Hydrophobicity of Polyaniline Microspheres Deposited on a Glass Substrate

Summary: A highly hydrophobic surface with a water contact angle of 148.0° has been constructed by depositing salicylic acid‐doped polyaniline (PANI‐SA) spheres on a glass substrate using a template‐free method. The hydrophobicity originates from the contribution of the air trapped in the inter‐space of a rough surface aggregated by micro‐ and nanospheres. Moreover, the deposition time strongly affects the hydrophobicity of the PANI‐SA spheres deposited on the substrate. The formation mechanism and hydrophobic origin of the PANI‐SA spheres deposited on the substrate are discussed.

The PANI films prepared at 60 min polymerization time is composed of co‐existing nano‐ and microspheres (left). The ability of the layers to trap large amounts of air makes the surface highly hydrophobic and results in a water contact angle of 148.0° (right).     

A Novel Strategy for the Synthesis of Sheet‐Like Polyaniline

Polyaniline (PANI) micro/nanosheets are successfully synthesized by a template‐free method without using any conventional oxidants. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and FT‐IR spectroscopy are applied to characterize the products. By investigating the morphologies and chemical structures of the PANI micro/nanosheets, a possible formation mechanism is proposed. In addition, the influences of experimental parameters, such as the kind of dopant, concentration of aniline, and acidity of reaction system, on the morphologies of the PANI micro/nanosheets have been systematically investigated.

     

Facile Synthesis of Self‐Assembled Polyaniline Nanodisks

Polyaniline nanodisks have been synthesized successfully by the chemical oxidation polymerization of aniline by a self‐assembly process without the use of any acid. The thickness and lateral dimensions of the polyaniline nanodisks are in the range of 20–30 nm and 1–2 µm, respectively. The influence of synthetic parameters, such as the concentration of ammonium peroxydisulfate and pH, on the morphologies of polyaniline nanostructures have been investigated.

     

Synthesis of Highly Hydrophilic Polyaniline Nanowires and Sub‐Micro/Nanostructured Dendrites on Poly(propylene) Film Surfaces

Summary: Polyaniline (PANI) nanowires and sub‐micro/nanostructured dendrites are synthesized and immobilized on PP‐g‐PAA film surfaces via routine oxidative polymerization of aniline under different conditions, where grafting poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) served as a template and dopant, and SDS as a surfactant. The immobilized PANI enhances the surface hydrophilicity of the poly(propylene) (PP) films, and a superhydrophilic surface is obtained in this way. The mechanism of forming different morphologies of PANI and of correspondingly obtaining a superhydrophilic surface are briefly discussed.

FESEM image shows the PANI sub‐micro/nanostructured dendrites immobilized on the surfaces of PP films. The modified surface is highly hydrophilic with a water contact angle of 3°.     

First Successful Post‐Synthetic Self‐Assembly of Polyaniline with Poly(N‐vinylpyrrolidone) into Aqueous Nanocolloids

Summary: Polyaniline (PANI) is successfully self‐assembled with poly(N‐vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) into aqueous nanocolloids. The typical morphology of the colloids is studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM), which reveals spherical nanoparticles with a diameter of 80–150 nm. A possible mechanism for such a post‐synthetic self‐assembly process is proposed.

AFM micrograph of PANI aqueous nanocolloids stabilized by PVP via a novel post‐synthetic self‐assembly method.     

Morphology control and inducing a curvature on the domain interface by increasing the steric bulk of polymethacrylate in POSS‐containing diblock copolymers

Herein, a novel rod‐coil type polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS)‐containing diblock copolymer was designed to enable the self‐assembly of hexagonally packed cylinders of the POSS‐containing domain in a poly(n‐butyl methacrylate) (PnBMA) matrix. When POSS‐containing diblock copolymers were synthesized with polyisoprene or poly(methyl methacrylate), cylindrical structures could not be obtained as POSS‐containing polymers form stretched rigid rods. This makes the formation of cylindrical structures with the POSS‐containing domain entropically unfavorable. Therefore, to obtain the cylindrical structures, we constructed a novel diblock copolymer using PnBMA to increase the steric bulk and segment volume of the flexible coil. Steric crowding of the butyl groups reduces the entropic free stretching energy of the PnBMA chains, which in turn encourages the formation of a POSS‐containing hexagonally packed cylindrical structure within the PnBMA matrix as the system minimizes the total free energy of the thermodynamically stable nanostructure. Small angle X‐ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy analyses indicated that cylinders of the POSS domain had formed. Oxygen plasma etching was then used on the thin film to selectively remove the PnBMA domain to yield line and space structures with a high degree of long‐range order and a 14 nm feature size. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 2234–2242     

Oriented Synthesis of One‐Dimensional Polypyrrole Molecule Chains in a Metal‐Organic Framework

We report for the first time the preparation of single polypyrrole (PPy) molecule chains using a “metal‐organic framework” with 1 nm channels as a template. The obtained one‐dimensional (1‐D) PPy has highly structure order and excellent conductivity, which has improved by as much as five orders of magnitude in comparison with that of 2‐D PPy.

     

Highly active titanium(IV) dichloride FI catalysts bearing a diallylamino group for the synthesis of disentangled UHMWPE

A family of 16 salicylaldarylimine titanium(IV) dichloride complexes bearing diallylamino group, namely {2‐[3‐ or 4‐(CH₂?CH? CH₂)₂NC₆H₄N?CH]‐6‐R¹‐4‐R²‐C₆H₂O}₂TiCl₂ (R¹ = t‐Bu, CMe₂(Ph); R² = H, Me, OMe, t‐Bu) have been used for polymerization of ethylene in the presence of methylaluminoxane. The effects of reaction conditions on the polymerization were examined in detail. All the pre‐catalyst are highly active (up to 14.0 × 10⁶ g_(PE) mol_(Ti)^{?1 ?1} h^?1) for ethylene polymerization at 30°С to 60°С with the activities and MM correlating with the R¹‐substituent type and position of NAll₂‐group: CMe₂(Ph) > t‐Bu and meta‐NAll₂ > para‐NAll₂ for any R². Highly linear polyethylenes (T_m's as high as 141.0°С) can be obtained with high molecular weights in the range 0.70 to 4.10 × 10⁶ g mol^?1 with disentangled morphology, suitable for technologically more advanced and greeny way to produce high‐modulus high‐strength fibers of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene via solid‐state (solvent‐free) deformation processing.     

Differences in self‐assembly features of thermoresponsive anionic triblock copolymers synthesized via one‐pot or two‐pot by atom transfer radical polymerization

The self‐assembly process in aqueous solutions of the methoxyl‐poly(ethylene glycol)‐block‐poly(2‐acrylamido‐2‐methyl‐1‐propanesulfonic sodium)‐block‐poly(N‐isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAAM) triblock copolymer, synthesized via two different atomic transfer radical polymerization methods, namely “one‐pot” (P3‐sample) and “two‐pot” (P2‐sample), was studied by various experimental techniques. The “one‐pot” procedure leads to a copolymer (P3) where the PNIPAAM block is contaminated with a minor quantity of 2‐acrylamido‐2‐methyl‐1‐propane sulfonate (AMPS) residuals and this sample does not form micelles over the considered temperature region, but unimers and temperature‐induced aggregates coexist in the presence of a small amount of salt. The P2 polymer forms micelles and intermicellar structures, but the former moieties disappear at high temperatures, whereas the latter species contract with increasing temperature. Small‐angle neutron scattering results revealed correlation peaks, both for P3 and P2, and no micelle formation for P3, but a pronounced upturn of the scattered intensity at low wavevector values at elevated temperatures for the P2 copolymer. The findings from this study clearly show that the spurious AMPS residuals have a drastic influence on the self‐assembly and micelle formation of the triblock copolymer. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019 , 57, 524–534