How to combine research and application? This article teaches you how to realize

Precise control of polymer sequence unit has an important influence on polymer performance, and it is also an important direction of the next generation polymer research After chain space organization, folding and self-assembly, the preparation of new functional polymer materials is also a hotspot in the field of materials Recently, the Charlotte K Williams group of Oxford University has successfully developed a series of functional polyester structures and studied their self-assembly properties Relevant results were published on Chemical Science (DOI: 10.1039/c9sc03756j) (source: Chemical Science) there are few binary copolymerized polymer materials with alternating structure, especially in the field of polyolefin After decades of in-depth research, scientists still failed to fully realize the copolymerization of ethylene and other olefins Due to the specificity of chain units, polymers with copolymerization structure have different mechanical and physical properties from homopolymers Especially in the 21st century, with the depletion of petroleum resources and the enhancement of environmental protection awareness, the development of functional copolymers with sustainability and environmental friendliness has become a hot topic in polymer research Epoxy alkanes and cyclic anhydrides are two kinds of very cheap bulk chemicals The research on the preparation of sustainable polyester by copolymerization of them is increasing Coates group, Williams group, LV Xiaobing group of Dalian University of technology and Li Yuesheng group of Tianjin University all have in-depth study on Coates group, and have developed a series of highly active catalytic systems to realize the alternating copolymerization of the two However, what are the specific properties of the prepared polymers? How to apply the polyester from scientific research to practice? Williams' paper provides a new way of thinking Fig 1 Catalyst structure and monomer unit (source: Chemical Science) the author selected the anhydrides and cycloalkanes with double bond in the ring and double bond at the end, respectively, and realized the polymerization with the commercialized [salcycrcl] / ppncl two-component catalyst Double bond structure is an important functional group in polymer modification The most common reaction is double bond mercapto click reaction The author tried to click the two kinds of double bond polyesters, and found that both kinds of double bond can realize this chemical process How to distinguish the end-to-end double bond from the inner ring double bond and realize the functionalization respectively is the focus of the author's next research The polyester prepared by copolymerization of Ma and vcho is selected as the model reaction substrate First, the borohydride oxidation reaction can be carried out to realize the end position double bond reaction, while the internal double bond can retain the modification effect For this reason, the in-situ nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tracing was carried out It was found that the end-to-end double bonds were transformed completely gradually over time, while the internal double bonds were not involved in the reaction Then the polymer with two-step functionalization was prepared by click reaction Table 1 Characterization of properties of functional polymer (source: Chemical Science) Figure 2 TEM diagram of self-assembled nanoparticles of functional polymer (source: Chemical Science) Then, the author studied the unique properties of the functional polyester: 1) it has smaller water contact angle The presence of hydroxyl groups in the chain unit makes the whole polymer more hydrophilic and the contact angle with water smaller 2) The glass transition temperature is controllable The glass transition temperature of the whole polymer is in the range of - 8 - 93 ℃ due to the change of the modification unit in the chain, which has a better application prospect Finally, the functional polymer was self-assembled in water to prepare spherical nanoparticles Research and application are always concerned by scientists Some people say that the most meaningful research results are put on the shelves and written in books So how can research results be written in books and put on shelves? There is a long way to go in scientific research, which we need to explore.