A Cleavable Crosslinking Strategy for Commodity Polymer Functionalization and Generation of Reprocessable Thermosets

Covalently crosslinked polymeric materials, known as thermosets, possess enhanced mechanical strength and thermal stability relative to the corresponding uncrosslinked thermoplastics. However, the presence of covalent inter-chain crosslinks that makes thermosets so attractive is precisely what makes them so difficult to reprocess and recycle. Here, we demonstrate the introduction of chemically cleavable groups into a bis-diazirine crosslinker. Application of this cleavable crosslinker reagent to commercial low-functionality polyolefins (or to a small-molecule model) results in the rapid, efficient introduction of molecular crosslinks that can be uncoupled by specific chemical inputs. These proof-of-concept findings provide one potential strategy for circularization of the thermoplastic/thermoset plastics economy, and may allow crosslinked polyolefins to be manufactured, used, reprocessed, and re-used without losing value. As an added benefit, the method allows the ready introduction of functionality into non-functionalized commodity polymers.     

Current Scenario and Future Prospective of Ionic-Liquid Doped Polymer Electrolyte for Energy Application

Solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) films based on poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF–HFP) with salt and ionic-liquid (IL) are synthesized using the solution-cast technique and summarized in this review. Doping ILs or salts increases ionic conductivity up to the device level. This is further confirmed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. Polarized optical microscopy (POM) affirms that enhancement in ionic conductivity is due to increase in amorphous nature of film. The complex nature of polymer electrolyte films is confirmed using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Overall results show that doping IL into polyether matrix is advantageous material playing a dominant role in electrochemical devices.     

ChemInform Abstract: First Principles Calculations of Electronic Structure and Magnetic Properties of Cr‐Based Magnetic Semiconductors Al1‐xCrxX (X: N,P, As,Sb).

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