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Three kinds of soluble polymer grafted multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs), including poly(N-vinylcarbazole)-MWNTs (MWNTs-PVK), polystyrene-MWNTs (MWNTs-PSt) and poly(methyl methacrylate)-MWNTs (MWNTs-PMMA) were synthesized. The TEM images of these samples show that polymers are coated outside the carbon nanotubes. The UV-Vis absorption spectra of the samples in CHCl3 were taken on a HP8452 spectrophotometer at room temperature. Compared with that of MWNTs suspension, there is a characteristic absorption peak in the ultraviolet region, which can be attributed to the polymers linked covalently with MWNTs. Their nonlinear optical properties and optical limiting (OL) performances were investigated by Z-scan method with 527 nm nanosecond laser pulses. These MWNTs dissolved in chloroform possess similar optical limiting properties, which are better than that of raw MWNT suspension and C60 in toluene solution. Nonlinear refraction, nonlinear absorption and nonlinear scattering mechanism were taken into consideration for explaining the observed results. The analysis of the experimental results shows that nonlinear absorption is the dominant mechanism behind the OL performance of these samples.