Amphiphilicity and self-assembly of multi-walled carbon nanotubes grafted with polystyrene in different molecular weight

Polystyrene (PS) with molecular weight of 2.58 × 104 was grafted to multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) via covalent bonds. The modified tubes can self-assemble as regular bundles in tetrahydrofuran (THF) and benzene while unmodified ones cannot but agglomerate seriously and irregularly in the same solvents. In order to find out the role that polymer plays in self-assembly, a series of PS in different molecular weights were synthesized and...