2008 NOV 24 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "The present article reports on a strategy for the functionalization of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) by grafting with various polymer chains. Copolymers consisting of alpha-methylstyrene (AMS) and a second monomer, that is glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) or stryene (St), were synthesized in advance," scientists in Beijing, People's Republic of China report.

  "The copolymer were heated in the presence of MWCNTs in solution, decomposition of the AMS sequences occurred, providing macroradicals, which further attacked the double bonds on the MWCNT surfaces. Grafting of the copolymer chains onto the surface of the MWCNTs was thus achieved, as demonstrated by FT-IR, XPS and Raman technologies," wrote S. Jiang and colleagues, Beijing University of Chemical Technology ...read more

  2008 NOV 24 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "The micellization of a polysiloxane-ketimine has been studied in solvents of different polarity, i.e., dimethylformamide (DMF) and toluene. The critical micelle concentration was determined from surface tension measurements -in DMF-, and from viscosity variation with concentration," scientists writing in the journal Macromolecular Rapid Communications report.

  "Metal complex nanoparticles have been synthesized from this macromolecular ligand in DMF and in toluene, using the formed micelles as templates. Spectroscopic data (IR and UV-vis) confirmed the metal complexation," wrote C. Racles and colleagues ...read more

  2008 NOV 3 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to recent research from South Korea, "A new series of green electroluminescencc polymers, poly[ (2-(3,7-dimethyloctyloxy)-3,5,6-trimethoxy-1,4-phenylenevinylene)] [poly(30C(1)OC(10)-PV)] and poly[2-(3-dimethyldodecylsilylphenyl)-l,4-phenylenevinylene] [poly(m-SiPh-PV)], and their corresponding copolymers, poly[2-{(3,7-dimethyloctyloxy)-3,5,6-trimethoxy-l,4-phenylenevinylenel-co-(2-(3-dimethyldodecylsilylphenyl)-l,4-phenylenevinylene)] [poly(30C(1)OC(10)PV-co-m-SiPh-PV)], were synthesized through the Gilch polymerization method. The newly designed and highly branched molecular structures of the polymers, poly(30C(1)OC(10)-PV), poly(30C(1)OC(10)-PV-co-m-SiPh-PV) and poly(m-SiPh-PV), were completely soluble in common organic solvents and easily spin-coated onto an ITO-coated glass substrate to obtain high quality optical thin films. ...read more