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The polysilsesquioxanes containing tetra(ethylene glycol) chains were newly prepared and modified by several kinds of hydrophobic components. The obtained polysilsequioxane derivatives showed a reversible thermoresponsive aggregation behavior in an aqueous solution. The introduction of azobenzene structure as the hydrophobic component led to the polysilsesquixane that showed the combined photo- and thermostimuli responsive properties.
Poly(vinylbenzyl chloride) (PVBC) with controlled molecular weight and polydispersity was obtained by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerizations of vinylbenzyl chloride using benzyl ethyl trithiocarbonate as the RAFT agent. Furthermore, amphiphilic AB diblock copolymers PVBC-b-PNIPAMs could be successfully prepared by RAFT polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) by using PVBC macro-RAFT agent.
Influence of the molecular weight on the thermally enhanced photoinduced molecular reorientation of photo-cross-linkable liquid crystalline polymer films was investigated, where axis-selectively photoreacted side groups controlled the reorientation. Sufficient molecular reorientation (S>0.7) was achieved when the number-average molecular weight (Mn) was >1.8 × 104, but reorientation ability was inferior when Mn was less than 1.0 × 104. The efficiency of the molecular reorientation depended on both degree of the photoreaction and the molecular weight of the material, which is related to the insolubility of the photoreacted film.
The strongly acidic sulfonated crosslinked polystyrene cation-exchange resins employing divinylnaphthalene or divinylbiphenyl as the crosslinking reagent have been prepared. Their properties in terms of the production of bisphenol-A from phenol and acetone were examined in comparison with the corresponding resin consisting of divinylbenzene. It has been found out that the high conversion of acetone can be obtained even after 150 days of reaction time, which is mainly due to the large space inside the structure of the resins developed here.
