Free-Radical Copolymerization of Fullerenes with Styrene

Various methods to chemically modify the fullerenes have been reported in the last few years since the production of large-scale amounts of fullerene soot that contains primarily C{sub 60}, a lesser amount of C{sub 70}, and traces of higher fullerenes. Fortunately, these components can be separated from each other by standard chromatographic methods, permitting convenient experimentation on relatively pure components. The authors have found that C{sub 60} and C{sub 70} copolymerize with styrene in a standard free-radical polymerization, either in the bulk or codissolved in an aromatic solvent. The resulting polymers are soluble in common solvents that dissolve polystyrene and possess a dark brown color. The absorption spectrum of the copolymer is strongly modified from that of the parent fullerene, and the fluorescence is blue-shifted and much stronger. The present paper describes a very simple method for direct incorporation of C{sub 60} or C{sub 70} into polystyrene by direct free-radical copolymerization under routine conditions. While a great deal remains to be done to characterize fullerenes as comonomers in free-radical polymerization, this method is so direct and simple that it may be of interest to a wide range of researchers working in the area of fullerene chemistry. The authors note a report by Gong et al. in which a polymerization of styrene and {alpha}-methylstyrene was carried out in the presence of C{sub 60} using benzoyl peroxide as an initiator. These authors explicitly state that the C{sub 60} retains its normal absorption spectrum and is dispersed within the resulting solid polymer matrix. No other characterization is presented to demonstrate if chemical attachment of the C{sub 60} to the polymer occurred.