The development of highly efficient adsorbents for the removal of organic dyes from wastewater has attracted much attention recently. Surface modification of adsorbents with polymers is a general strategy for enhancement of their adsorption capability. In this work, a novel strategy of a combination of mussel inspired chemistry and SET-LRP has been developed for the fabrication of highly efficient adsorbents, poly(sodium-p-styrene sulfonate) modified multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs), for the first time. The adsorption applications of these CNT based polymer nanocomposites for the removal of a cationic dye (methylene blue, MB) from a water solution were also examined. The successful preparation of these CNT based polymer nanocomposites was confirmed by a series of characterization techniques.Furthermore, the influence of adsorption parameters including contact time, concentration of MB, adsorption temperature and time has been investigated. According to the experimental data, the adsorption capacity of MB was directly proportional to the contact time, while inversely proportional to the temperature. The maximum adsorption capacity of MB for CNT-PDA-PSPSH was 160 mg g À1 , demonstrating the excellent adsorptive property of functional CNTs for MB. The method described in this work for the preparation of CNT based polymer nanocomposites is simple, effective and general, and could be a universal strategy for preparation of highly efficient adsorbents for environmental applications. † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: TEM images and TGA analysis of CNT samples were provided. See Scheme 1 Schematic representation for the preparation of CNT-PDA-PSPSH via the combination of mussel-inspired chemistry and a facile SET-LRP polymerization method. 82504 | RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 82503-82512 This journal is

The combination of functional polymers and hydrophobic AIE dyes to prepare luminescent organic nanoparticles (LONs) with strong fluorescence, great water dispersibility and desirable biocompatibility have received numerous attentions for their potential applications in cell imaging and theranostics. Although great effort has been devoted to preparing AIE dye based LONs through both covalent and 10 noncovalent strategies, the fabrication of cross-linked AIE dye based LONs with stimulus responsive behavior has not been reported previously. In this work, the AIE dye based LONs were constructed via cross-linking aldehyde-containing polymers and AIE dye (2,2'-diaminotetraphenyl ethylene) with two amino groups through formation of Schiff base, which is a well known dynamic bond with pH responsiveness. After successful incorporation of the hydrophobic AIE dye into the copolymers, cross-15 linked core-shell lunminescent nanoparticles can be formed. The obtained AIE dye based LONs exhibited strong fluorescence and high water dispersiblity because the AIE dye was aggregated in the core and the hydrophilic polymers were covered on the shell. Biological evaluation results demonstrated that the AIE dye based LONs exhibited excllent biocompatibility and biological imaging properties. More importantly, these AIE dye based LONs exhibited desirable pH responsiveness, implied that these polymeric LONs are 20 potentially utilized for pH sensor and controlled drug delivery. Combination of the dynamic crosslinking and pH responsiveness, the obtained AIE dye based LONs should be of great significance for biomedical application.

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