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The establishment of a Lewis acid-mediated selective propoxylation reaction using a specific borane catalyst enabled the synthesis of a novel class of PPG with an increased primary hydroxyl content of up to 70%. In addition, we developed a high yielding continuous process for producing the new PPG with a low amount of by-products by using tube reactors combined with film evaporators for by-product removal. Our new PPG achieves an excellent balance between reactivity and humidity resistance. As a result, it has important advantages for a broad area of polyurethane applications.
The effects of thermal curing reactivity on phase-separated structures of acrylic copolymer/epoxy thermosetting resin composites were investigated to clarify their phase separation behavior. These composites displayed a sea-island structure, for which the island size altered as the amount of accelerator. The island diameter distribution was represented as a lognormal plot. This phase separation is explained by the law of proportionate effect as observed during the last stage of phase separation via spinodal decomposition.
The dimensions of the amorphous and crystalline layers in PHB and PHB/DGEBA blends crystallized at different temperatures were obtained from SAXS measurements at different temperatures. Interlamellar segregation of DGEBA was observed for DGEBA content lower than 30%. The role of the rigid amorphous fraction was determined to be preponderant in the behavior of the amorphous and crystalline dimensions as a function of the temperature.
poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylamide) copolymer-coated La0.73Sr0.27MnO3 nanoparticles were prepared through admicellar polymerization. The prepared nanoparticles with core-shell can be used as heat-generating agent in magnetic hyperthermia therapy.
The alternating and random low band gap conjugated copolymers with dialkyloxy flanked-dithieno[2,3-d:2′,3′-d′]benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene derivatives (DTBDTs) as electron donor moieties and 5,6-di(dodecyloxy)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole (BT) were first synthesized and characterized. As compared with the alternating copolymers, the solubility and molecular weight of the random copolymer was clearly increased. Power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 2.41, 3.15 and 4.73% have been achieved in the photovoltaic cells (PVCs) from the random copolymer.
The anti-fouling character of polymer brushes against marine organisms was investigated by performing settlement tests with barnacle cypris larvae and mussel larvae in their adhesion period, as well as a marine bacteria colonization test. The surface charge and hydration state in saline seawater appear to be important factors in the versatile anti-fouling performance of zwitterionic polyelectrolyte brushes.
Propagation of neural progenitor cells on silk-based macroporous scaffolds. The potential for macroporous 3D silk fibroin scaffolds for the propagation of human neural progenitor cells is investigated. It is found that microstructure and porosity of the fabricated silk fibroin scaffolds allow for sustained viability and proliferation of human neural progenitors. We also find that although fibroin scaffolds from mulberry and non-mulberry silks are cytocompatible, non-mulberry silk matrices appeared to promote slightly increased cell proliferation and matrix deposition.
Procedures for implementing molecular dynamic simulations in preproduction evaluation and optimization of miniemulsion systems in polymeric material design has been investigated and evaluated in the production of ligand-selective synthetic receptor mimic-containing polymeric particles targeting the ligand bisphenol A. The graphical abstract, from left to right, presents the ligand bisphenol A, snapshot from simulation overlaid with molecular density distribution plot for components, indicating the stability of simulated emulsions, and finally a graphical representation of a theoretical binding site extracted from simulated systems presenting a cavity with bisphenol A and two interacting polymer monomers.
![Synthesis and characterization of alternating and random conjugated polymers derived from dithieno[2,3-<i>d</i>:2′,3′-<i>d</i>′]benzo[1,2-<i>b</i>:4,5-<i>b</i>′]dithiophene and 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole derivatives](https://media.springernature.com/lw602/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1038%2Fpj.2015.74/MediaObjects/41428_2015_Article_BFpj201574_Figa_HTML.jpg)
