Liu, Junchao; Li, Weiwei; Guo, Yufeng; Zhang, Hui; Zhang, Zhong
Improved thermal conductivity of thermoplastic polyurethane via aligned boron nitride platelets assisted by 3D printing
Thermal management is of importance to microelectronics. Owning both excellent thermal conduction and electrical insulation, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) platelets are widely used in polymer matrices. While the thermal properties rely on the orientation of hBN platelets in polymer matrices significantly. Herein, we report that high thermal conductive hBN filled…
Cavitation-enabled rapid and tunable evolution of high-χN micelles as templates for ordered mesoporous oxides
Lokupitiya, Hasala N.; Stefik, Morgan
The kinetic-entrapment of block copolymer micelles enables size-persistence, however tuning micelle sizes under such conditions remains challenging. Agitation-induced chain exchange via vortexing is limited by the production of solution–air interfaces. Here, we use ultrasonic cavitation for rapid interface production that accelerates micelle growth by an order of magnitude over…
The role of fast and slow processes in the formation of structure and properties of thermoplastic polyurethanes
Anokhin, D. V.; Gorbunova, M. A.; Estrin, Ya I.; Komratova, V. V.; Badamshina, E. R.
New multi-blocked thermoplastic polymers containing rigid polyurethane-urea and soft polydiethylene glycol adipate blocks have been synthesized. Basic features of their structure formation have been revealed. Three types of supramolecular organization have been found, which define the behavior of samples under heating and deformation conditions. The shape memory effect has been…
Clustering-Triggered Emission and Persistent Room Temperature Phosphorescence of Sodium Alginate
Dou, Xueyu; Zhou, Qing; Chen, Xiaohong; Tan, Yeqiang; He, Xin; Lu, Ping; Sui, Kunyan; Tang, Ben Zhong; Zhang, Yongming; Yuan, Wang Zhang
Nonconventional biomacromolecular luminogens have attracted extensive interest due to their fundamental importance and potential applications in diverse areas. To explore novel luminogens and, moreover, to gain deeper insights into their emission mechanism, we study the emission behaviors of sodium alginate (SA), a natural anionic polysaccharide composed of mannuronic (M) and…
High-Efficiency Construction of CO2-Based Healable Thermoplastic Elastomers via a Tandem Synthetic Strategy
Yang, Guan-Wen; Wu, Guang-Peng
The alternating copolymerization of CO2/epoxides to polycarbonates (CO2–PCs) has been an area of research focus because of the growing concern about energy and the environment. Regardless of the enormous progress that has been made, the lack of functionalities and inert chemical structure of CO2-based polycarbonates greatly limit the scope of…
Sticky ends in a self-assembling ABA triblock copolymer: the role of ureas in stimuli-responsive hydrogels
T. Shafranek, Ryan; D. Leger, Joel; Zhang, Song; Khalil, Munira; Gu, Xiaodan; Nelson, Alshakim
Directing polymer self-assembly through noncovalent interactions is a powerful way to control the structure and function of nanoengineered materials. Dynamic hydrogen bonds are particularly useful for materials with structures that change over time or in response to specific stimuli. In the present work, we use the supramolecular association of urea…
Unique Isodimorphism of Poly(decamethylene succinate-ran-decamethylene fumarate): Large Pseudoeutectic Region and Fantastic Crystallization/Melting Behavior
Ye, Hai-Mu; Wang, Jing; Wang, Cai-Shui; Li, Hong-Fang
Poly(decamethylene succinate-ran-decamethylene fumarate)s (PDSFs) were synthesized, and their structure and crystallization behavior were systematically studied. All polyesters possess high crystallizability irrespective of composition and display the widest pseudoeutectic region that has been reported to date. Nevertheless, both melting point– and crystallization temperature–composition…
High Performance Thermoplastic Elastomers with Biomass Lignin as Plastic Phase
Huang, Jinhao; Liu, Weifeng; Qiu, Xueqing
For the first time, the coordination-based energy sacrificial bonds have been constructed in the interface between lignin and polyolefin elastomer for preparing a new class of high performance thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) with biomass lignin as the hard plastic phase. The coordination bonds not only promoted the dispersion of lignin, but…
Liquid crystalline side-chain triblock copolymers consisting of a nematic central subblock edged by photochromic azobenzene-containing fragments: their synthesis, structure and photooptical behaviour
Boiko, N. I.; Bugakov, M. A.; Chernikova, E. V.; Piryazev, A. A.; Odarchenko, Ya I.; Ivanov, D. A.; Shibaev, V. P.
For the first time, symmetrical photosensitive fully liquid crystalline side chain triblock copolymers (pAzo-b-pPhM-b-pAzo) and random copolymers (pAzo-ran-pPhM) with nematogenic phenyl benzoate (PhM) and photosensitive smectogenic azobenzene containing groups (Azo) were synthesized by the combination of RAFT polymerization and subsequent chemical modification. The central block of synthesized…
Anisotropic nanoparticles as templates for the crystalline structure of an injection-molded isotactic polypropylene/TiO2 nanocomposite
Zhang, Peng; Kraus, Tobias
We study the molecular origins of anisotropy in a semicrystalline polymer nanocomposite that is caused by aligned, elongated filler nanoparticles. Our study is based on spatially resolved 2D WAXS/SAXS data that indicates the arrangement of molecules, lamellae, and filler particles in the composite. Isotactic polypropylene (IPP) samples filled with anisotropic…