Lanterna Rally

Author: Bradley J. Rodier

Publisher:

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13:

Carbon nanomaterials have garnered increasing attention in the past decade due to their multifunctionality. Graphene, a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice of sp2 hybridized carbons, has been of particular interest due to its high electrical and thermal conductivity as well as it mechanical robustness, good gas barrier properties, and antimicrobial properties. Derivatives of graphene, graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO), provide unique chemical landscapes of oxygenated moieties for targeted chemistry, and also allow for isolation of single nanosheets. The aim of this work was to explore the utilization of these chemical targets to provide novel and unexplored structures and properties through the unique capability of GO to assemble at fluid-fluid interfaces. In doing so, the use of GO as a nanosurface for polymerizations, composite enhancement, and surfactants for complex emulsions systems were defined. Herein, GO assembly at the interface of oil in water was used in combination with grafting to, grafting from, and grafting through polymerizations. This demonstrated that polymer brushes could successfully be attached on the surface of this nanomaterial through covalent means to prepare Janus nanosheets, as well as that GO could be incorporated to the surface of polymer particles. This interfacial assembly was then extended to feed materials for 3D printing and encapsulation of phase change materials. This demonstrated that rGO could be put at the surface of these materials and bestow electrical and thermal conductivity, to tailored and novel composites. Lastly, a facile process was developed to chemically modify GO nanosheets such that they can be dispersed in a variety of solvents. This allowed for the formation of stable oil-in-oil emulsions. This system was then used for emulsion polymerizations. Several polymeric architectures could be prepared by reactions in the oil-in-oil emulsions based on the phase location of the monomers; this process allowed for the incorporation of water sensitive reagents normally ignored in traditional oil-in-water emulsion reactions. The work reported herein provides a foundation from which to explore novel and useful materials architectures using fundamental chemical modifications.