| Abstract
| - A room-temperature, open-air method is devised to selectively intercalate relatively low-molecular-weight polymers(∼10−100 kDa) from dilute, volatile solutions into open-end, as-grown, wettable carbon nanotubes with 50−100 nmdiameters. The method relies on a novel self-sustained diffusion mechanism driving polymers from dilute volatilesolutions into carbon nanotubes and concentrating them there. Relatively low-molecular-weight polymers, such aspoly(ethylene oxide) (PEO, 600 kDa) and poly(caprolactone) (PCL, 80 kDa), were encapsulated in graphitic nanotubesas confirmed by transmission electron microscopy, which revealed morphologies characteristic of mixtures innanoconfinements affected by intermolecular forces. Whereas relatively small, flexible polymer molecules can conformto enter these nanotubes, larger macromolecules (∼1000 kDa) remain outside. The selective nature of this processis useful for filling nanotubes with polymers and could also be valuable in capping nanotubes.
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