Syndiotactic Polystyrene / Fullerene Composites: Elucidation of Structural Aspect

Summary: Syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS), an attractive polymer due to its wide range of application, forms polymer-solvent intercalates with a large variety of solvent molecules ranging from liquids to solids. Recently, it has been realized that sPS intercalate prepared from SPS/naphthalene gel is more promising of making mesoporous materials. Here, the composite of sPS/fullerene have been prepared by taking advantage of sublimation of naphthalene. The different techniques as like XRD, SEM, HRTEM, FT-IR, DSC, TGA etc have been employed to characterized sPS/fullerene composite. XRD investigation shows the presence of δ form sPS in the composite. SEM and HRTEM reveal the fibrillar network with fringe like structure in presence of fullerene only and the average diameter of fibril has increased as compared to pure sPS fibrils. The conductivities of these fibrils have been increased with increasing amount of fullerene.