Synthesis of a pyrene‐functionalized hyperbranched polyethylene ternary copolymer for efficient graphite exfoliation in chloroform and formation of ethylene‐vinyl acetate/graphene nanocomposites. Issue 43 (23rd April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Luo, Zhenggang; Ye, Huijian; Hu, Jiawei; Hu, Te; Zhang, Boyuan; Zhang, Xuanhe; Xu, Lixin
• Is Part Of: Journal of applied polymer science. Volume 137:Issue 43(2020)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2020-04-23
• Subjects: dielectric performance -- ethylene‐vinyl acetate copolymer -- graphene -- hyperbranched polyethylene copolymer -- liquid‐phase exfoliation; Polymers -- Periodicals; Polymerization -- Periodicals; 668.9
• DOI: 10.1002/app.49320
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-8995

Abstract

Abstract: A strategy for preparing ethylene‐vinyl acetate (EVA)/graphene nanocomposites from liquid‐phase exfoliated graphene has been explored with the use of a pyrene‐functionalized hyperbranched polyethylene (HBPE) ternary copolymer, HBPE@Py@PMA, as stabilizer for graphite exfoliation. The HBPE@Py@PMA was synthesized by combining the Pd‐diimine‐catalyzed chain walking ternary ethylene copolymerization and atomic transfer radical polymerization techniques and has been confirmed to possess a HBPE core simultaneously bearing pyrene terminal groups and polymethacrylate side chains. As stabilizer, it is found to effectively promote graphite exfoliation in CHCl3 to render high‐quality few‐layer graphene with an efficiency as high as 43%. Meanwhile, it can be steadily adsorbed on the exfoliated graphene surface to concurrently render functionalized graphene well dispersible in EVA matrix with strong interfacial interactions. This allows us to obtain EVA/graphene nanocomposites from resulting graphene dispersion through simple solution mixing process. By adding only 0.5 wt% of graphene, the dielectric constant of resulting composite increases by 55% compared to pure EVA, with a dielectric loss only 0.012. The role mechanism of the HBPE@Py@PMA for promoting graphite exfoliation in CHCl3 and the formation of EVA/graphene nanocomposites from the resulting graphene has been proposed. Abstract : Ethylene‐vinyl acetate/graphene nanocomposites have been successfully prepared from graphene exfoliated directly in common organic solvents with the use of a pyrene‐functionalized hyperbranched polyethylene ternary copolymer as a designer stabilizer for graphite exfoliation.