Grafting Poly(ethylene glycol) Onto Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes by Living Anionic Ring-Opening Polymerization

Recent years, many methods have been developed to widen the practical application of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Among them, PEGylation is a general strategy to endow functionality, biocompatibility as well as its good solubility. In this paper, poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is successfully grafted onto SWCNTs through living anionic ring-opening polymerization of ethylene oxide (EO). By controlling the amount of monomer and initiator, a series of PEGylated SWCNTs with different PEG molecular weight and density are prepared. Then, the as-prepared SWCNTs have been verified by thermogravimetric analyses (TGA), Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Finally, the protein resistance property of the PEGylated SWCNTs is investigated. It is found that these PEGylated SWCNTs have a good protein resistance property and the higher the content of PEG grafted on the SWCNTs, the less adsorption amount of BSA and the larger capacity to resist protein absorption. This work provides a novel method to prepare PEGylated SWCNTs.