Growing poly(N-vinylcarbazole) from the surface of graphene oxide via RAFT polymerization

Abstract

A new approach on usage of S-1-dodecyl-Sâ€2-(α, αâ€2-dimethyl-αâ€3-acetic acid) trithiocarbonate (DDAT)-covalently functionalized graphene oxide (GO) as reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) agent for growing of poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) directly from the surface of GO was described. The PVK polymer covalently grafted onto GO has Mn of 8.05 à - 103, and a polydispersity of 1.43. The resulting material PVK-GO shows a good solubility in organic solvents when compared to GO, and a significant energy bandgap of â̂/2.49 eV. Bistable electrical switching and nonvolatile rewritable memory effect, with a turn-on voltage of about -1.7 V and an ON/OFF state current ratio in excess of 103, are demonstrated in the Al/PVK-GO/ITO structure. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011 A new "grafting from" method to grow poly(N-vinylcarbazole) from the surface of graphene oxide via RAFT polymerization is described. This material was successfully used to fabricate a nonvolatile memory device, which exhibited a typical bistable electrical switching and rewritable memory effect. Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.