Terpyridine-Decorated Polymer Nanosphere Latex: Template Nanocarriers for the Synthesis of Cu-CeO Hollow Spheres.

Water-soluble polymers with the ability to complex metal ions through complexing ligands have attracted significant interest in diverse domains, such as optical or catalyst applications. In this paper, we successfully synthesized, through a one-pot process combining polymerization-induced self-assembly and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization, aqueous dispersions of terpyridine-decorated poly[poly(ethylene glycol)methyl ether methacrylate]--poly(methyl methacrylate) (tpy-PPEGMA--PMMA) amphiphilic block copolymers. The formation of well-defined amphiphilic block copolymers and their self-assembly led to nanosphere latex with the hydrodynamic diameters increasing from 17 to 52 nm and the length of the copolymers increasing from 21,000 to 51,000 g·mol.

Hydrogen-Bonding UCST-Thermosensitive Nanogels by Direct Photo-RAFT Polymerization-Induced Self-Assembly in Aqueous Dispersion.

Hydrogen-bonding upper critical solution temperature (UCST) thermosensitive nanogels based on poly(N-acryloyl glycinamide) (PNAGA) are synthesized by photo-reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer mediated polymerization-induced self-assembly (photo-RAFT PISA) in aqueous dispersion using N,N'-methylenebis(acrylamide) as crosslinker and poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate) as both stabilizer and macromolecular chain transfer agent (macro-CTA). Highly stable, spherical nanogels with narrow polydispersity are efficiently produced up to complete monomer conversion within 1 h under UV irradiation at low temperature (3 °C). The thermosensitive behavior of PNAGA-based nanogels, as assessed by dynamic light scattering and UV-vis spectrophotometry, exhibits reversible heating-induced swelling and cooling-induced shrinking corresponding to the expected UCST behavior.

Closer insight into the structure of moderate to densely branched comb polymers by combining modelling and linear rheological measurements.

Synthesis of combs with well-entangled backbones and long branches with high densities has always been a challenge. Steric hindrance frequently leads to coupling of chains and structural imperfections that cannot be easily distinguished by traditional characterization methods. Research studies have therefore tried to use a combination of different methods to obtain more information on the actual microstructures.

Tuning the Molar Composition of "Charge-Shifting" Cationic Copolymers Based on 2-(N,N-Dimethylamino)Ethyl Acrylate and 2-(tert-Boc-Amino)Ethyl Acrylate.

Copolymers of 2-(N,N-dimethylamino)ethyl acrylate (DMAEA) and 2-(tert-Boc-amino)ethyl acrylate (tBocAEA) are synthesized by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization in a controlled manner with defined molar masses and narrow molar masses distributions (Ð ≤ 1.17). Molar compositions of the P(DMAEA-co-tBocAEA) copolymers are assessed by means of H NMR.

Temperature-responsive aqueous micelles from terpyridine end-capped poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-block-polystyrene diblock copolymers.

An attractive concept for designing "smart materials" is the combination of supramolecular interactions with thermoresponsive polymers. Here, this concept is illustrated by preparing aqueous micelles from poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-block-polystyrene copolymers functionalized at the extremity of their poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) coronal chains by terpyridine ligands. The effect of temperature and of the addition of Zn(II) ions on the self-assembling properties is then studied.