Synthesis and thermal analysis of methacrylate ester-based linear triblock copolymers-grafted multiwalled carbon nanotubes

The two different linear triblock copolymers PtBMA(100)-b-PGMA(19)-b-PSt(101) and PtBMA(136)-b-PHEMA(23)-b-PDMAEMA(153) were grafted onto the multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) surface to prepare the amphiphilic MWCNTs PMAA-g-MWCNT-g-PSt and PtBMA-g-MWCNTs-g-PDMAEMA in this work. The results of the Raman spectroscopy and the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed a good agreement, and they both illuminated that the MWCNTs had been successfully surface modified by the two terpolymers. The thermogravimetric analysis showed that the contents of the polymer in the MWCNTs composites were 39 and 62 % for PMAA-g-MWCNT-g-PSt and PtBMA-g-MWCNTs-g-PDMAEMA, respectively. The results of the thermokinetic analysis showed that the benzene ring in the PMAA-g-MWCNT-g-PSt makes the apparent activation energies in the thermal decomposition process which were higher than that of the PtBMA-g-MWCNTs-g-PDMAEMA after 238 A degrees C.