Thermo-Responsive Graphene Oxide/Poly(Ethyl Ethylene Phosphate) Nanocomposite via Ring Opening Polymerization

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Polymer Chemistry
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Graphene oxide (GO) possesses reactive surface groups like hydroxyls and epoxies.
• Functionalization of GO is crucial for developing advanced hybrid materials.
• Thermo-sensitive polymers offer unique responsive properties for various applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an efficient strategy for growing thermo-sensitive polymers on graphene oxide.
• To synthesize and characterize a novel GO-based nanocomposite with improved dispersity and self-assembly behavior.
• To explore the potential of this smart material in the biomedical field.

Main Methods:

• Modified Hummer's method for GO preparation.
• Ring-opening reactions to functionalize GO with tris(hydroxymethyl) aminomethane (TRIS).
• Ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of ethyl ethylene phosphate (EEP) on GO-TRIS.
• Characterization using NMR, FT-IR, XPS, TGA, DTG, TEM, and AFM.

Main Results:

• Successful synthesis of GO-TRIS/poly(ethyl ethylene phosphate) (GO-TRIS-PEEP) nanocomposite.
• Enhanced dispersity of functionalized GO sheets in water due to hydrophilic PEEP chains and hydrogen bonding.
• Demonstration of reversible temperature-dependent self-assembly and disassembly of the aqueous nanocomposite dispersion.
• Characterization confirmed the successful grafting of PEEP onto GO.

Conclusions:

• A versatile method for creating graphene oxide-based thermo-sensitive polymer nanocomposites was established.
• The GO-TRIS-PEEP nanocomposite exhibits improved aqueous dispersity and smart self-assembly properties.
• This novel hybrid material holds significant potential for biomedical applications due to its responsive nature.