Preparation and Utilization of Catalyst-Functionalized Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization

Single-walled carbon nanotubes were oxidatively shortened and functionalized with ruthenium-based olefin metathesis catalysts. These catalyst-functionalized nanotubes were shown to be effective in the ring-opening metathesis polymerization of norbornene, resulting in rapid polymerization from the catalyst sites on the nanotube. It was found that high polymer molecular weights could be reached, and the molecular weight increased linearly with polymerization time. The resulting polynorbornene-functionalized nanotubes were found to exhibit solubility in organic solvents, whereas the starting materials and catalyst-functionalized nanotubes were completely insoluble. The polymerized materials were characterized by NMR, IR, DSC, AFM, and TEM.