2,5-di(hexyloxy)cyanoterephthalylidene). We provide static quenching constants, associated with polymer-SWCNT complexation, as a weight percent ratio of polymer to nanotubes for different solvent and polymer concentration conditions. Optimization of conditions for nanotube dispersion using a given polymer can now be predicted, and furthermore, we can describe a technique allowing for enhanced relative comparisons of polymer materials for nanotube dispersion.
