By using a neutral inner-salt-type dicarboxylate as coligand, a novel two-dimensional (2D) manganese(II) coordination polymer, [Mn(L)(N(3))]ClO(4) x 1/2 H(2)O (L = 1,3-bis(3-carboxylatopyridinium)propane), was synthesized, and characterized by X-ray crystallography and magnetic measurements. The compound contains uniform Mn(II) chains with simultaneous azide and carboxylate bridges between adja...

The ability to create synthetic heteropolymers with the protein-like capabilities of renaturation to a particular conformation capable of specific molecular recognition is of great technological importance. To create protein-like heteropolymers, we suggest "Imprinting," which dictates that monomers should be equilibrated at some low temperature prior to polymerization, then polymerized such tha...

This work reports on the nucleation of the β-phase of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) by incorporating CoFe(2)O(4) and NiFe(2)O(4) nanoparticles, leading in this way to the preparation of magnetoelectric composites. The fraction of filler nanoparticles needed to produce the same β- to α-phase ratio in crystallized PVDF is 1 order of magnitude lower in the cobalt ferrite nanoparticles. The inte...

The microphase separation of hydrated perfluorinated sulfonic acid membrane Nafion was investigated using Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD). The nafion as a polymer was modelled by connecting coarse grained beads which corresponds to the hydrophobic backbone of polytetrafluoroethylene and perfluorinated side chains terminated by hydrophilic end particles of sulfonic acid groups [1, 2]. Each f...

Polymer-solvent compound formation, occurring via co-crystallization of polymer chains and selected small-molecular species, is demonstrated for the conjugated polymer poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (PFO) and a range of organic solvents. The resulting crystallization and gelation processes in PFO solutions are studied by differential scanning calorimetry, with X-ray diffraction providing additional ...

The effects of the properties of casting solution on the surface structure of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) films were systematically investigated. It was observed that the hydrophobicity of PMMA films increased with increasing viscosity of the corresponding polymer solution regardless of the film-formation techniques that were utilized. The ratio of the C-H symmetric stretching vibrations o...

We present evidence that the degree of interchain interactions and morphology in conjugated polymer films can be controlled by altering the chain conformation in the solution from which the film is cast. Light scattering experiments show that the physical size of poly@2-methoxy-5~28-ethyl-hexyloxy!-1,4-phenylene vinylene] ~MEH-PPV! chains can vary by a factor of 2 in different solvents such as ...

Synthesis of densely grafted polymer brushes from good solvent polymer solutions is difficult when the surface interaction is only weakly attractive because of the strong stenc repulsion between the polymer chains To circumvent this difficulty we graft polymer layers in a poor solvent to exploit attractive polymer-polymer interactions which largely nullify the repulsive stenc interactions. This...

Polymer-particle interactions can be effectively utilized to produce composites that possess physicochemical properties superior to that of neat polymer. The incorporation of fillers with dimensions comparable to polymer chain size produces composites with extra-ordinary properties owing to very high surface to volume ratio. The dispersion of nanoparticles is achieved by inducing steric repulsi...