Konko, Iuliia; Guriyanova, Svetlana; Boyko, Volodymyr; Sun, Lichao; Liu, Dong; Reck, Bernd; Men, Yongfeng
Role of the Hydrophilic Latex Particle Surface in Water Diffusion into Films from Waterborne Polymer Colloids
The diffusion mechanism and growth of large-scale domains during the immersion of latex films in water have been thoroughly investigated with scattering techniques in a combination with the gravimetric method. Latex dispersions for film formation studies had identical main monomer compositions and only differ in the hydrophilic comonomers that result…
Mechanistic understanding of monovalent cation transport in eumelanin pigments
Tian, Zhen; Hwang, Wonseok; Kim, Young Jo
Recent research advances in charge-conducting materials have enabled the transformation of the naturally-occurring materials into crucial components in many technologies, including renewable energy storage devices or bioelectronics. Among various candidates, eumelanins are promising charge storage materials, exhibiting hybrid electronic ionic conductivity in a hydrated environment. The chemical
Mutually-complementary structure design towards highly stretchable elastomers with robust strength and autonomous self-healing property
Wu, Bo; Liu, Zhimeng; Lei, Yuan; Wang, Yi; Liu, Qinfeng; Yuan, Anqian; Zhao, Yuanyang; Zhang, Xi; Lei, Jingxin
Achieving good transparency, high strength and superior extensibility simultaneously in autonomic self-healing elastomers remains challenging and fascinating. Herein, a complementary design strategy of combining densely distributed multiple hydrogen bonds (H bonds) and loosely packed spacer units in supramolecular elastomer was reported to address the inherent contradiction of robust strength and
Self-assembly of a silicon-containing side-chain liquid crystalline block copolymer in bulk and in thin films: kinetic pathway of a cylinder to sphere transition
Liao, Fen; Shi, Ling-Ying; Cheng, Li-Chen; Lee, Sangho; Ran, Rong; Yager, Kevin G.; Ross, Caroline A.
The self-assembly of a high-? silicon-containing side-chain liquid crystalline block copolymer (LC BCP) in bulk and in thin films is reported, and the structural transition process from the hexagonally packed cylinder (HEX) to the body-centered cubic structure (BCC) in thin films was examined by both reciprocal and real space experimental…
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
TiO2-carbon nanoporous composites prepared via ZnO nanoparticle-templated carbonization of glucose adsorb and photodegrade organic pollutants in water
Barrera, Luis A.; Escobosa, Alma C.; Nevarez, Aileen; Dominguez, Noemi; Bañuelos, Jose L.; Westerhoff, Paul; Noveron, Juan C.
We report the ZnO nanoparticle-templated formation of nanoporous carbon (NTC) embedded with TiO2 nanoparticles for the adsorption and photodegradation of organic pollutants in water. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) studies indicate that NTC and NTC-TiO2 exhibit two types of porosities with average pore diameters of 2.8 and 11.5?nm, while Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET)…
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…
Tuning Mechanical Properties of Biobased Polymers by Supramolecular Chain Entanglement
Lamm, Meghan E.; Song, Lingzhi; Wang, Zhongkai; Rahman, Md Anisur; Lamm, Benjamin; Fu, Lin; Tang, Chuanbing
A variety of biobased polymers have been derived from diverse natural resources. However, the mechanical properties of some of these polymers are inferior due to low chain entanglement. We report a facile strategy termed supramolecular chain entanglement, which utilizes supramolecular interactions to create physical cross-linking and entanglements for polymers with…