Microplastic Materials for Inhalation Studies: Preparation by Solvent Precipitation and Comprehensive Characterization.

Assessing the inhalation hazard of microplastics is important but necessitates sufficient quantity of microplastics that are representative and respirable (<4 µm). Common plastics are not typically manufactured in such small sizes. Here, solvent precipitation is used to produce respirable test materials from thermoplastics polyurethane (TPU), polyamide (PA-6), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and low-density polyethylene (LDPE).

Optoelectronic properties of hyperbranched polythiophenes.

Branched conjugated architectures should possess the advantage of isotropic charge transport compared to conventional linear conjugated polymers, as for example poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) which is commonly used in organic solar cells. This contribution investigates the optoelectronic properties of branched poly(thiophene)s p3T and p4T synthesized in a straightforward one-pot procedure by oxidative coupling of branched trithiophene and tetrathiophene monomers with FeCl(3). These polymers can be regarded as model systems for ideal amorphous conjugated materials.