Water-resistant boronic ester vitrimer with hydrophobic side chain protection.

A boronic ester vitrimer with high hydrolytic stability afforded by fluorinated side-chain protection is reported, withstanding high moisture and underwater environments with no performance degradation, which can also be self-healed, reprocessed and recycled, presenting a significant step towards the design of more robust and eco-friendly circular materials.

Ultrafast Self-Healing Elastomer with Closed-Loop Recyclability.

The loss of function after prolonged periods of use is inevitable for all materials including plastics. Hence, self-healing capabilities are a key development to prolong the service lifetime of materials. One of such self-healing capabilities can be achieved by integrating dynamic bonds such as boronic ester linkages into polymeric materials, however the rate of self-healing in these materials is insufficient and current methods to accelerate it are limited.

Recyclable, Malleable, and Strong Thermosets Enabled by Knoevenagel Adducts.

Plastic recycling is critical for waste management and achieving a circular economy, but it entails difficult trade-offs between performance and recyclability. Here, we report a thermoset, poly(α-cyanocinnamate) (PCC), synthesized using Knoevenagel condensation between terephthalaldehyde (TPA) and a triarm cyanoacetate star, that tackles this difficulty by harnessing its intrinsically conjugated and dynamic chemical characteristics. PCCs exhibit extraordinary thermal and mechanical properties with a typical of ∼178 °C, Young's modulus of 3.

Hydrogen Activation with Ru-PNP Pincer Complexes for the Conversion of C Feedstocks.

The hydrogenation of C feedstocks (CO and CO) has been investigated using ruthenium complexes [RuHCl(CO)(PNP)] as the catalyst. PNP pincer ligands containing amines in the linker between the central pyridine donor and the phosphorus donors with bulky substituents (-butyl () or TMPhos ()) are required to obtain mononuclear single-site catalysts that can be activated by the addition of KOBu to generate stable five-coordinate complexes [RuH(CO)(PNP-H)], whereby the pincer ligand has been deprotonated. Activation of hydrogen takes place via heterolytic cleavage to generate [RuH(CO)(PNP)], but in the presence of CO, coordination of CO occurs preferentially to give [RuH(CO)(PNP-H)].

Surface antimicrobial functionalization with polymers: fabrication, mechanisms and applications.

Undesirable adhesion of microbes such as bacteria, fungi and viruses onto surfaces affects many industries such as marine, food, textile, and healthcare. In particular in healthcare and food packaging, the effects of unwanted microbial contamination can be life-threatening. With the current global COVID-19 pandemic, interest in the development of surfaces with superior anti-viral and anti-bacterial activities has multiplied.