ABSTRACT
Carbon nanotubes are intractable, which hampers the progress in the nanotube research and limits the scope of their practical applications. In this work, we developed a simple process for solubilizing the carbon nanotubes and discovered novel electronic, optical, and mechanical properties of the nanomaterials. The nanotube-containing polyphenylacetylenes (NT-PPAs) are prepared by in situ polymerisations of phenylacetylene catalysed by WCI6-Ph4Sn and [Rh(nbd)ClI2 in the presence of the nanotubes. The NT-PPAs are characterised by GPC, NMR, UV, FL, TGA, SEM, TEM, and XRD, and it is found that the nanotubes in the NT-PPAs are helically wrapped by the PPA chains. The short nanotubes thickly wrapped in the PPA chains are soluble in common organic solvents including THF, toluene, chloroform, and 1,4-dioxane. The NT-PPAs are macroscopically processible, and shearing the concentrated NT-PPA solutions readily aligns the nanotubes along the direction of the applied mechanical force. The fluorescence of PPA is largely quenched by the nanotubes, possibly via photoinduced charge transfer process from the PPA chains to the nanotube shells. The nanotubes dramatically stabilise the PPA chains against harsh laser irradiation, and the NTPPA solutions effectively limit intense optical pulses, with the saturation fluence easily tunable by varying the nanotube contents.
