Abstract
Abstract The influence of density of amino groups, nanoparticles dimension and pH on the interaction between end-functionalized polymers and nanoparticles was extensively investigated in this study. PS–NH2 and H2N–PS–NH2 were prepared using reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerization and atom transfer radical polymerization. Zero-dimensional carbon dots with sulfonate groups, one-dimensional cellulose nanocrystals with sulfate groups and two-dimensional graphene with sulfonate groups in the aqueous phase were added into the toluene phase containing the aminated PS. The results indicate that aminated PS exhibited the strongest interfacial activity after compounding with sulfonated nanoparticles at a pH of 3. PS ended with two amino groups performed better in reducing the water/toluene interfacial tension than PS ended with only one amino group. The dimension of sulfonated nanoparticles also contributed significantly to the reduction in the water/toluene interfacial tension. The minimal interfacial tension was 4.49 mN/m after compounding PS–NH2 with sulfonated zero-dimensional carbon dots.
Highlights
Nanoparticles (NPs) with a responsive behavior to external forces, e.g., magnetic fields [1], electric fields [2] and ultraviolet radiation [3], have been widely studied for their ability of selfassembly at oil/water (O/W) interfaces
The grafting density of amine groups in polystyrene and the dimension of nanoparticles play important roles, other than the pH and the molecular weight of functionalized polymers suggested by previous works [7,9], in adjusting the O/W interfacial tension
The compounding of H2N–PS–NH2 (Mn ≈ 0.9k) with CDs–SO3H at pH = 3 exhibited the highest efficiency to reduce the O/W interfacial tension to 4.49 more NPs moved to Interfacial Tension (mN/m), which is a significant improvement compared with previous results [5,7,20]
Summary
Nanoparticles (NPs) with a responsive behavior to external forces, e.g., magnetic fields [1], electric fields [2] and ultraviolet radiation [3], have been widely studied for their ability of selfassembly at oil/water (O/W) interfaces. The O/W interfacial energy can be regulated by the pH of the aqueous solution, the molecular weight, the concentration of the end-functionalized polymer and the external electric field [9]. Liu et al [4] used CNCs and PS–NH2 (Mw = 1.5k, 2.5k, 13k, 25k, 40k) as NPs in water and as the surfactant in toluene, respectively, and reached the conclusion that the molecular weight of PS–NH2 exerted a considerable influence on the interfacial behavior of NPs/surfactants.
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