Xie, Lei; Wang, Zhe; Liu, Jinrong; Gong, Yutong; Mao, Shanjun; Lü, Guofeng; Ma, Xiao; Yu, Lili; Wang, Yong
Kinetics-controlled synthesis of hierarchically porous materials with tunable properties from diverse building blocks
The easy hydrothermal method is a potential candidate for the preparation of carbohydrate-derived hierarchically porous polymers (HPPs) and carbons (HPCs). However, owing to the uncontrolled reaction rate and the weak affinity between precursors and soft templates, the synthesis of HPPs and HPCs with tunable properties through this method remains a…
Identification of a Frank-Kasper Z phase from shape amphiphile self-assembly
Su, Zebin; Hsu, Chih-Hao; Gong, Zihao; Feng, Xueyan; Huang, Jiahao; Zhang, Ruimeng; Wang, Yu; Mao, Jialin; Wesdemiotis, Chrys; Li, Tao; Seifert, Soenke; Zhang, Wei; Aida, Takuzo; Huang, Mingjun; Cheng, Stephen Z. D.
FrankKasper phases, a family of ordered structures formed from particles with spherical motifs, are found in a host of materials, such as metal alloys, inorganic colloids and various types of soft matter. All the experimentally observed FrankKasper phases can be constructed from the basic units of three fundamental structures called…
Effects of an ionic liquid and processing conditions on the ?-polymorph crystal formation in poly(vinylidene fluoride)
Pickford, Tom; Gu, Xu; L. Heeley, Ellen; Wan, Chaoying
The piezoelectric properties of poly?vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) are determined by the prevalence and orientation of its polar ?-crystal phase, which can be tuned by processing conditions, additives, mechanical stretching or post-treatment. Here, the effects of three types of processing conditions on the crystalline structure evolution of PVDF were investigated; electrospinning,…
Supramolecular luminescent triblock copolymer thermoplastic elastomer via metal-ligand coordination
Jiang, Feng; Zhang, Xin; Hwang, Wonseok; Briber, Robert M.; Fang, Yanxiong; Wang, Howard
We have performed synthesis and testing of novel supramolecular thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs). The polymers incorporate metal-ligand bonds between terbium (Tb3+) ions and imidazole groups in a triblock copolymer poly(isobornyl acrylate)-block-poly(n-butyl acrylate-co-1-vinylimidazole)-block-poly(isobornyl acrylate) (PIBA-b-P(BA-co-VI)-b-PIBA) as a second reversible physical cross-link in
Synthesis and Solid-State Properties of PolyC3 (Co)polymers Containing (CH2CH2C(COOR)2) Repeat Units with Densely Packed Fluorocarbon Lateral Chains
Illy, Nicolas; Urayeneza, Deogratias; Maryasevskaya, Alina V.; Michely, Laurent; Boileau, Sylvie; Brissault, Blandine; Bersenev, Egor A.; Anokhin, Denis V.; Ivanov, Dimitri A.; Penelle, Jacques
The synthesis and structural characterization of linear PolyC3 polymers containing trimethylene-1,1-dicarboxylate structural repeat units with C6F13 and C8F17 fluorinated side chains is described for the first time, and their properties were compared with the traditional polyvinyl structures that display the fluorinated chain on every second rather than on every third…
Ballistic thermal phonons traversing nanocrystalline domains in oriented polyethylene
Robbins, Andrew B.; Drakopoulos, Stavros X.; Martin-Fabiani, Ignacio; Ronca, Sara; Minnich, Austin J.
Polymer crystals that are good conductors of heat are highly desirable for thermal management applications. Although thermally conductive polymer crystals are well known, the microscopic thermal transport processes that enable these properties have been challenging to probe experimentally. We used an optical method to probe heat conduction at submicrometer length…
Improvement in mechanical and structural properties of poly(ethylene terephthalate) nanohybrid
Saxena, Dipti; Rana, Dipak; Bhoje Gowd, E.; Maiti, Pralay
The wide range of applicability of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) in various fields such as packaging, automobile parts, sports and textile due to its transparent nature, light weight and mechanical properties creates strong case to enhance its mechanical properties. By embedding nanofillers and thereby improving the mechanical properties, this spectrum can…
Pendant side-chain sterics against electrostatic forces: Influencing short-range ordering in random polyelectrolytes
Nwosu, Chinomso; Coughlin, E. Bryan
The length of pendant side chains in charged, random, comb-shaped polymers dictates the nature of their short-range ordering. Random copolymers, and terpolymer, of 4-vinylpyridine (4VP), styrene, and isoprene were synthesized and subsequently fully quaternized with 1-alkylbromides having varying number of carbons on the alkyl group ranging from 2 to 8.…
Two-Step Chemical Transformation of Polystyrene-block-poly(solketal acrylate) Copolymers for Increasing ?
Yu, Duk Man; Smith, Darren M.; Kim, Hyeyoung; Rzayev, Javid; Russell, Thomas P.
We investigated the two-step chemical transformation of a series of symmetric poly(styrene-b-solketal acrylate) (PS-b-PSA) copolymers with varying molecular weights from 1900 to 27?300 g/mol (13 ? N ? 194) synthesized by sequential atom transfer radical polymerization. Through acid-catalyzed hydrolysis, the PSA block is converted into poly(glycerol acrylate) (PGA), which subsequently…
Multi-scale modelling approach to homogenise the mechanical properties of polymeric closed-cell bead foams
Gebhart, Thomas M. J.; Jehnichen, Dieter; Koschichow, Roman; Müller, Michael; Göbel, Michael; Geske, Vinzenz; Stegelmann, Michael; Gude, Maik
The complex mechanical deformation behaviour of closed-cell foams is governed by morphological and physical properties such as cell structure and crystallinity. In this study, the micro-, meso- and macroscopic scale of commercially available bead foam was analysed. Statistical distribution of the cell structure including cell size, wall thickness and shape…