Design of novel plasticizers for nylon: from molecular modeling to experimental verification

Polyamides are semi‐crystalline polymers useful in a wide range of applications in the plastics industry. Some applications require higher flexibility and workability of the polyamides. Therefore, plasticizers are added to ease compounding and processing procedures and produce the desired product properties. The goal of the present work was to study experimentally a series of four esters of 4‐hydroxybenzoate with linear side chain as plasticizers for the random copolymer nylon 66/6 and to compare the experimental results to computational results that were obtained in a previous work. The plasticizers used were the methyl, ethyl, propyl, and butyl esters of 4‐hydroxybenzoate (M4HB, E4HB, P4HB, and B4HB, respectively). Four properties of the plasticizer‐polymer blends were examined: area under the loss modulus curve; impact energy; the decrease in Tg, which is related to the plasticization efficiency, and static modulus that serves as an indication to the mechanical properties or the polymer. It was found that P4HB and B4HB offer the optimal combination of plasticization efficiency and mechanical properties and that M4HB is inferior to the other three plasticizers, as was predicted computationally. This study verifies that computational design of plasticizers for nylon is valid and can serve as an important tool to develop new plasticizers specifically and new additives to polymers generally. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Computational screening of renewably sourced polyalkylene glycol plasticizers for nylon polyamides

A high‐throughput computational method is used to screen new plasticizers for nylon polyamides. Condensed‐phase molecular dynamic simulations are used to describe the interaction of the plasticizer and the polymer. A radial distribution function is utilized to quantify the degree of hydrogen bonding between plasticizer and polymer and to correlate it to the reduction in flexular (flex) modulus of the plasticized polymer. Hildebrand and Hansen solubility parameters are obtained from simulations on pure single‐component systems to quantify the compatibility of plasticizer and polymer. We have screened 27 candidates within nine classes of polyalkylene glycol polyamide plasticizers (including monobenzoate and dibenzoate esters) and compared them with n‐butylbenzenesulfonamide. The validity of the theoretical predictions is verified experimentally. The water soluble, low‐molecular weight poly(1,3‐propanediol) is shown to be an effective plasticizer, which reduces flex modulus of both nylon‐6 and nylon‐12, while maintaining polymer compatibility. Poly(1,3‐propanediol) is a renewably sourced, biodegradable plasticizer that offers a sustainable solution to both fossil fuel and renewably sourced polyamides. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Copolymers of nylon 266 and nylon 66: Synthesis and characterization

Copolymers of nylon 266 and nylon 66 were prepared by interfacial polymerization of N-glycyl hexanediamine and hexanediamine with adipoyl chloride. According to the results of intrinsic viscosity measurements and GPC analysis, the molecular weights of the copolymers were relatively high. The structure of the copolymers was confirmed by FTIR, and the compositions were determined by ¹H-NMR spectroscopy. The copolymers have similar solubility features as nylon 66. Both melting and glass transition temperatures showed a minimum at around 20–30% nylon 66 content. The copolymers are semicrystalline. Copolymers with lower T_m could be melt-spun into fibers without appreciable thermal degradation. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Enhancing design of immobilized enzymatic microbioreactors using computational simulation

In continuous-flow enzymatic microbioreactors, enzymes on the channel walls catalyze reaction(s) among feed chemicals, resulting in the production of some desirable material or the destruction of some undesirable material. Computational models of microbioreactors were developed using the CFD-ACE+ multiphysics simulation package. These models were validated via comparison with experimental data for the destruction of urea, catalyzed by urease. Similar models were then used to assess the impact of internal features on destruction efficiency. It was found that triangular features within the channels enhanced the destruction efficiency more than could be attributed to the increase in surface area alone.     

One-pot synthesis of nylon 6–clay hybrid

Nylon 6–clay hybrid is a molecular composite of nylon 6 and uniformly dispersed silicate layers of montmorillonite. One-pot synthesis of the hybrid was carried out by the following procedures. Montmorillonite was dispersed in water, and then ε-caprolactam, acid (phosphoric acid, hydrochloric acid, benzenesulfonic acid, isophthalic acid, trichloroacetic acid, or acetic acid), and 6-aminocaproic acid were added to the dispersion. The mixtures were reacted at 260°C for 6 h, yielding the nylon 6–clay hybrids (1potNCHs). X-ray diffraction revealed that the silicate layers of 1potNCH by phosphoric acid were uniformly dispersed in the nylon 6 matrix. The 1potNCH had excellent mechanical properties. The strength and the modulus of the hybrid increased compared with previously reported nylon 6–clay hybrid (NCH) synthesized by montmorillonite intercalated with 12-aminolauric acid. The heat distortion temperature (HDT) of the 1potNCH was 160°C, which was 8°C higher than that of NCH. In other 1potNCHs, montmorillonite had a smaller effect on the increase of those properties, and interlayer spacing of montmorillonite was observed at ca. 20 Å. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Pareto optimization in computational protein design with multiple objectives

The optimization for function in computational design requires the treatment of, often competing, multiple objectives. Current algorithms reduce the problem to a single objective optimization problem, with the consequent loss of relevant solutions. We present a procedure, based on a variant of a Pareto algorithm, to optimize various competing objectives in protein design that allows reducing in several orders of magnitude the search of the solution space. Our methodology maintains the diversity of solutions and provides an iterative way to incorporate automatic design methods in the design of functional proteins. We have applied our systematic procedure to design enzymes optimized for both catalysis and stability. However, this methodology can be applied to any computational chemistry application requiring multi-objective combinatorial optimization techniques.     

Structures for monodisperse oligoamides. A novel structure for unfolded three-amide nylon 6 and relationship with a three-amide nylon 6 6

Three-amide oligomers of nylon 6 and nylon 6 6 have been investigated using electron microscopy (imaging and diffraction), X-ray diffraction, and computational modeling. A new crystal structure has been discovered for the three-amide oligomer of nylon 6. This material crystallizes from chloroform/dodecane solutions into an unfolded crystal form that has progressively sheared hydrogen bonding in two directions between polar (unidirectional) chains. This structure is quite different from the usual room temperature α-phase structure of chain-folded nylon 6 crystals, in which alternatingly sheared hydrogen bonding occurs between chains of opposite polarity in only one direction. The occurrence of this new structure illustrates the extent to which progressively sheared hydrogen bonding is preferred over alternatingly sheared hydrogen bonding. Indeed, the progressive hydrogen bonding scheme occurs in the three-amide nylon 6 material even though it requires a disruption to the lowest potential energy all-trans conformation of the chain backbone, and requires all the chains in each hydrogen-bonded layer to be aligned in the same direction. We believe the presence of chain folding, which necessarily incorporates adjacent chains of opposite polarity into the crystal structure, prevents the formation of this new crystal structure in the nylon 6 polymer. In contrast, the three-amide nylon 6 6 crystal structure is analogous to the polymeric nylon 6 6 α-phase structure, found in both fibers and chain-folded crystals, and consists of progressive hydrogen-bonded sheets which stack with a progressive shear. In both structures, the molecules (≈ 3 nm in length) form smectic C-like layers with well-orchestrated stacking of 2.2 nm to form a three-dimensional crystal. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 36: 2849–2863, 1998     

Thin films of nylon 13,13 casted on water: Morphology and properties

Substrate-free thin film of Nylon 13,13 has been prepared continuously by casting the polymer on a water surface from m-cresol solution. The uniform thickness of film is ca. 500 A, as measured with a Profilometer. Film morphology and properties have been characterized by transmission electronic microscopy (TEM), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, wide-angle x-ray scattering, differential scanning calorimetry and by contact angle measurements. Results show that there is no preferential accumulation of the amide group toward the water surface. A spherulite structure exists in this film with a crystallinity of 26% by DSC. Fibers were drawn from the films which had a tensile modulus of 5 GPa, stiffer than reported for this nylon as prepared by other means. Other members of the nylon series, such as Nylon 6, Nylon 12, have also been prepared in films by the same casting method under modified conditions. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Solid-state 13C NMR characterization of molecular orientation of hot drawn nylon 6

Two-dimensional cross polarization (CP), magic angle spinning (MAS) rotor synchronization NMR spectroscopy has been used to determine quantitatively the molecular orientational distribution function on hot-drawn Nylon 6. Both films and fibers are studied that had been thermally deformed at temperature above T_g, from 60 to 175°C at draw ratios in the range of 1-5.5. In the two-dimensional NMR spectrum, the sidebands that intrinsically originate from the chemical shift anisotropy reveal the degree of molecular orientational order. No preferential orientational order is detected for the sample without thermal deformation, and the highest degree of order is observed for samples which have been hot drawn above T_g at ratios ca. 5. Based on the aggregate model the maximum achievable order parameters are determined. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Method for grafting poly(acrylic acid) onto nylon 6,6 using amine end groups on nylon surface

Several methods have been developed for grafting materials to the surface of polymers to alter their surface characteristics. This article reports a procedure for grafting poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) onto nylon 6,6 films via the naturally occurring amine end groups of nylon 6,6 using N‐hydroxy‐succinimide in conjunction with 1‐ethyl‐3‐ (3‐dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) facilitated amidazation. Reaction conditions were investigated with respect to PAA molecular weight, activator concentrations, reaction temperature, and time. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed that surface coverage of more than 50% was consistently achieved for 250 kD PAA. The maximum grafting occurred at room temperature with a large excess of EDC with a reaction time of 30 min. The same level of grafting can be achieved using smaller amounts of EDC at 60 °C. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 40: 719–728, 2002; DOI 10.1002/pola.10149     

Copolymers of PBT and nylon 4T

Polybutylene terephthalate–nylon 4T copolymers (PBT–PA 4T) are synthesized from the diamide of diaminobutane and dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) with butane diol and more DMT in a concentration range of up to 50% PA 4T. The polymerization conditions were similar to those for PBT: first, a melt polymerization, followed by solid-state post-condensation. The materials were studied by differential scanning analysis (DSC) (melting and crystallization behavior) and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) (glass transitions and torsion moduli). The water absorptions were determined at 100% RH. By increasing the PA 4T content in the copolymers, melting temperatures increased strongly, heats of fusion decreased slightly, and glass transition temperatures increased linearly. The torsion moduli above the glass transition temperature were higher. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Kinetic study of depolymerization of polyurethanes: A experimental and computational insight for chemical recycling

This work reports experimental and computational studies of polyurethanes depolymerization from industrial waste through a reaction with potassium hydroxide. A computational study was performed to identify the chemical reaction mechanism, which is more difficult to determine experimentally. Kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of activation process were also obtained by theoretical calculations. An experimental procedure led to products identified by ¹³C solid-state NMR analysis, which agree to the computational study. A small variation of less than 5% in the activation energy values found between the data obtained through theoretical calculations and experimental methods suggests that the described computational procedure is enough to describe the process in a satisfactory manner.     

Pairwise decomposition of an MMGBSA energy function for computational protein design

Computational protein design (CPD) aims at predicting new proteins or modifying existing ones. The computational challenge is huge as it requires exploring an enormous sequence and conformation space. The difficulty can be reduced by considering a fixed backbone and a discrete set of sidechain conformations. Another common strategy consists in precalculating a pairwise energy matrix, from which the energy of any sequence/conformation can be quickly obtained. In this work, we examine the pairwise decomposition of protein MMGBSA energy functions from a general theoretical perspective, and an implementation proposed earlier for CPD. It includes a Generalized Born term, whose many‐body character is overcome using an effective dielectric environment, and a Surface Area term, for which we present an improved pairwise decomposition. A detailed evaluation of the error introduced by the decomposition on the different energy components is performed. We show that the error remains reasonable, compared to other uncertainties. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Simple physical model for chemomechanics

We present a simple model linking chemical interactions with macroscopic mechanical deformations for polymer‐coated microcantilever devices. The chemo‐mechanical process is treated in terms of Fickian diffusion followed by a structural relaxation of the polymer‐guest complex. The model is tested on a series of microcantilever bending experiments, in the presence of different isotopologues, and at different incident guest fluxes. In many cases, a nontrivial behavior, expressed by the appearance of an overshoot, is observed. The new model provides insight into the ways chemical interactions and reorganization processes manifest themselves in mechanical processes. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys., 2013     

Catalyst design of hydrotalcite compounds for efficient oxidations

Various Mg-Al type hydrotalcites were examined as catalysts for the epoxidation of olefins and N-oxidation of pyridines using hydrogen peroxide. The catalytic activity of hydrotalcites increased with increasing the basicity of their surface. Adding cationic surfactants, e.g., n-dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide, to the above system remarkably accelerated the reaction rate. The hydrotalcites, into which were introduced both Ru and Co cations in the Brucite layers, were found to be good catalysts for the oxidation of various alcohols in the presence of molecular oxygen. Moreover, these hydrotalcites could smoothly catalyze also the oxygenation of diphenylmethane, fluorene, and xanthene at benzylic position with excellent yields. The hydrotalcite catalysts could be easily separated from the reaction mixture and reused with retention of their high catalytic performance for the above oxidations.     

Comparing three stochastic search algorithms for computational protein design: Monte Carlo,replica exchange Monte Carlo,and a multistart,steepest‐descent heuristic

Computational protein design depends on an energy function and an algorithm to search the sequence/conformation space. We compare three stochastic search algorithms: a heuristic, Monte Carlo (MC), and a Replica Exchange Monte Carlo method (REMC). The heuristic performs a steepest‐descent minimization starting from thousands of random starting points. The methods are applied to nine test proteins from three structural families, with a fixed backbone structure, a molecular mechanics energy function, and with 1, 5, 10, 20, 30, or all amino acids allowed to mutate. Results are compared to an exact, “Cost Function Network” method that identifies the global minimum energy conformation (GMEC) in favorable cases. The designed sequences accurately reproduce experimental sequences in the hydrophobic core. The heuristic and REMC agree closely and reproduce the GMEC when it is known, with a few exceptions. Plain MC performs well for most cases, occasionally departing from the GMEC by 3–4 kcal/mol. With REMC, the diversity of the sequences sampled agrees with exact enumeration where the latter is possible: up to 2 kcal/mol above the GMEC. Beyond, room temperature replicas sample sequences up to 10 kcal/mol above the GMEC, providing thermal averages and a solution to the inverse protein folding problem. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A combined computational and experimental approach for the analysis of the enantioselective potential of a new macrocyclic receptor for N-protected alpha-amino acids

A new macrocyclic receptor incorporating a thiourea moiety has been synthesised. Crystal structures of the macrocycle showed that the receptor has a rigid backbone but the thiourea moiety can orientate itself to bind to a DMSO solvent molecule. Force-field (MMFFs) calculations were performed to model the macrocycle and its binding properties with respect to N-protected amino acids, which were measured experimentally by NMR titration. Binding free energies were calculated by using the mode integration algorithm (MINTA) or free-energy perturbation (FEP). Excellent qualitative agreement with experiment was obtained. To further exploit the accuracy of the free-energy predictions for this system, the faster free-energy algorithm MINTA was used as a prediction tool to test the binding affinity of the macrocycle towards a series of several other amino acid derivatives, which speeded up considerably the screening process and reduced laboratory costs.     

Fabrication and characterization of nylon 6/foliated graphite electrically conducting nanocomposite

In this study, the nylon 6/foliated graphite (FG) electrically conducting nanocomposites with a low percolation threshold of less than 0.75 vol % have been prepared via an in situ polymerization approach in the presence of FG nanosheet filler. Based on laser counting, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X‐ray diffraction characterization techniques, the structures and morphologies of the nanoscale filling particles and the resulting nanocomposites were examined. Using percolation theory, the conductivity behavior of the nanocomposite samples were modeled and analyzed. Through the use of mean‐field and excluded volume approaches, it was demonstrated that the experimentally observed percolation threshold values could be approximately estimated, and a correlation between the percolation threshold and the aspect ratio of FG particles could be quasi‐quantitatively established. Also, preliminary studies on the effects of FG nanosheets on the thermal properties of the host nylon 6 were performed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 2844–2856, 2004