An insight into the schizophrenic self‐assembly of thermo and proton sensitive graphene oxide grafted block copolymer |
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| Authors: | Nabasmita Maity Atanu Kuila Dhruba P Chatterjee Debasish Mandal Arun K Nandi |
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| Affiliation: | Polymer Science Unit, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, Kolkata, India |
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| Abstract: | In order to study the self‐assembly of block copolymer grafted from graphene oxide (GO) by the fluorescence of GO, poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL)‐block‐poly(dimethyl aminoethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) is grafted from its surface using consecutive ring opening (ROP) and atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). GO‐g‐(PCL13‐b‐PDMAEMA117) (GPCLD) at pH 9.2 exhibits cloud point (Tc) at 32 °C. At pH 9.2 HRTEM images indicate schizophrenic morphology from vesicle at 26 °C to annular ring at 30 °C followed by giant size aggregation at 38 °C. But the reference block copolymer (PCL14‐b‐PDMAEMA126, PCLD), synthesized using benzyl alcohol as ROP initiator, exhibits only core–shell morphology whose size increases with rising temperature at pH 9.2. GPCLD solution exhibits good photoluminescence (PL) property arising from GO at pH 9.2 and PL‐intensity increases abruptly during phase transition. Both Tc and size of GPCLD assembly can be reversibly tuned by CO2 and N2 gas purging. 1H NMR spectra exhibit a gradual shift of resonance peaks of the protons on CO2 bubbling. Thus at pH 9.2 and at 38 °C the GPCLD acts as a good CO2 sensor. Additionally, the GPCLD vesicle can load hydrophobic guest molecules which can be released by triggering with CO2. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016 , 54, 3878–3887 |
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| Keywords: | atom transfer radical polymerization block copolymers graphene oxide ring‐opening polymerization self‐assembly |
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