Polymerization of Myrcene in Both Conventional and Renewable Solvents: Postpolymerization Modification via Regioselective Photoinduced Thiol-Ene Chemistry for Use as Carbon Renewable Dispersants.

Polymeric dispersants are useful materials used in many different industries and often derived from oil-based chemicals, for example, in automotive fluids so as to prevent particulates from precipitation and causing potential damage. These are very often polyisobutene derivatives, and there is a growing need to replace these using chemicals using renewable resources such as the use of naturally occurring myrcene. Polymyrcene (PMy), with an ordered microstructure, has been successfully synthesized via both anionic and radical polymerization in different solvents and subsequently subjected to functionalization via photoinduced thiol-ene click reactions with a number of thiols, methyl thioglycolate, 3-mercaptopropionic acid, 3-mercapto-1-hexanol, 2-mercaptoethanol, and 1-thioglycerol, using 2,2-dimethoxy-2-phenylacetophenone as a photoinitiator under UV irradiation (λ = 365 nm) at ambient temperature.

Heterotelechelic homopolymers mimicking high - ultralow block copolymers with sub-2 nm domain size.

Three fluorinated, hydrophobic initiators have been utilised for the synthesis of low molecular mass fluoro-poly(acrylic acid) heterotelechelic homopolymers to mimic high chi ()-low diblock copolymers with ultrafine domains of sub-2 nm length scale. Polymers were obtained by a simple photoinduced copper(ii)-mediated reversible-deactivation radical polymerisation (Cu-RDRP) affording low molecular mass (<3 kDa) and low dispersity ( = 1.04-1.

Self-healing and mechanical performance of dynamic glycol chitosan hydrogel nanocomposites.

The application of functional self-healing and mechanically robust hydrogels in bioengineering, drug delivery, soft robotics, etc., is continuously growing. However, fabricating hydrogels that simultaneously possess good mechanical and self-healing properties remains a challenge.

Synthesis and Functionalization of Periodic Copolymers.

For the copolymerization of non-conjugated olefins and maleimides, it is known that under certain conditions periodic ABA monomer sequences are formed. In this work, such a copolymerization is used to create polymers which have defined (periodic) monomer sequences and can be functionalized after polymerization. The copolymerization of pentafluorophenol (PFP) active esters of 4-pentenoic acid and perillic acid with -phenyl maleimide (PhMI) was studied in 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) and 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoro-2-phenyl-2-propanol (HFPP).