Grafting of PEG onto lanthanum hydroxide nanowires

摘要

Lanthanum hydroxide nanowires were synthesized by hydrothermal method. To reduce the aggregation among lanthanum hydroxide nanowires, an effective surface modification method was proposed by grafting polyethylene glycol (PEC) onto lanthanum hydroxide nanowires. That is, the surface of lanthanum hydroxide nanowires was firstly treated with aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS), which is a silane coupling agent and introduces functional amino group onto the surface of lanthanum hydroxide nanowires, followed by grafting reaction with PEG-COCI. The obtained nanocomposite was characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results of FT-IR and TGA showed that the PEG chains had been covalently bonded to the surface of lanthanum hydroxide nanowires. It was found that the increase of molecular weight of the grafted PEG could increase the grafting percentage and hence promote the dispersibility.