Carbon-nanotube nucleated crystallinity in a conjugated polymer based composite
Document Type Article
Published in Chemical Physics Letters 391 (2004) 29-333
Abstract
It is suspected that many of the physical properties observed in polymer–carbon nanotube composites are related to the formation of crystalline polymer coatings around the nanotubes. Here, a semi-conjugated polymer, poly(m-phenylenevinylene-co-2,5- dioctyloxy-p-phenylenevinylene) (PmPV), is doped with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNT). Differential scanning calorimetry of thin composite films has been used to verify that MWNT nucleate polymer crystallization. In addition, these results allow calculation of a thickness of 25 nm for the crystalline region adjacent to the nanotube in reasonable agreement with a value of 32 nm obtained from photoluminescence studies.