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1. Bottlebrush Elastomers with Crystallizable Side Chains: Monolayer-like Structure of Backbones Segregated in Intercrystalline Regions

   https://doi.org/10.3390/polym16020296  

   Nikitina, Evgeniia A; Dashtimoghadam, Erfan; Sheiko, Sergei S; Ivanov, Dimitri A (January 2024, Polymers)

   Bottlebrush (BB) elastomers with water-soluble side chains and tissue-mimetic mechanical properties are promising for biomedical applications like tissue implants and drug depots. This work investigates the microstructure and phase transitions of BB elastomers with crystallizable polyethylene oxide (PEO) side chains by real-time synchrotron X-ray scattering. In the melt, the elastomers exhibit the characteristic BB peak corresponding to the backbone-to-backbone correlation. This peak is a distinct feature of BB systems and is observable in small- or medium-angle X-ray scattering curves. In the systems studied, the position of the BB peak ranges from 3.6 to 4.8 nm in BB elastomers. This variation is associated with the degree of polymerization of the polyethylene oxide (PEO) side chains, which ranges from 19 to 40. Upon crystallization of the side chains, the intensity of the peak decays linearly with crystallinity and eventually vanishes due to BB packing disordering within intercrystalline amorphous gaps. This behavior of the bottlebrush peak differs from an earlier study of BBs with poly(ε-caprolactone) side chains, explained by stronger backbone confinement in the case of PEO, a high-crystallinity polymer. Microstructural models based on 1D SAXS correlation function analysis suggest crystalline lamellae of PEO side chains separated by amorphous gaps of monolayer-like BB backbones. 

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2. Temperature dependent perylene fluorescence as a probe of local polymer glass transition dynamics

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D2SM00552B  

   Han, Yixuan; Roth, Connie B. (August 2022, Soft Matter)

   We demonstrate how the temperature dependence of perylene's fluorescence emission spectrum doped in bulk polymer matrices is sensitive to the local glass transition dynamics of the surrounding polymer segments. Focusing on the first fluorescence peak, we show that the intensity ratio I Ratio ( T ) = I Peak ( T )/ I SRR between the first peak and a self referencing region (SRR) has a temperature dependence resulting from the temperature-dependent nonradiative decay pathway of the excited perylene dye that is influenced by its intermolecular collisions with the surrounding polymers segments. For different polymer matrices, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polystyrene (PS), poly(2-vinyl pyridine) (P2VP), and polycarbonate (PC), we demonstrate that I Ratio ( T ) exhibits a transition from a non-Arrhenius behavior above the glass transition temperature T g of the polymer to an Arrhenius temperature dependence with constant activation energy E below the T g of the polymer matrix, indicating perylene's sensitivity to cooperative α-relaxation dynamics of the polymer matrix. This transition in temperature dependence allows us to identify a perylene defined local T peryleneg of the surrounding polymer matrix that agrees well with the known T g values of the polymers. We define a fluorescence intensity shift factor in analogy with the Williams–Landel–Ferry (WLF) equation and use literature WLF parameters for the polymer matrix to quantify the calibration factor c f needed to convert the fluorescence intensity ratio to the effective time scale ratio described by the conventional WLF shift factor. This work opens up a new characterization method that could be used to map the local dynamical response of the glass transition in nanoscale polymer materials using appropriate covalent attachment of perylene to polymer chains. 

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3. Design, synthesis, and characterization of vinyl-addition polynorbornenes with tunable thermal properties

   https://doi.org/10.1039/D1PY01050F  

   Wang, Xinyi; Jeong, Yewon L.; Love, Christopher; Stretz, Holly A.; Stein, Gila E.; Long, Brian K. (October 2021, Polymer Chemistry)

   Unfunctionalized vinyl-addition polynorbornene (VAPNB) possesses many outstanding properties such as high thermal, chemical, and oxidative stability. These features make VAPNB a promising candidate for many engineering applications. However, VAPNB has a small service window between its glass transition temperature ( T g ) and decomposition temperature ( T d ), and it cannot be readily processed in a melt state. In this work, we demonstrate that the service window of VAPNBs can be tailored through the use of norbornene monomers bearing alkyl, aryl, and aryl ether substituents. The vinyl addition homopolymerization and copolymerization of these functionalized norbornyl-based monomers yielded VAPNBs with high T ′ g s (>150 °C) and large service windows ( T d – T g > 100 °C), which are comparable to other commercial engineering thermoplastics. To further establish the feasibility of melt processing, a functionalized VAPNB material with T g = 209 °C and a service window of 170 °C was successfully extruded and molded into bars. Subsequent characterization of the bars by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), and gel permeation chromatography (GPC) revealed only minor signs of polymer degradation. These studies suggest that substituted VAPNBs could be developed into a new class of engineering thermoplastics that is compatible with workhorse melt processing techniques such as extrusion and injection molding, as well as emerging techniques such as extrusion-based 3D printing. 

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4. Sustainable glucose-based block copolymers exhibit elastomeric and adhesive behavior

   https://doi.org/10.1039/c6py00700g  

   Nasiri, Mohammadreza; Reineke, Theresa M. (January 2016, Polymer Chemistry)

   Herein, we present the direct modification of glucose, an abundant and inexpensive sugar molecule, to produce new sustainable and functional polymers. Glucose-6-acrylate-1,2,3,4-tetraacetate (GATA) has been synthesized and shown to provide a useful glassy component for developing an innovative family of elastomeric and adhesive materials. A series of diblock and triblock copolymers of GATA and n -butyl acrylate (n-BA) were created via Reversible Addition–Fragmentation Chain Transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Initially, poly(GATA)- b -poly(n-BA) copolymers were prepared using 4-cyano-4-[(ethylsulfanylthiocarbonyl)sulfanyl] pentanoic acid (CEP) as a chain transfer agent (CTA). These diblock copolymers demonstrated decomposition temperatures of 275 °C or greater and two glass transition temperatures ( T g ) around −45 °C and 100 °C corresponding to the PnBA and PGATA domains, respectively, as measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Triblock copolymers of GATA and n-BA, with moderate dispersities ( Đ = 1.15–1.29), were successfully synthesized when S , S -dibenzyl trithiocarbonate (DTC) was employed as the CTA. Poly(GATA)- b -poly(nBA)- b -poly(GATA) copolymers with 14–58 wt% GATA were prepared and demonstrated excellent thermomechanical properties ( T d ≥ 279 °C). Two well-separated glass transitions near the values for homopolymers of n-BA and GATA (∼−45 °C and ∼100 °C, respectively) were measured by DSC. The triblock with 14% GATA exhibited peel adhesion of 2.31 N cm −1 (when mixed with 30 wt% tackifier) that is superior to many commercial pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs). Use of 3,5-bis(2-dodecylthiocarbonothioylthio-1oxopropoxy)benzoic acid (BTCBA) as the CTA provided a more efficient route to copolymerize GATA and n-BA. Using BTCBA, poly(GATA)- b -poly(nBA)- b -poly(GATA) triblock copolymers containing 12–25 wt% GATA, with very narrow molar mass distributions ( Đ ≤ 1.08), were prepared. The latter series of triblock copolymers showed excellent thermal stability with T d ≥ 275 °C. Only the T g for the PnBA block was observed by DSC (∼−45 °C), however, phase-separation was confirmed by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) for all of these triblock copolymers. The mechanical behavior of the polymers was investigated by tensile experiments and the triblock with 25% GATA content demonstrated moderate elastomeric properties, 573 kPa stress at break and 171% elongation. This study introduces a new family of glucose-based ABA-type copolymers and demonstrates functionality of a glucose-based feedstock for developing green polymeric materials. 

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5. Modular Approach to Bio-Based Poly(enol ether)s with Tunable Thermal Properties and Degradability

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.3c03196  

   Ibrahim, Tarek; Sun, Hao (February 2024, ACS Applied Polymer Materials)

   Biomass-derived polymer materials are emerging as sustainable and low-carbon footprint alternatives to the current petroleum-based commodity plastics. In the past decade, the ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) technique has been widely used for the polymerization of cyclic olefin monomers derived from biorenewable resources, giving rise to a diverse set of biobased polymer materials. However, most synthetic biobased polymers made by ROMP are nondegradable because of their all-carbon backbones. Herein, we present a modular synthetic strategy to acid-degradable poly(enol ether)s via ring-opening metathesis copolymerization of biorenewable oxanorbornenes and 3,4-dihydropyran (DHP). 1H NMR analysis reveals that the percentage of DHP units in the resulting copolymers gradually increases as the feed ratio of DHP to oxanorbornene increases. The composition of the copolymers plays a pivotal role in governing their thermal properties. Thermogravimetric analysis shows that an increasing percentage of DHP results in a decrease in the decomposition temperatures, suggesting that the incorporation of enol ether groups in the polymer backbone reduces the thermal stability of the copolymers. Moreover, a wide range of glass transition temperatures (16–165 °C) can be achieved by tuning the copolymer composition and the oxanorbornene structure. Critically, all of the poly(enol ether)s developed in this study are degradable under mildly acidic conditions. A higher incorporation of DHP in the copolymer leads to enhanced degradability, as evidenced by smaller final degradation products. Altogether, this study provides a facile approach for synthesizing biorenewable and degradable polymer materials with highly tunable thermal properties desired for their potential industrial applications. 

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