Accelerated Thermal Depolymerization of Cyclic Polyphthalaldehyde with a Polymeric Thermoacid Generator.

Thermally triggerable polymer films that degrade at modest temperatures (≈85 °C) are created from a blend of cyclic polyphthalaldehyde (cPPA) and a polymeric thermoacid generator, poly(vinyl tert-butyl carbonate sulfone) (PVtBCS). PVtBCS depolymerizes when heated, generating acid which initiates the depolymerization of cPPA into volatile byproducts. The mass loss onset for 2 wt% PVtBCS/cPPA is 22 °C lower than the onset for neat cPPA alone in dynamic thermogravimetric analysis experiments.

Low-Ceiling-Temperature Polymer Microcapsules with Hydrophobic Payloads via Rapid Emulsion-Solvent Evaporation.

We report a microencapsulation procedure based on rapid solvent evaporation to prepare microcapsules with hydrophobic core materials and low-ceiling-temperature polymer shell wall of cyclic poly(phthalaldehyde) (cPPA). We use and compare microfluidic and bulk emulsions. In both methods, rapid solvent evaporation following emulsification resulted in kinetically trapped core-shell microcapsules, whereas slow evaporation resulted in acorn morphology.

Base-Triggered Degradation of Poly(vinyl ester sulfone)s with Tunable Sensitivity.

A series of poly(vinyl ester sulfone)s are synthesized and are found to rapidly degrade in the presence of base. Solution phase NMR indicates that the sensitivity of these polymers to base depends on the identity of the ester functional group of the polymers. From most to least sensitive these are poly(vinyl chloroacetate sulfone) > poly(vinyl acetate sulfone) > poly(vinyl benzoate sulfone) > poly(vinyl pivalate sulfone).