Preparation and Preliminary Dielectric Characterization of Structured C(60)-Thiol-Ene Polymer Nanocomposites Assembled Using the Thiol-Ene Click Reaction

Fullerene-containing materials have the ability to store and release electrical energy. Therefore, fullerenes may ultimately find use in high-voltage equipment devices or as super capacitors for high electric energy storage due to this ease of manipulating their excellent dielectric properties and their high volume resistivity. A series of structured fullerene (C(60)) polymer nanocomposites were assembled using the thiol-ene click reaction, between alkyl thiols and allyl functionalized C(60) derivatives. The resulting high-density C(60)-urethane-thiol-ene (C(60)-Thiol-Ene) networks possessed excellent mechanical properties. These novel networks were characterized using standard techniques, including infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The dielectric spectra for the prepared samples were determined over a broad frequency range at room temperature using a broadband dielectric spectrometer and a semiconductor characterization system. The changes in thermo-mechanical and electrical properties of these novel fullerene-thiol-ene composite films were measured as a function of the C(60) content, and samples characterized by high dielectric permittivity and low dielectric loss were produced. In this process, variations in chemical composition of the networks were correlated to performance characteristics.