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C-N Coupling Reactions on Graphene with Aromatic Macromolecules and the Spatial Conformation of Grafted
Chenbo Meng1, Xinkai Li1, Bingjie Zhang2
1State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, College of Polymer Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, No. 24 South Section 1, Yihuan Road, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610065, P. R. China.
Abstract:
The fabrication of advanced graphene-based nanocomposites with high-performance polymers requires covalent modification of graphene with aromatic macromolecules. Herein, C-N coupling reactions between fluorinated graphene (FG) and aromatic polyamides containing the benzimidazole moiety are successfully achieved. The optimized conditions are presented based on the nucleophilic behavior of the C-N coupling reaction on graphene. Different from the C-N coupling reaction between two small aromatic molecules, the conformation of grafted aromatic polyamide after reaction changes from torsional to paralleled alignment on graphene with the molecular length increment. Non-covalent interactions between graphene and aromatic polyamides result in this conformational change owing to the extended π systems of graphene and aromatic polyamides, and the synergistic effect of covalent and non-covalent interactions is put forward. As a consequence, graphene dispersibility is greatly enhanced in the solution of aromatic polyamide.
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