Donor-acceptor strategy is employed for designing low band gap hetero-aromatic copolymers using an artificial intelligence mechanism, viz., particle swarm optimization. The investigated structures include hetero-aromatic donor moieties, viz., pyrrole, thiophene and furan in combination with carbonyl and dicyanomethylene acceptor groups. The electronic properties of all the possible donor and ac...

Multiple layers of statistical analyses were used to decipher the response from a single, cross-reactive conjugated polymer (1) providing enhanced classification accuracies over traditional multivariate statistical approaches. This analysis was demonstrated by classifying a series of seven biologically relevant, nonvolatile amines (i.e. biogenic amines). If only a single layer of analysis was e...

Selective hydrogenations of (hetero)arenes represent essential processes in the chemical industry, especially for the production of polymer intermediates and a multitude of fine chemicals. Herein, we describe a new type of well-dispersed Ru nanoparticles supported on a nitrogen-doped carbon material obtained from ruthenium chloride and dicyanamide in a facile and scalable method. These novel ca...

Jude K. Coompson, B.S. Marquette University, 2014 Benzene is a constituent component of crude oil that has been classified as a carcinogen by the EPA with a maximum contamination level (MCL) of 5ppb in drinking water. However, of the aromatic compounds, benzene has one of the lowest polymer-water partition coefficients using commercially available polymers as sensor coatings, resulting in poor ...

The motivation of this study is to determine if small amounts of designer additives placed at the polymer-fullerene interface in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells can influence their performance. A series of AB-alternating side-chain-functionalized poly(thiophene) analogues, P1-6, are designed to selectively localize at the interface between regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (rr-P3HT) and...

The electron accepting 1-methyl-4,5-dicyanoimidazole group was attached to vinyl polymers, via an alkoxy link, by nucleophilic aromatic substitution (NAS) of 1-methyl-2-fluoro-4,5-dicyanoimidazole (1) with poly(vinyl alcohol), or conventional polymerizations of vinyl monomers containing 1-methyl-2-oxo-4,5-dicyanoimidazole. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) studies show that monomeric and oligomeric m...

Hyperbranched (hb) polymers have been receiving increasing attention because of their unique architecture that results in an interesting set of unusual chemical and physical properties. Over the past decade quite a number of excellent reviews on hb polymers have been published by different research groups, covering various aspects of this class of polymers. This review will highlight the work o...

The viscoelastic properties of new experimental tissue conditioners which consist of synthesized poly (butyl methacrylate) PBMA and a liquid of aromatic-ester plasticizer, without alcohol, were investigated to evaluate the effects of the molecular weight of polymer. The master curves of storage modulus G', dynamic viscosity eta' and loss tangent tan delta were constructed from the viscoelastic ...

A series of chemically functionalized porous aromatic frameworks (PAFs) have been synthesized and deployed within mixedmatrix membranes for gas separation. This series of PAFs delivered for the first time simultaneous control of selective gas transport and physical aging within the membranes. New composites including native and metalated fullerenes were also prepared, and the composites exhibit...

We report a general diffusion based method to form micrometer-scale lateral chemical gradients in polymer brushes via selective alkylation. A quaternized brush gradient is derived from a concentration gradient of alkylating agent formed by diffusion in permeable media around a microchannel carrying the alkylating agent. Polymer brushes containing both charge and aromatic gradients are formed us...