Focus Review in 2015

In this review, we highlight recent advances in polymeric hybrid nanocarriers for photothermal treatment of cancer. These polymeric hybrid nanocarriers can store and deliver NIR-absorbing agents to cancer cells and tumor sites, exhibiting significant cytotoxic effects upon treatment under external light irradiation. Possible challenges and future prospects in this field are also emphasized.

Recent developments on bipolar electrochemistry as an effective tool for the fabrication of gradient polymer surfaces were reviewed. The electrochemical doping and reactions of conducting polymers under an applied potential distribution using bipolar electrodes have been carried out to prepare conducting polymers with composition gradients. Indirect electrolysis using an electrogenerated metal catalyst on bipolar electrodes successfully afforded gradually modified polymer surfaces and gradient polymer brushes. The newly designed cylinder bipolar electrode system is available for site-selective applications of electric potentials, which produced electrochemical patterning of conducting polymer films.

The lithography process simulations modeled by coarse-grained polymer techniques are reviewed. As a case of top-down process, development and rinse processes were simulated. From these simulations, line edge structure can be obtained to discuss the line edge roughness. As a case of bottom-up process, the directed self-assembly (DSA) process was simulated, and the polymer chain dynamics in the defect annihilation process can be analyzed.

Because of importance of anions as analyte in diverse fields, a reliable and practical method that allows simple and rapid anion detection has been in increasing demand. To satisfy this requirement, many efforts have been made to develop optical anion sensor materials for sensor applications. This article reviews recent progress in the design and fabrication of conjugated polymer-based anion sensors. Through rational molecular design of the sensor polymers, certain structures have been found to possess desirable anion detection abilities, including enhanced binding affinity, strict size specificity and applicability to anions in an aqueous environment.

This Focus Review provides an overview of our recent study and related work on ion conductive polymer nanofibers and their applications in polymer electrolyte fuel cells. We succeeded in evaluating the intrinsic proton and anion conductivity of electrospun nanofibers and revealed their distinguished ion conductive properties, which were quite different from those of the corresponding polymer membranes. These ion conductive nanofibers have potential utility as polymer electrolyte composite membranes to improve fuel cell performance by utilizing efficient ion conduction both inside and at the surfaces of nanofibers.

The segmental mobility of polymers at the interface contacted with air, a liquid and a solid is much different from that in the internal bulk phase. This review summarizes the recent studies offering a concept that the polymer interface is a useful medium for functionalization of solid polymer materials.

This review describes the N-heterocyclic carbene-catalyzed transformations of Michael acceptors that were developed by our research group, including (1) tail-to-tail dimerization of a wide variety of substrates, such as vinyl pyridines, acrylates, methacrylates and methacrylonitrile, (2) cyclotetramerization of acrylates to form trisubstituted cyclopentenones, (3) tandem oxa-Michael addition and head-to-tail dimerization of methacrolein and (4) oxa-Michael addition polymerization of hydroxyl-functionalized acrylates.

Supramolecular allosteric signal-amplification sensing (SASS) has been proposed as a novel sensing strategy and the SASS principle is to detect an allosteric regulatory signal gain from an amplifying polymer upon supramolecular interactions.

When biomaterials are implanted into an animal body, the body fluid proteins initially adsorb and then cells recognize the surfaces. Thus, an understanding of cellular responses to biomaterials is crucial for effective control of biomaterial–cell interactions. In this review, the current understanding of enhanced biocompatibility by exploring the roles of protein mediation at the interface is focused. The most promising nano-bio interfaces were explained, and different protein adsorption and cell adhesion processes were highlighted depending on their interfacial states.

Poly(amino acids) and polypeptides have the potential to contribute significantly to a biomass-based and sustainable society, due to their biomass origin, functionality, and unique physical properties. The recent progress of chemo-enzymatic syntheses of polypeptides as well as studies on peptides and silks as functional and structural materials is reviewed.

This focused review is an overview of recent research on bio-based polymers produced by the controlled/living polymerization of naturally occurring or derived renewable monomers, such as terpenes, phenylpropanoids and itaconic derivatives. The judicious choice of initiating system, such as controlled/living cationic or radical polymerization, which was borrowed from conventional petrochemical monomers, not only allowed the polymerization to proceed efficiently but also produced well-defined bio-based polymers with high performance from these renewable monomers.