A novel approach of in situ grafting polyamide 6 to the surface of multi-walled carbon nanotubes

In this report, a novel approach was developed to graft polyamide 6 (PA6) onto the surface of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). MWNTs were covalently functionalized with copoly(styrene-maleic anhydride) (SMA) via free radical polymerization. SMA functionalized MWNTs (MWNTs-g-SMA) were then used as a macromolecular activator of anionic ring-opening polymerization of F-caprolactam thus to graft PA6 onto the surface of MWNTs. Raman, FTIR spectroscopy and FETEM were used to identify the covalently grafting SMA and PA6 onto the surface of MWNTs. Additionally, the dispersibility of PA6 functionalized MWNTs (MWNTs-g-PA6) in formic acid and melted F-caprolactam was also demonstrated. Crown Copyright (c) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.