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Volume 49 Issue 2, February 2017

Original Article

  • Titanium phosphonate (TiOPPh: [Ti43-O)(OiPr)5(μ-OiPr)3(PhPO3)3]·thf) was synthesized. TiOPPh was mixed with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) or poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) to prepare organic–inorganic hybrid polymer films. The film using PMMA was formed by the interaction between organic and inorganic components. The temperatures of 10% weight loss of TiOPPh–PMMA were 30 °C higher than that of PMMA only. The film using PVA was formed by the alcohol exchange reaction between TiOPPh and PVA. The transparency of TiOPPh-PVA in the visible region was higher than that of PVA only.

    • Ryohei Hayami
    • Keisuke Wada
    • Takahiro Gunji
    Original Article

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  • Time evolution behavior is described for a transient network formed via hydrogen bonds in a random copolymer of vinyl acetate and vinyl alcohol. As the cross-link density depends on temperature, the storage modulus G′ of the system slowly evolves toward equilibrium at the experimental temperature, Ta, after changing the temperature from higher or lower than Ta. The ‘memory effect’ (the structure developed at a certain temperature is preserved after changing the temperature) found in the system is discussed in detail.

    • Osamu Urakawa
    • Azusa Shimizu
    • Tadashi Inoue
    Original Article
  • Self-healable gel was designed by end-crosslinking of controlled telechelic polymer carrying a trithiocarbonate group in the middle of the chain. The prepolymers, which were precisely synthesized by RAFT polymerization, were crosslinked with branched crosslinker using activated ester chemistry to produce the network with same molecular weight network chain between crosslinking points. The obtained gel showed UV-induced self-healing owing to the function of the trithiocarbonate groups.

    • Shohei Ida
    • Ryohei Kimura
    • Yoshitsugu Hirokawa
    Original Article
  • A carboxylic acid-terminated dendrimer was synthesized via a Steglich esterification of a hyperbranched polyol precursor. Progressive neutralization of the carboxylic groups was carried out, yielding a series of ionic dendrimers. In the ionic clusters, the anion–cation electrostatic interactions induced by the neutralization process dramatically affected the chain mobility of the polymer chains and their order–disorder transition temperatures. The self-assembly of the ionic dendrimers from aqueous milieu into 2D tree morphologies is demonstrated, highlighting their potential use as a highly versatile template for multifunctional semiconductor applications.

    • Thomas Chaffraix
    • Andreea S Voda
    • Kevin Magniez
    Original Article
  • A glycopolymer with different mannose incorporation ratios was synthesized via a reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer with acrylamide. The polymers were immobilized onto a gold substrate by the thiol terminate. The glycopolymer layer structures and the glycopolymer–protein interactions were analyzed using a surface plasmon resonance technique. The glycopolymers formed pancake-like structures under dry conditions and were swollen in water. The interaction between the glycopolymer and the protein was enhanced by the cluster effect of the mannose units.

    • Yuhei Terada
    • Hirokazu Seto
    • Yoshiko Miura
    Original Article
  • The influence of the grafting ratio of PMMA on the shape memory effect was studied by synthesizing and characterizing fast recoverable polyurethane/montmorillonite–poly(methyl methacrylate) (PU/MMT–PMMA) composites. PMP3 with a grafting ratio=3 had the fastest recovery rate, 21.1° per second at 60 °C, whereas the recovery rates of PU and PU/MMT were 6.1 and 9.5° per second, respectively. All the samples recovered to the original shape in 3 s at 80 °C, while PMP3 displayed a much higher shape memory performance capacity than the other two specimens in 1 s.

    • Weiwei Li
    • Xue Jiang
    • Wei Wang
    Original Article
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Note

  • We have formulated the mixing Gibbs energy density for the micelle phase of an amphiphilic block copolymer solution using mean-field lattice theory. By comparing it with the mixing Gibbs energy density for the homogeneous phase, we have observed the transition between the micellization and the liquid–liquid phase separation. The micellization is preferred over the liquid–liquid phase separation at a higher amphiphilicity and a higher degree of polymerization of the block copolymer chain as well as at a higher incompatibility between the two block chains.

    • Takahiro Sato
    • Rintaro Takahashi
    Note
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