Polymers

Copolymer (3)
Elastomer (2)
Polycarbonate (10)
Polyester (4)
Polyisoprene (2)
Polymer (189)
Polymer blend (1)
Polymerization (2)
Polystyrene (5)
Silicone (6)

Synopsis: Materials: Materials generale: Classes of materials: Polymers:

#New polymer makes solar cells more efficient Solar cells made from polymers have the potential to be cheap and lightweight

A polymer is a type of large molecule that forms plastics and other familiar materials. he field is rather immature it s in the infancy stagesays Luping Yu a professor in chemistry at the University of Chicago.

Now a team of researchers led by Yu has identified a new polymer that allows electrical charges to move more easily through the cell boosting electricity production. olymer solar cells have great potential to provide low-cost lightweight

The active regions of such solar cells are composed of a mixture of polymers that give and receive electrons to generate electrical current

The new polymer developed by Yu s group called PID2 improves the efficiency of electrical power generation by 15 percent

when added to a standard polymer-fullerene mixture. ullerene a small carbon molecule is one of the standard materials used in polymer solar cellslu says. asically in polymer solar cells we have a polymer as electron donor

and fullerene as electron acceptor to allow charge separation. n their work the researchers added another polymer into the device resulting in solar cells with two polymers and one fullerene.

when an optimal amount of PID2 was added the highest ever for solar cells made up of two types of polymers with fullerene

The group which includes researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory is now working to push efficiencies toward 10 percent a benchmark necessary for polymer solar cells to be viable for commercial application.

The standard mechanism for improving efficiency with a third polymer is by increasing the absorption of light in the device.

when PID2 was added charges were transported more easily between polymers and throughout the cell. In order for a current to be generated by the solar cell electrons must be transferred from polymer to fullerene within the device.

But the difference between electron energy levels for the standard polymer-fullerene is large enough that electron transfer between them is difficult.

PID2 has energy levels in between the other two and acts as an intermediary in the process. t s like a stepyu says. hen it s too high it s hard to climb up

but if you put in the middle another step then you can easily walk up. he addition of PID2 caused the polymer blend to form fibers

and turns the neat trick of converting gaseous carbon dioxide into solid polymer chains that nestle in the pores. obody s ever seen a mechanism like thistour says. ou ve got to have that nucleophile (the sulfur

or nitrogen atoms) to start the polymerization reaction. This would never work on simple activated carbon; the key is that the polymer forms

and provides continuous selectivity for carbon dioxide. ethane ethane and propane molecules that make up natural gas may try to stick to the carbon

but the growing polymer chains simply push them off he says. The researchers treated their carbon source with potassium hydroxide at 600 degrees Celsius to produce the powders with either sulfur

After heating it to 600 degrees C for the one-step synthesis from inexpensive industrial polymers the final carbon material has a surface area of 2500 square meters per gram

and to further strengthen the polymer, they coated it with a thin film of alumina (aluminum oxide).

etched into the shape needed to make an electrode, onto pieces of polymer. The polymers they used are transparent,

and one polyethylene terephthalate (PET) can be bent, whereas the other polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is stretchable. The resulting films conduct electricity better than any other sample of graphene produced in the past.

Until recently high-quality graphene has been hard to make on a large scale. To produce their graphene,

Hong and his colleagues used a technique that is well known in the semiconductor industry chemical vapour deposition.

And when stamped onto the polymer, they can be bent or stretched by as much as 11%without losing their conductivity.

and his students fabricated filaments from silicone-based rubber, and rigged a spool to automatically reel out the wire onto a conveyor belt.

When the target molecule binds to a polymer wrapped around the nanotube, it alters the tube fluorescence. e could someday use these carbon nanotubes to make sensors that detect in real time, at the single-particle level,

Brandl had synthesized previously polymers that could be cleaved apart by exposure to UV LIGHT. But he and Bertrand came to question their suitability for drug delivery,

because we saw that the particles aggregate once you irradiate them with UV LIGHT. trap for ater-fearingpollutionthe researchers synthesized polymers from polyethylene glycol,

Nanoparticles made from these polymers have a hydrophobic core and a hydrophilic shell. Due to molecular-scale forces

and the polymers are biodegradable, minimizing the risks of leaving toxic secondary products to persist in,

from environmental remediation to medical analysis. The polymers are synthesized at room temperature, and don need to be prepared specially to target specific compounds;

nanoparticles comprised of a nontoxic biodegradable polymer matrix and insect derived double-stranded ribonucleic acid or dsrna.

and Complexity have succeeded in developing a new technology that introduces metal nanoparticles on the surface of polymer nanocapsules made of cucurbit 6 uril.

The researchers have found that using polymer nanocapsules made of cucurbit 6 uril and metal salts can serve as a versatile platform where equal sized metal nanoparticles can be distributed evenly on the surface of the polymer nanocapsules.

Cucurbit 6 uril has properties which strongly and selectively recognize organic and inorganic chemical species. This makes it possible to use it as a protecting agent

The metal nanoparticle-decorated polymer nanocapsules exhibit the following properties in water: high stability for up to 6 months;

The motors are six-micrometer-long tubes with an outer polymer surface that holds a chemical enzyme carbonic anhydrase designed to speed up the reaction between carbon dioxide and water and form bicarbonate.

#New Polymer Gel Could Create Edible Devices for Ultra-Long Drug Delivery A team of scientists has developed a polymer gel that could allow for the development of long-acting devices that reside in the stomach,

However, these devices, often created with nondegradable elastic polymers, bear an inherent risk of intestinal obstruction as a result of accidental fracture or migration.

Now, researchers at MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have created a polymer gel that overcomes this safety concern

This polymer is ph-responsive: It is stable in the acidic stomach environment but dissolves in the small intestine near-neutral ph,

and folding of devices into easily ingestible capsules meaning this polymer can be used to create safe devices designed for extremely prolonged residence in the stomach. ne of the issues with any device in the GI TRACT is that there the potential for an obstruction,

the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT and a member of the Koch Institute, are the senior authors of a paper in the July 27 issue of Nature Materials that describes the application of this new polymer gel

the researchers were interested in developing a polymer with elastic properties. n elastic device can be folded into something small,

and shape of existing devices with elastic polymers have been limited by safety concerns, as there is a greater risk for fracture

Because of this, the researchers wanted their polymer to also be enteric or have a mechanism that would enable it to pass through the stomach unaltered before disintegrating in the intestines. o lower any possible risk of obstruction,

the researchers synthesized an elastic polymer and combined it in solution with a clinically utilized enteric polymer.

Adding hydrochloric acid and centrifuging the solution resulted in a flexible, yet resilient, polymer gel that exhibits both elastic and enteric properties.

The researchers used the gel polycaprolactone (PCL), a nontoxic, degradable polyester, to construct several device prototypes.

They first created ring-shaped devices by using the gel to link arcs of PCL in a circular mold.

the polymer gel dissolved, allowing for the safe passage of the small PCL pieces without obstruction.

Improving adherencethe combined enteric and elastic properties of this polymer gel could significantly improve the design and adoption of gastric-resident devices.

With further work in adjusting the polymer composition or the design of the system they say that they could tailor devices to release drugs over a specific timeframe of up to weeks or months at a time.

ph-responsive supramolecular polymer gel as an enteric elastomer for use in gastric devices, Nature Materials (2015;

and chemically grafted nanomembranes loaded with iron oxide nanoparticles, in the Journal of Applied Polymer Science, July 14.

the pesticide and polylactic acid a polymer derived from corn. The materials are derived biodegradable and from renewable resources. he chemical is protected,

Both synthetic and natural polymers play an essential role in most people lives every day, ranging from familiar synthetic plastics,

while they were initially designing photosensitive polymers for drug delivery applications. Once they came up with a polymer that responded to UV LIGHT,

they realized that this did not permeate well through skin and could cause damage to healthy cells. e

hydrophilic (water-loving) shell and a hydrophobic (water-fearing) spherical core. he polymers are synthetized to ensure that

polymers are released into the water. While the polymer released (polyethylene glycol) is recognized as safe and used in various food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics products,

it would be ideal if no material was released or if it could be used by parts of the ecosystem to further minimize environmental impact.

To circumvent this problem the team developed a simple method to densely coat the nanoparticles with a nonsticky polymer called PEG,

As a next step, Bertrand said it would be interesting to design a system where no polymer is released,

The micromotors have an outer polymer surface that holds the enzyme carbonic anhydrase, which speeds up the reaction between carbon dioxide and water to form bicarbonate.

The meshes are made from a flexible polymer called POMAC (which is short for this mouthful:"

and bend the polymer meshes.""And when we apply electrical field stimulation, we see that they beat in synchrony."

or into flexible chains through soft molecular linkers such as surface-grafted DNA or polymers. Here, we show that capillarity-mediated binding between magnetic nanoparticles coated with a liquid lipid shell can be used for the assembly of ultraflexible microfilaments and network structures.

2015imaging Oxford instruments Asylum Research Announces the Cypher ES Polymer Edition, an Atomic Force Microscope Optimized for Polymer Research September 26th, 2015twisting neutrons:

Orbital angular momentum of neutron waves can be controlled September 25th, 2015ucla physicists determine 3-D positions of individual atoms for the first time:

2015oxford Instruments Asylum Research Announces the Cypher ES Polymer Edition, an Atomic Force Microscope Optimized for Polymer Research September 26th, 2015twisting neutrons:

Orbital angular momentum of neutron waves can be controlled September 25th, 2015liquid crystals show potential for detection of neurodegenerative disease September 24th, 201 0

Today reverse-osmosis filters are typically polymers. A filter is thin and resides on a support.

A porous graphene membrane could be more permeable than a polymer membrane, so separated water would drive faster through the membrane under the same conditions, the scientists reasoned."

the thread is coated in silicone which then solidifies. When the desired shape is completed, the tray at the bottom of the machine is slid out and the mesh

which in the early testing is silicone. As there is one continuous piece of thread which is used through the whole structure,

Brandl had synthesized previously polymers that could be cleaved apart by exposure to UV LIGHT. But he and Bertrand came to question their suitability for drug delivery,

because we saw that the particles aggregate once you irradiate them with UV LIGHT. trap for ater-fearingpollutionthe researchers synthesized polymers from polyethylene glycol,

Nanoparticles made from these polymers have a hydrophobic core and a hydrophilic shell. Due to molecular-scale forces

and the polymers are biodegradable, minimizing the risks of leaving toxic secondary products to persist in,

from environmental remediation to medical analysis. The polymers are synthesized at room temperature, and don need to be prepared specially to target specific compounds;

a renewable fermentation process that seeks to act as a partial replacement for the an oil-based processes that goes into making synthetic rubber.

a technology that replaces the oil-based feedstock for part of the synthetic rubber-making process with renewable biomass.

For an idea of the impact, consider that approximately 50 percent of consumer tires are made from polymers

But the equally colossal pieces of Styrofoam that protected the computer in shipping more than two decades ago are gone long,

You say Styrofoam is one of the biggest culprits in our landfills, taking up 25 percent of the space.

We talk about Styrofoam because of how it s used, and that s in a highly disposable way.

You have this polymer that s made from carcinogenic compounds like benzene and it will last up to 10,000 years.

We have a plastic that s alive a living polymer. Our vision is to replace plastics where ever they don t make sense

There s a lot of places where we can just replace Styrofoam. That s our first-generation technology.

#Polymer Nanobrushes Grab Selected Bacteria for Pathogen Detection A Texas A&m Agrilife Research engineer and a Florida colleague have developed a biosensor that can detect listeria bacterial contamination within two

"I do the biological and polymer engineering; he does the electrochemistry and nanostructures, "she said.

"The selection process the polymers use to select for specific bacteria in the listeria biosensor is very similar to the squid's cilia.

when the polymer nanobrushes have had time to grab the selected bacteria, the rest of the sample is washed away and the impedance,

as well as semiconductive and conductive polymers to tailor the behavior of natural cotton fibers. he layers were so thin that the flexibility of the cotton fibers is preserved always,

coated with a layer of charged polymer that aids the particles to stick to the target microbes,

Brandl had synthesized previously polymers that could be cleaved apart by exposure to UV LIGHT. But he and Bertrand came to question their suitability for drug delivery,

because we saw that the particles aggregate once you irradiate them with UV LIGHT. trap for ater-fearingpollutionthe researchers synthesized polymers from polyethylene glycol,

Nanoparticles made from these polymers have a hydrophobic core and a hydrophilic shell. Due to molecular-scale forces

and the polymers are biodegradable, minimizing the risks of leaving toxic secondary products to persist in,

from environmental remediation to medical analysis. The polymers are synthesized at room temperature, and don need to be prepared specially to target specific compounds;

Polymers are poor conductors of electricity and 3d printing is based primarily around a set range of plastics.

To overcome this, Controlled Environments reports that the research group designed materials based around polymers and wax.

and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employed a microfluidic assembly technique to produce microcapsules that contain liquid sorbents encased in highly permeable polymer shells.

These permeable silicone beads could be sliced a-bread'breakthrough for CO2 capture--efficient easy-to-handle minimal waste

which the flow rates of three fluids--a carbonate solution combined with a catalyst for enhanced CO2 absorption a photocurable silicone that forms the capsule shell

"Gong and her students also have been based studying bio polymers for more than a decade. CNF offers many benefits over current chip substrates, she says."

"The advantage of CNF over other polymers is that it's a bio-based material and most other polymers are based petroleum polymers.

"And, compared to other polymers, CNF actually has a relatively low thermal expansion coefficient.""The group's work also demonstrates a more environmentally friendly process that showed performance similar to existing chips.

which are coated with a charged polymer layer that helps them adhere to the target microbes,

which are coated with a charged polymer layer that helps them adhere to the target microbes,

The nanoparticles are coated with polymers that fine-tune their optical properties and their rate of degradation in the body.

The polymers can be loaded with drugs that are released gradually. The nanoparticles also can be made quite small,

"We think we coated this particle with a specific polymer and with specific drug-loading

In further experiments, the researchers found they could alter the infusion of the particles into melanoma cells by adjusting the polymer coatings.

"You can coat it with different polymers to give it a different optical response. You can load it with two drugs,

The corticosteroid DEX, a powerful ameliorator of inflammation, was released from the polymer by external application of an Electromagnetic field for 2 hours/day for a week.

a conductive polymer material that responds to electromagnetic fields. Wen Gao, a postdoctoral researcher in the Center for Paralysis Research who worked on the project with Borgens

and the shape change of the polymer that allows it to store and release drugs,

the polymer snaps back to the initial architecture and retains the remaining drug molecules.""For each different drug the team would need to find the corresponding optimal electromagnetic field for its release,

Natural Polymers with Applications in Various Industries Synthesized in Iran June 22nd, 2015announcements n-tech Research Issues Report on Smart Coatings Market,

Natural Polymers with Applications in Various Industries Synthesized in Iran June 22nd, 2015high-tech nanofibres could help nutrients in food hit the spot June 17th, 2015the European project SVARNISH,

which are coated with a charged polymer layer that helps them adhere to the target microbes,

Results of the research have applications in textile, polymer, and ceramic industries and in other applicable surfaces.

as well as semiconductive and conductive polymers to tailor the behavior of natural cotton fibers. The layers were so thin that the flexibility of the cotton fibers is preserved always

which are coated with a charged polymer layer that helps them adhere to the target microbes,

Brandl had synthesized previously polymers that could be cleaved apart by exposure to UV LIGHT. But he and Bertrand came to question their suitability for drug delivery,

A trap for ater-fearingpollution The researchers synthesized polymers from polyethylene glycol, a widely used compound found in laxatives, toothpaste,

Nanoparticles made from these polymers have a hydrophobic core and a hydrophilic shell. Due to molecular-scale forces

and the polymers are biodegradable, minimizing the risks of leaving toxic secondary products to persist in,

from environmental remediation to medical analysis. The polymers are synthesized at room temperature, and don need to be prepared specially to target specific compounds;

#Making polymer nanostructures from a greenhouse gas (Nanowerk News) A future where power plants feed their carbon dioxide directly into an adjacent production facility instead of spewing it up a chimney

it is also a good source of carbon for processes like polymer production. In the journal Angewandte Chemie("Construction of Versatile and Functional Nanostructures Derived from CO2-based Polycarbonates),

"American scientists have introduced now a two-step, one-pot conversion of CO2 and epoxides to polycarbonate block copolymers that contain both water-soluble and hydrophobic regions

and can aggregate into nanoparticles or micelles. Versatile nanostructures made from CO2 based polycarbonates. Wiley-VCH) CO2 and epoxides (highly reactive compounds with a three-membered ring made of two carbon atoms

and one oxygen atom) can be polymerized to form polycarbonates in reactions that use special catalysts.

These processes are a more environmentally friendly alternative to conventional production processes and have already been introduced by several companies.

However, because current CO2-based polycarbonates are hydrophobic and have no functional groups, their applications are limited.

In particular, biomedical applications, an area where the use of biocompatible polycarbonates is established well, have been left out.

the researchers have been able to produce amphiphilic polycarbonate block copolymers in which both the hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions are based on CO2.

They were also able to incorporate a variety of functional and charged groups into the polymers.

Because it is very difficult to find building blocks to make hydrophilic polycarbonates, the researchers used a trick:

and continue the polymerization. The AGE-containing polymer grows on both ends of the existing polycarbonate, leading to a triblock copolymer.

The length of the blocks can be controlled precisely. Subsequently a thiolene click reaction can be used to simply click a water-soluble group into place at the double bond.

Some of the amphiphilic polycarbonates made by this method are able to aggregate into particles or micelles in a self-organization process.

However, these devices, often created with nondegradable elastic polymers, bear an inherent risk of intestinal obstruction as a result of accidental fracture or migration.

Now, researchers at MITS Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have created a polymer gel that overcomes this safety concern

Image courtesy of the researchers) This polymer is ph-responsive: It is stable in the acidic stomach environment

and folding of devices into easily ingestible capsules meaning this polymer can be used to create safe devices designed for extremely prolonged residence in the stomach.

-responsive supramolecular polymer gel as an enteric elastomer for use in gastric devices")that describes the application of this new polymer gel for creating gastric devices.

the researchers were interested in developing a polymer with elastic properties. An elastic device can be folded into something small

But the size and shape of existing devices with elastic polymers have been limited by safety concerns,

Because of this, the researchers wanted their polymer to also be enteric or have a mechanism that would enable it to pass through the stomach unaltered before disintegrating in the intestines.

The proposed supramolecular polymer gel network. Structures in yellow are synthesized polymer; structures in purple are linear polymer;

and the red structures are inter-polymer hydrogen bonds. Image courtesy of the researchers) To lower any possible risk of obstruction,

we wanted a material that could dissolve in the intestines, thereby dissociating the device, and safely pass out of the body,

Zhang says. To create this new material, the researchers synthesized an elastic polymer and combined it in solution with a clinically utilized enteric polymer.

Adding hydrochloric acid and centrifuging the solution resulted in a flexible, yet resilient, polymer gel that exhibits both elastic and enteric properties.

The researchers used the gel polycaprolactone (PCL), a nontoxic, degradable polyester, to construct several device prototypes.

They first created ring-shaped devices by using the gel to link arcs of PCL in a circular mold.

These elastic devices had a diameter of 3 centimeters wider than the pylorus before they were folded into orally ingestible capsules.

the polymer gel dissolved, allowing for the safe passage of the small PCL pieces without obstruction.

Improving adherence The combined enteric and elastic properties of this polymer gel could significantly improve the design and adoption of gastric-resident devices.

With further work in adjusting the polymer composition or the design of the system they say that they could tailor devices to release drugs over a specific timeframe of up to weeks or months at a time.

They also scattered polystyrene beads 10 micrometres wide into a Petri dish filled with macrophages a type of white blood cell that ingests foreign material.

"That clinical use involves the carbon spheres being coated with polymer-a polymer that can gradually release drugs into the system to fight cancer and other diseases.

and vibrational spectroscopic techniques were used to monitor how the polymers gradually released their payload. The researchers ran a series of different experiments to check the temperatures required for the drugs to disperse,

Different polymer coatings were tested too as the team works towards getting these'homemade'carbon nanoparticles ready for clinical use."

"You can coat it with different polymers to give it a different optical response. You can load it with two drugs,

Compared to other polymers like plastics, the wood nanomaterial is biocompatible and has relatively low thermal expansion coefficient,

Gong and her students also have been based studying bio polymers for more than a decade. CNF offers many benefits over current chip substrates, she says. he advantage of CNF over other polymers is that it a bio-based material and most other polymers are based petroleum polymers.

Bio-based materials are sustainable biocompatible and biodegradable, Gong says. nd, compared to other polymers,

CNF actually has a relatively low thermal expansion coefficient. The group work also demonstrates a more environmentally friendly process that showed performance similar to existing chips.

these particles are coated with polymers, which fine-tune their optical properties and their rate of degradation in the body.

These polymers can be loaded with drugs that are released gradually. Finally, carbon nanoparticles are rather small, less than eight nanometres in diameter (in comparison,

Scientists also found that they can alter the infusion of the particles into melanoma cells by adjusting the polymer coatings.

Scientists say that they can be coated with different polymers to give them different optical properties to make them even easier to detect in the organism,

When pressure is increased in the pores of the polymer, the structure swells and expands in a preferred direction.

The walls of the cells are made of a non-swellable polymer; a swellable polymer fills the interior of the chambers.

If the pressure inside the cells increases, for example, because the swellable polymer absorbs liquids, the structure expands in one direction.

Advanced Materials Interfaces/MPI of Colloids and Interfacesif you enjoy walking in the woods, you may well be familiar with the phenomenon.

To this end, they developed a computer simulation as well as tissue-like materials from a porous polymer in

Moveable parts of such robots, the actuators, might consist of a porous polymer with precisely defined pore properties. he actual motion could then be controlled by compressed air or an expandable fluid in the pores

The researchers were delighted also that the theoretical predictions from the computer simulation almost perfectly matched the results of their tests on synthesized porous polymer materials.

says Dunlop. Synthetic polymer honeycomb structures from a 3d printerthe composition of the cell walls plays a key role in the expansion process in the relevant cells of pinecones

The researchers simulated this structure for their practical experiments by bonding two different swellable polymer layers together.

The scientists envisage using porous polymer materials whose pores are filled with a hygroscopic fluid, for example a superabsorbing hydrogel, in future practical applications.

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