Azopolymer and CNT hybrid materials: a new approach to remotely organize nano scale objects in wide areas

M. G. CAPELUTO; S. GOYANES; S. A. LEDESMA

Conferencia; Frontiers in Physical Sciences; 2016

The develop of new hybrid materials is very important because it opens up the possibility of creating a wide range of applications. Azopolymers are especially suited for a variety of applications because it is possible to induce changes in the nanoscale by only changing the characteristics of the incident light. It was already shown that it is possible to optically induce birrefingence, and this characteristic makes them useful for optical memory storage. Some azopolymer compounds exhibit mass transport when are illuminated with intensity or polarization patterns. This striking effect further enlarges the possibility of applications, however the understanding of the causes that produce the mass deformation is still a challenge. On the other hand, azopolymers containing carbon nanotubes (CNT) are beginning to appear as very interesting materials, given that they inherit its unique properties. In fact, it is well known that carbon nanotubes have exceptional strength and stiffness and extraordinary thermal conductivity, mechanical, and electrical properties.In this work we show the possibility of using the azopolymer as an actuator to organize CNT. We study the optical properties of a material that is made from a commercial compound PAZO (poly[1-[4-(3-carboxy-4-hydroxyphenylazo) benzene- sulfonamido]-1,2-ethanediyl, sodium salt]), in which an azo dye is covalently bonded to the polymer chain. Upon different optical treatments CNT are organized in the troughs or the crests of a surface relief grating (SRG). Large scale organization of CNT is interesting not only because of its potential use in applications such as transparent electronics, but also because of the possibility of creating hybrid materials which exhibit the properties of both materials, the azopolymers and the CNT.