Grafting of Polymers onto Carbon Microcoil Surface by Ligand-Exchange Reaction of Ferrocene Moieties of Polymer with Polycondensed Aromatic Rings of the Surface

Abstract

To improve the dispersibility of carbon microcoil (CMC) in solvents and polymer matrices, the grafting of copolymer containing vinyl ferrocene (VFE) onto surface by ligand-exchange reaction with ferrocene moieties of the copolymer and polycondensed aromatic rings of CMC was investigated. The copolymer containing VFE was prepared by the radical copolymerization of VFE with vinyl monomers, such as methyl methacrylate (MMA) and styrene (St), using 2,2′-azobisisobutyronitrole as an initiator. It was found that by heating of CMC with poly(VFE-co-MMA) and poly(VTE-co-St) in the presence of AlCl3 and Al powder as catalyst, these copolymers were grafted onto the surface: the percentage of grafting reached to 64.2%. On the contrary, in the absence of AlCl3, no grafting of the copolymer was observed. The grafting of polymers onto the CMC surface was confirmed by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), thermal decomposition gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) and field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). Therefore, it is considered that the copolymer was grafted onto CMC surface by ligand-exchange reaction with ferrocene moieties of the copolymer and polycondensed aromatic rings of CMC. The polymer-grafted CMC gave a stable dispersion in solvents for grafted polymer.