Electrospinning of ultra-thin polymer fibers

The electrospinning technique was used to spin ultra-thin fibers from several polymer/solvent systems. The diameter of the electrospun fibers ranged from 16 nm to 2 μm. The morphology of these fibers was investigated with an atomic force microscope (AFM) and an optical microscope. Polyethylene oxide) (PEO) dissolved in water or chloroform was studied in greater detail. PEO fibers spun from aqueous solution show a “beads on a string” morphology. An AFM study showed that the surface of these fibers is highly ordered. The “beads on a string” morphology can be avoided if PEO is spun from solution in chloroform; the resulting fibers show a lamellar morphology. Polyvinylalcohol (PVA) dissolved in water and cellulose acetate dissolved in acetone were additional polymer/solvent systems which were investigated. Furthermore, the electrospinning process was studied: different experimental lay-outs were tested, electrostatic fields were simulated, and voltage - current characteristics of the electrospinning process were recorded.     

Supramolecular Isomerism in Caviplexes

Stereoisomeric complexes of an open-ended cavitand and its guest molecules (shown schematically) were detected, and complexes within caviplexes were introduced. Some control can be exerted on the stereoisomerism through methylation of the guest. The symbols “0” and “1” represent different ends of the guest molecule.     

Surface properties of oxidized LDPE by scanning force microscopy with chemically modified probes

In this article, we present the results of a study on the surface properties of chromic acid-oxidized low-density polyethylene (LDPE) by scanning force microscopy (SFM) and contact angle measurements. LDPE films were surface modified by a chromic acid treatment with subsequent annealing in argon and reconstruction in boiling water as described by Rasmussen, Stedronsky, and Whitesides [J. Am. Chem. Soc., 99 , 4736 (1977)]. The LDPE oxidation in chromic acid was monitored in situ by contact mode SFM. Initially stacks of lamellae became exposed, and at later stages a granular morphology was observed. By tapping mode SFM, the sample roughness was shown to increase during the first 10 min of oxidation from initially ca. 20 nm to ca. 50 nm. Gold-coated SFM probes (tips) functionalized with self-assembled monolayers were used to determine the pull-off force characteristics in ethanol. Variations in the contact area between SFM tips and polymer surfaces that exposed sharp crystalline features were shown to obscure the results of pull-off force measurements. However, on annealed and subsequently reconstructed samples with lower roughness, the results of force measurements correlated well with the measured contact angles. Over the range of surface energies studied, the normalized pull-off force between carboxylic acid-modified tips and these smooth samples was shown to depend approximately linearly on the cosine of the contact angle. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J. Polym. Sci. B Polym. Phys. 36: 2483–2492, 1998     

Organometallic Polyelectrolytes: Synthesis,Characterization and Layer‐By‐Layer Deposition of Cationic Poly(ferrocenyl(3‐ammoniumpropyl)‐methylsilane)

The water soluble poly(ferrocenylsilane) polycation, poly(ferrocenyl(3‐ammoniumpropyl)methylsilane), was synthesized by transition metal‐catalyzed ring‐opening polymerization of the novel [1]ferrocenophane Fe(η‐C₅H₄)₂SiCH₃(CH₂)₃Cl and by subsequent side group modification. Amination of the chloropropyl moieties using potassium 1,1,3,3‐tetramethyldisilazide followed by acidic hydrolysis produced the polycation. The polycation was employed together with poly(sodium vinylsulfonate) in the electrostatic layer‐by‐layer self‐assembly process to form organometallic multilayers on quartz. The multilayer fabrication process was monitored using UV/Vis absorption spectroscopy and XPS.     

Computational Evolution Of New Catalysts For The Morita–Baylis–Hillman Reaction**

We present a de novo discovery of an efficient catalyst of the Morita–Baylis–Hillman (MBH) reaction by searching chemical space for molecules that lower the estimated barrier of the rate-determining step using a genetic algorithm (GA) starting from randomly selected tertiary amines. We identify 435 candidates, virtually all of which contain an azetidine N as the catalytically active site, which is discovered by the GA. Two molecules are selected for further study based on their predicted synthetic accessibility and have predicted rate-determining barriers that are lower than that of a known catalyst. Azetidines have not been used as catalysts for the MBH reaction. One suggested azetidine is successfully synthesized and showed an eightfold increase in activity over a commonly used catalyst. We believe this is the first experimentally verified de novo discovery of an efficient catalyst using a generative model.