Abstract
In this work, new optical properties of composites based on polystyrene (PS) microspheres and graphene oxide (GO) are reported. The radical polymerization of styrene in the presence of benzoyl peroxide, pentane and GO induces the appearance of new ester groups in the PS macromolecular chains remarked through an increase in the absorbance of the infrared (IR) band at 1743 cm−1. The decrease in the GO concentration in the PS/GO composites mass from 5 wt.% to 0.5 wt.% induces a diminution in the intensities of the D and G Raman bands of GO simultaneous with a down-shift of the D band from 1351 to 1322 cm−1. These variations correlated with the covalent functionalization of the GO layers with PS. For the first time, the photoluminescent (PL) properties of PS/GO composites are reported. The PS microspheres are characterized by a PL band at 397 nm. Through increasing the GO sheets’ concentration in the PS/GO composite mass from 0.5 wt.% to 5 wt.%, a PS PL quenching process is reported. In addition, in the presence of ultraviolet A (UVA) light, a photo-degradation process of the PS/GO composite having the GO concentration equal to 5 wt.% is demonstrated by the PL studies.
Highlights
In the last nine years, a sustained effort has been made to synthesize composites based on polystyrene (PS) and various carbon nanoparticles, such as multi-walled carbon nanotubes [1,2], single-walled carbon nanotubes [3], fullerene [3], reduced graphene oxide [4,5], graphene oxide (GO) [6], GO functionalized with phosphor-based organic compounds [7], and sulfonated GO [8]
Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and IR spectroscopy, the mechanisms proposed for the microemulsion and suspension polymerizations of styrene in the presence of GO were demonstrated to induce: (i) the opening of ether cycles on the GO surface [11] and (ii) the appearance of ester groups [12]
In order to obtain composites based on expandable PS and GO, in this work the attention was focalized on the radical polymerization of styrene in the presence of the GO sheets and pentane
Summary
In the last nine years, a sustained effort has been made to synthesize composites based on polystyrene (PS) and various carbon nanoparticles, such as multi-walled carbon nanotubes [1,2], single-walled carbon nanotubes [3], fullerene [3], reduced graphene oxide [4,5], graphene oxide (GO) [6], GO functionalized with phosphor-based organic compounds [7], and sulfonated GO [8] The interest in these composite materials was reported to be for use as flame retardants [9] and non-volatile memory devices [10]. Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and IR spectroscopy, the mechanisms proposed for the microemulsion and suspension polymerizations of styrene in the presence of GO were demonstrated to induce: (i) the opening of ether cycles on the GO surface [11] and (ii) the appearance of ester groups [12]. Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) [11,12,15], transmission electron microscopy (TEM) [11,12,13,14,15] and X-ray diffraction (XRD) [11,12,13,14,15], the morphological and structural properties of the PS/GO composites were reported.
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