End group polarity and block symmetry effects on cloud point and hydrodynamic diameter of thermoresponsive block copolymers

Thermoresponsive block copolymers are of interest for delivery vehicles in the body. Often an interior domain is designed for the active agent and the exterior domain provides stability in the bloodstream, and may carry a targeting ligand. There is still much to learn about how block sequence and chain end identity affect micelle structure, size, and cloud points. Here, hydrophilic oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether acrylate and more hydrophobic di(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate monomers were polymerized to give amphiphilic block copolymers with amphiphilic chain ends. The block sequence and chain end identity were both controlled by appropriate choice of RAFT chain transfer agents to study the effect of ‘matched’ and ‘mismatched’ chain end polarity with amphiphilic block sequence. The affect of matching or mismatching chain end polarity and block sequence was studied on the hydrodynamic diameter, cloud point, and temperature range of the chain collapse on linear di‐ and triblock copolymers and star diblock polymers. The affects of matching or mismatching chain end polarity were significant with linear diblock copolymers but more complex with triblock and star copolymers. Explanations of these results may help guide others in designing thermoresponsive block copolymers. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 2838–2848     

Using a Novel and Easy-to-Use Sandwich Structure Device to Evaluate the Cooling Properties of Cool Materials

A number of cool materials have been designed and used in hot weather to minimize the heat coming from sunlight. Traditionally, solar reflectance and infrared emittance were measured to characterize the cooling properties of cool materials. However, these methods could represent the cooling property only indirectly. In this work, a sandwich structure device that can straightforwardly measure the cooling properties of cool materials was designed. Two cool materials, including high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), were selected to verify the device. For the purpose of comparison, UV-vis-NIR spectral characterization was also used to evaluate the cooling properties of the selected materials. The results, especially for the HDPE/Green 260 composite sample, which presents much lower solar reflectance but better cooling property, indicated that the cooling properties cannot be entirely represented by only the reflectance or transmittance, and the sandwich structure device was able to make up for this deficiency.     

Highly fluorescent polycaprolactones decorated with di(thiophene‐2‐yl)‐diketopyrrolopyrrole: A covalent strategy of tuning fluorescence properties in solid states

Well‐defined 1,4‐diketo‐3,6‐di(thiophen‐2‐yl)pyrrolo[3,4‐c]pyrrole (DTDPP) labeled polycaprolactones (PCL) with different chain lengths were synthesized and characterized. The effect of polymer chain lengths on the optical properties of DTDPP in solid states was studied by UV‐Vis absorption spectroscopy as well as steady‐state and dynamic fluorescence spectroscopies. Our results indicate that when the PCL side chain is extended to a certain length, the intermolecular aggregation of DTDPP units can be reduced significantly due to segregation effect of PCL. This approach offers a new facile strategy to address the common problem of aggregation‐caused quenching existing in organic fluorophores. These highly fluorescent biodegradable PCL polymers may find broad biomedical applications such as fluorescence‐based bioimaging and tissue engineering. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci. Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 1032–1042     

Dynamic thermo-mechanical coupled simulation of statistically inhomogeneous materials by statistical second-order two-scale method

In this paper,a statistical second-order twoscale(SSOTS) method is developed to simulate the dynamic thcrmo-mechanical performances of the statistically inhomogeneous materials.For this kind of composite material,the random distribution characteristics of particles,including the shape,size,orientation,spatial location,and volume fractions,are all considered.Firstly,the repre.sentation for the microscopic configuration of the statistically inhomogeneous materials is described.Secondly,the SSOTS formulation for the dynamic thermo-mechanical coupled problem is proposed in a constructive way,including the cell problems,effective thermal and mechanical parameters,homogenized problems,and the SSOTS formulas of the temperatures,displacements,heat flux densities and stresses.And then the algorithm procedure corresponding to the SSOTS method is brought forward.The numerical results obtained by using the SSOTS algorithm are compared with those by classical methods.In addition,the thermo-mechanical coupling effect is studied by comparing the results of coupled case with those of uncoupled case.It demonstrates that the coupling effect on the temperatures,heat flux densities,displacements,and stresses is very distinct.The results show that the SSOTS method is valid to predict the dynamic thermo-mechanical coupled performances of statistically inhomogeneous materials.