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Poly(acrylamide- co -acrylic acid) (P(AAm- co -AA)) hydrogels are highly tunable and pH-responsive materials frequently used in biomedical applications. The swelling behavior and mechanical properties of these gels have been extensively characterized and are thought to be controlled by the protonation state of the acrylic acid (AA) through the regulation of solution pH. However, their tribological properties have been underexplored. Here, we hypothesized that electrostatics and the protonation state of AA would drive the tribological properties of these polyelectrolyte gels. P(AAm- co -AA) hydrogels were prepared with constant acrylamide (AAm) concentration (33 wt%) and varying AA concentration to control the amount of ionizable groups in the gel. The monomer:crosslinker molar ratio (200:1) was kept constant. Hydrogel swelling, stiffness, and friction behavior were studied by systematically varying the acrylic acid (AA) concentration from 0–12 wt% and controlling solution pH (0.35, 7, 13.8) and ionic strength ( I = 0 or 0.25 M). The stiffness and friction coefficient of bulk hydrogels were evaluated using a microtribometer and borosilicate glass probes as countersurfaces. The swelling behavior and elastic modulus of these polyelectrolyte hydrogels were highly sensitive to solution pH and poorly predicted the friction coefficient ( µ ), which decreased with increasing AA concentration. P(AAm- co -AA) hydrogels with the greatest AA concentrations (12 wt%) exhibited superlubricity ( µ = 0.005 ± 0.001) when swollen in unbuffered, deionized water (pH = 7, I = 0 M) and 0.5 M NaOH (pH = 13.8, I = 0.25 M) ( µ = 0.005 ± 0.002). Friction coefficients generally decreased with increasing AA and increasing solution pH. We postulate that tunable lubricity in P(AAm- co -AA) gels arises from changes in the protonation state of acrylic acid and electrostatic interactions between the probe and hydrogel surface. 

Hydroxyl‐terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) is found in many applications due to its ease of manufacturing, useful mechanical properties over a wide temperature range, and reactive hydroxyl chain ends. Typically, HTPB is crosslinked with isocyanates to form polyurethane thermosets. Limitations of this approach include the use of toxic isocyanates and the oxidative instability of backbone alkenes. In this work, saturated HTPB is used to form reprocessable covalent adaptable networks that are capable of stress relaxation and reprocessing, without relying on isocyanates or unstable alkenes. This approach introduces dynamic chemistry to the HTPB network via chain extension and subsequent crosslinking with 4‐methyl caprolactone (4mCL) and a novel bislactone crosslinker. Using benzenesulfonic acid (BSA) as a transesterification catalyst, stress relaxation times range from 150 to 8 min at temperatures of 70 to 100 °C. Despite crosslinking, these networks behave elastically, as evidenced by strain‐at‐break values of 93% for pristine samples, and dynamically, as shown by a strain‐at‐break of 72% after reprocessing the damaged samples. Shape reprogramming is also demonstrated by straining the crosslinked networks and heating to elevated temperatures where bond exchange occurs. These findings illustrate the advantageous properties that can be achieved by using cheap commodity building blocks to achieve dynamic properties. We anticipate that valorizing commodity polymers into reprocessable thermosets will be of utility in applications that lack other viable recycling pathways.

 

Resonant soft X-ray scattering (RSoXS) probes structure with chemical sensitivity that is useful for determining the morphology of multiblock copolymers. However, the hyperspectral scattering data produced by this technique can be challenging to interpret. Here, we use computational scattering simulations to extract the microstructure of a model triblock copolymer from the energy-dependent scattering from RSoXS. An ABC triblock terpolymer formed from poly(4-methylcaprolactone) (P4MCL), poly(2,2,2-trifluoroethylacrylate) (PTFEA), and poly (dodecylacrylate) (PDDA), P4MCL- block -PTFEA- block -PDDA, was synthesized as the model triblock system. Through quantitative evaluation of simulated scattering data from a physics-informed set of candidate structure models against experimental RSoXS data, we find the best agreement with hexagonally packed core–shell cylinders. This result is also consistent with electron-density reconstruction from hard X-ray scattering data evaluated against electron-density maps generated with the same model set. These results demonstrate the utility of simulation-guided scattering analysis to study complex microstructures that are challenging to image by microscopy.