Hi Matthew Eaton . There is a method to fluorescently label PVA with FITC (fluoresceine isothiocyanate). This will label some of the PVA hydroxides and you can follow the fluorescence binding to the CNTs.

The ester bond can be cleaved off by treating with NaOH at pH 10.

Article Mechanically switchable polymer fibers for sensing in biolog...

"Functionalizing of PVA with FITC to make fluorescein-labeled PVA (F-PVA) was modified from Kaneo et al. with small alterations and can be seen in Fig. 1. In brief, 608 mg of PVA was dissolved in a beaker containing 16 mL of DMSO and

100 μLof pyridine. Once fully dissolved, 6 mg of FITC was added to the solution while stirring on a hot plate. The solution was brought to 95°C, and to catalyze the reaction, 100μL of DBDT was added. Then, the solution was magnetically stirred at 450 rpm for 2 h. Being light sensitive, the beaker was wrapped in tin foil to protect it."

u can show the EDX elemental analysis of samples before and after or also FTIR of that

Dear Matthew,

many thanks for posting this very interesting technical question on RG. Functionalized carbon anotubes (CNTs) continue to be an exciting object of research particularly with respect to bioapplications. Personally I'm not an expert in polymer chemistry, but I assume that poly(vinyl alcohol) will not easily react directly with functionalized carbon nanotubes under formation of ester-bonded species. However, this would be a suitable approach to make PVA/CNT nanocomposites. In this context, please have a look at the following relevant article:

Synthesis and characterization of carbon nanotubes/poly vinyl alcohol nanocomposite membranes for dehydration of isopropanol

Article Synthesis and characterization of carbon nanotubes/poly viny...

In order to achieve "real" ester linkages in the product, it is advisable to perform a carbodiimide-activated esterification reaction. This has been described in detail in the following useful article:

Soluble functionalized carbon nanotube/poly(vinyl alcohol) nanocomposite as the electrode for glucose sensing

Article Soluble functionalized carbon nanotube/poly(vinyl alcohol) n...

Unfortunately this article (like the first one) is not freely available as public full text on RG. However, the corresponding author has an RG profile (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vijay-Varadan-2) so that there is a good chance that you can request the full text directly from him via RG.

Please note that the carbodiimide-activated esterification in a well established method which works without the need of adding any fluorescence labels:

Article Polymeric Carbon Nanocomposites from Carbon Nanotubes Functi...

I hope this helps. Good luck with your research work and best wishes, Frank Edelmann

This is funny. Serial upvoting of worthless answers by cult-friends increases their RG score. But by doing so reduces the value of their RG score. Keep it up guys!