Anionic copolymerization of [60]fullerene with styrene initiated by sodium naphthalene

Abstract

The novel C60–styrene copolymers with different C60 contents were prepared in sodium naphthalene-initiated anionic polymerization reactions. Like the pure polystyrene, these copolymers exhibited the high solvency in many common organic solvents, even for the copolymer with high C60 content. In the polymerization process of C60 with styrene an important side reaction, i.e., reaction of C60 with sodium naphthalene, would occur simultaneously, whereas crosslinking reaction may be negligible. 13C-NMR results provided an evidence that C60 was incorporated covalently into the polystyrene backbone. In contrast to pure polystyrene, the TGA spectrum of copolymer containing ∼ 13% of C60 shows two plateaus. The polystyrene chain segment in copolymer decomposed first at 300–400°C. Then the fullerene units reptured from the corresponding polystyrene fragments attached directly to the C60 cores at 500–638°C. XRD evidence indicates that the degree of order of polymers increases with the fullerene content increased in terms of crystallography. Incorporation of C60 into polystyrene results in the formation of new crystal gratings or crystallization phases. In addition, it was also found that [60]fullerene and its polyanion salts [C60n−(M+)n, M = Li, Na] cannot be used to initiate the anionic polymerization of some monomers such as acrylonitrile and styrene, etc.© 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J. Polym. Sci. B Polym. Phys. 36: 2653–2663, 1998