Monodispersed Nitrogen-Containing Carbon Capsules Fabricated from Conjugated Polymer-Coated Particles via Light Irradiation

Abstract

Near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation induced the transformation of polypyrrole (PPy) to nitrogen-containing carbon (NCC) material due to its light-toheat photothermal property. The temperature of the PPy increased over 700 °C within a few seconds by the NIR laser irradiation, and elemental microanalysis confirmed the decreases of hydrogen and chloride contents and increases of carbon and nitrogen contents. Monodispersed polystyrene (PS)-core/PPy shell particles (PS/PPy particles) synthesized by aqueous chemical oxidative seeded polymerization were utilized as a precursor toward monodispersed NCC capsules. When the NIR laser was irradiated to the PS/PPy particles, the temperature rose to approximately 300 °C and smoke was generated, indicating that the PS component forming the core was thermally decomposed and vaporized. Scanning electron microscopy studies revealed the successful formation of spherical and highly monodispersed capsules, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies confirmed the capsules consisted of NCC materials. Furthermore, sunlight was also demonstrated to work as a light source to fabricate NCC capsules. The size and thickness of the capsules can be controlled between 1 and 80 μm and 146 and 231 nm, respectively, by tuning the size of the original PS/PPy particles and PPy shell thickness.

Synthesis of Polypyrrole and Its Derivatives as a Liquid Marble Stabilizer via a Solvent-Free Chemical Oxidative Polymerization Protocol

“…The residue after the TGA measurement should be carbon materials. 53 The weight loss around 100 °C should be due to the evaporation of absorbed water, and the amount of absorbed water was the smallest for the most hydrophobic PEPy. Noteworthily, the weight losses could be observed around 150–220 °C, which was not observed for dedoped PPy ( Figure S5 ).…”

Controllable Positive/Negative Phototaxis of Millimeter-Sized Objects with Sensing Function

“…The volume and weight ratios of PET/PPy of PET-PPy-Cl were calculated to be 100/1.27 and 100/1.30, considering that the densities of PET and PPy-Cl are 1.42 × 10 6 and 1.46 × 10 6 g/m 3 , respectively. 61 Taking into consideration that the weight percentage of the Py monomer based on the PET plate in the polymerization system was 2 wt %, and that 0.60 g of Py monomer results in around 0.72 g of PPy (the additional mass coming from the Cl − dopant and oxygen-based species, including the carbonyl and hydroxy defects introduced in the PPy backbone 62 ), approximately 54% of the added monomer was estimated to be loaded onto the PET plate surface. Thanks to the electrostatic binding between the PPy shell and the PET plate carrying SO 3 − groups, no/little amount of PPy coating was lost during the surface modification using FSCA.…”

Nanoarchitectonics for conductive polymers using solid and vapor phases

“… 26 For example, Fujii et al applied conversion of conductive polymers to heteroatom-doped nanocarbons with irradiation of near infrared (NIR) light at room temperature. 27 The fact suggests that nanoarchitectonics for conductive polymers in this minireview can be used for the generation of new functional nanocarbons. Moreover, nanoarchitectonics for conductive polymers requires further advances as a tool for development of functional materials.…”