C₆₀ Degradation Effect on Polystyrene under the Fullerene‐Polymer Interaction

Abstract

Study of the content of composite polystyrene‐fullerene samples prepared from solution by the solvent evaporation method have been performed with the size exclusion chromatography, translation diffusion, viscometry and electro‐optical Kerr effect techniques. It was established that polystyrene interacts with fullerene C₆₀ in benzene without any special treatment at room temperature just after the mixing of polymer and fullerene solutions. The product of this interaction contains initial polystyrene and low molecular fullerene adducts that appear as a result of depolymerization of a significant part (up to 40 wt.%) of polymer chains.

Keywords:

• Polystyrene
• depolymerization
• fullerene C₆₀
• hydrodynamics
• size exclusion chromatography
• electro‐optical Kerr effect

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Ministry of Education of Russian Federation, grant 18906.