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A newly discovered nanostructure (island-nanomatrix structure) is introduced based on previous studies on the structure of natural rubber. Effects of the proteins and phospholipids that form the nanomatrix on the mechanical properties of natural rubber are described using a model island-nanomatrix structure of natural rubber. Furthermore, a synthetic cis-1,4-polyisoprene with island-nanomatrix structure is prepared; its mechanical properties are similar to those of natural rubber.
This focus review described recent research on cinnamate-based polymers. Polyesters derived from hydroxycinnamic acid showed characteristic ultraviolet response behavior. The mechanism of photodeformability and found that polyesters derived from 3-hydroxycinnamic acid are deformed by photoexpansion. By using dimers of bioproduced cinnamates, polyimides and polyamides were synthesized. The biobased polyimides and polyamides were found to exhibit high transparency, mechanical strength, and good chemical modification properties due to the cyclobutane main chain and carboxylic acid side chains, which are not present in other high-performance polymers.
In this Focus Review, we summarize our new strategy to create electroresponsive soft materials using electroresponsive dopants. Dopants can change the property of the LC material only with a minute amount and do not need to have an LC property by itself, allowing a simple molecular design. Based on this new concept, we developed cholesteric displays with rewritable color memory functions and quick color modulation functions. We also utilized this concept to create new columnar LC systems and realized multiresponsive columnar LC materials.
Our recent studies on high-performance semiconducting polymers are reviewed. In the first part of this article, the correlations between semiconducting polymer structures and charge transport properties in thin film transistors are described. The second part of this report summarizes our recent results on the near-infrared emission properties of carefully designed semiconducting polymers.
Radical copolymerization of lithium p-styrenesulfonate (LiSS) was investigated using acrylamide (AAm) as the comonomer in the presence of various salts as additives. The addition of lithium chloride promoted the polymerization reactivity of LiSS, while the addition of lithium bromide and sodium bromide suppressed the copolymerization of LiSS and AAm and completely prevented the spontaneous homopolymerization of AAm. The interactions between lithium cations and functional groups in the monomers and polymers that benefit the copolymerization reactivity is discussed.
By taking advantage of the green benefits of multi-component reactions, adhesive polymers were designed and synthesized essentially using bio-based compounds as building blocks. Specifically, phenylpropanoids were selected as a green and photo-responsive chemical units. Synthesized bio-based adhesive polymers showed facile adhesion properties against quartz plates and the adhesion behaviors were altered by photo irradiation, probably owing to the [2 + 2] self-cycloaddition of the phenylpropanoid-derived vinyl moieties.
Complex formation of pendant lysine residue-containing zwitterionic random copolymer with copper (II). To remove excess copper in the body, a copolymer (P(MPC/LysA)) comprising 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) and l-lysinylacrylamide (LysA) was synthesized via controlled radical polymerization. The copolymer exhibited a zwitterionic structure under physiological conditions due to the pH-independent neutral charge of MPC. The LysA residues were found to form a complex with copper (II) ion (Cu2+) under neutral-basic conditions, with two pendant l-lysine residues forming a complex with one Cu2+ molecule. P(MPC/LysA) has potential for use in removing excess Cu2+ in the body by forming water-soluble aggregates with Cu2+ at physiological pH.
3D printable hydrogel inks were prepared by incorporating carbon nanotubes (CNT) in a low-concentrated, thermoreversible poly(N-acryloyl glycinamide) hydrogel. After adding the photoinitiator and N-acryloyl glycinamide monomer, the printed inks were further crosslinked into strong, elastic hydrogel networks. The hydrogels based on preliminary cell viability experiments are considered for bioscaffold applications.
In this research, we reported a novel and simple approach to using tetramethylthiuram disulfide (TMTD) to prepare self-healing vulcanized natural rubber. TMTD as a sulfur donor and accelerator was used with different contents, ranging from 1.0 to 3.0 phr, to vulcanize high ammonia natural rubber (HANR). The best self-healing performance, i.e., 50–60% stress recovery and 80–95% strain recovery, was achieved for vulcanized natural rubber samples with 1.5 to 2.0 phr loading of TMTD. This approach discovered the potential application of TMTD in preparing self-healing vulcanized natural rubber.
In this paper, the construction of a hierarchical supramolecular structure comprising reduction-responsive DNA microspheres and semi-artificial glycopeptide-based micro-asters was described. Such a unique hierarchical supramolecular structure was obtained through molecular assembly of three oligonucleotides and a semi-artificial glycopeptide in a single thermal annealing process under aqueous conditions in the presence of Mg2+.
Atomic molecular dynamics simulations of the complexation of plasmid DNA in the presence of two types of cationic peptides clear the mechanism of plasmid DNA condensation for gene delivery systems.
