Towards development of a versatile and efficient strategy for fabrication of GO based polymer nanocomposites

Surface modification of graphene oxide (GO) with polymers is of particular importance for its applications. Although much progress has been made in the surface modification of GO, the surface modification of GO with synthetic polymers in aqueous solution has demonstrated to be problematic. In the present work, we report for the first time a versatile and effective method for the surface modification of GO with synthetic polymers in aqueous solution taking advantage of mussel inspired chemistry. Poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate and itaconic anhydride (IA) monomers were chosen to prepare hydrophilic polymers (poly(IA-co-PEGMA)) via free radical living polymerization. These hydrophilic polymers were further reacted with dopamine through ring-opening reaction between IA and dopamine, which could be highly efficiently attached to the GO surface via mussel inspired chemistry using dopamine as the adhesion component. The successful modification of GO with polymers was confirmed by using a series of characterization techniques. The resulting GO–polymer nanocomposites displayed great dispersibility in aqueous and organic solutions, making them promising for various applications. Compared with previous methods, the biomimic strategy described in this work could facilely and effectively immobilize synthetic polymers on GO in aqueous solution at room temperature and under an air atmosphere. More importantly, this strategy could also be utilized for the fabrication of almost any polymer nanocomposite because of the designability and applicability of living polymerization, and the versatility and strong adhesion of dopamine.