Macromolecular Rapid Communications最新文献

Since its inception, plastic has become an indispensable material in human production activities and daily life. Polycarbonate (PC), a high-performance engineering plastic, has emerged as one of the top five engineering plastics due to its outstanding comprehensive properties and is among the fastest-growing and most promising varieties. Polycarbonate is classified into petroleum-based and bio-based types. Bio-based polycarbonate serves as a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based polycarbonate, with core advantages including environmental friendliness and resource renewability. The rigid benzene ring structure in the polycarbonate molecular chain endows it with exceptional performance: it exhibits excellent impact resistance and high tensile strength, as well as low swelling rates, superior insulation, flame retardancy, and electrical properties. These characteristics make it highly promising for applications in flexible electronics, including flexible displays, smart wearable devices, and electronic skin. This paper provides a systematic review of research progress on polycarbonate in flexible electronic devices, focusing on three core areas: first, its applications and technological breakthroughs in key fields such as flexible substrates, functional composite materials, sensors, and packaging; second, modification methods for optimizing polycarbonate performance; third, based on the current research status, an outline of future key research directions, offering references for innovative development in related fields.

We report a straightforward methodology to access structurally well-defined hybrid assemblies of plasmonic and excitonic nanoparticles (NPs). The developed strategy is based on the incorporation of quantum dots (QDs) coated with zinc-sulfide shells into poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) brushes at gold NP surfaces, without the necessity of incorporating specialized functional groups to drive the supracolloidal assembly. Based on control experiments involving PEGs with distinct polymeric architecture and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy analysis, we attribute the structure formation to attractive interactions between the QD surface and the monomeric repeat unit of the PEG brushes. This combination leads to short interparticle spacings and plasmon/exciton interactions, resulting in photoluminescence (PL) quenching upon assembly. However, using block-copolymers comprising a NP-adjacent spacer block in addition to a NP-remote PEG block, the distance between gold NPs and QDs can be controlled, which in turn affects the PL properties. The versatility of the structure-formation approach is demonstrated by the possibility of applying it to two distinct core/shell QDs (InP/ZnSe/ZnS and CdSe/CdS/ZnS). This offers new perspectives in the quest for efficient nanomaterial fabrication procedures.

Catechol-containing poly(2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline)s (PiPOx) were obtained either by functionalization of partially hydrolyzed PiPOx with 3,4-dimethoxybenzoyl chloride or by microwave-assisted cationic ring-opening copolymerization of 2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline with 2-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-2-oxazoline, followed by quantitative deprotection of methylated catechols. All synthesized polymers were soluble in aqueous salt solutions at room temperature and showed thermoresponsive LCST behavior. The cloud point temperature (T_CP) remained virtually unchanged in the presence of different cations, while it was strongly affected by chaotropic and kosmotropic anions, which is in line with the Hofmeister series. Intriguingly, T_CP was lower for the catechol-containing PiPOx as compared to the protected precursor copolymer and PiPOx, which is rationalized by hydrogen bonding interactions between catechol and tertiary amide units of the polymer backbone, as indicated by Raman spectroscopy, decreasing the hydration level of the polymer.

Flexible electronics are rapidly developing for wearable health monitoring, human-machine interfaces, and smart terminals, whereas their core materials are still largely sourced from petrochemical resources and have inflicted severe environmental and sustainability issues. Cellulose, the most abundant natural biopolymer on Earth, has a multiscale hierarchical structure from molecular chains, micro-/nanofibers, and macroscopic networks and is renewable, biodegradable, and structurally designable, which entitles it as a promising material for green flexible electronics. In this review, recent progress of multiscale cellulose functional materials for flexible devices will be systematically summarized. Herein, first, the hierarchical features of cellulose and a review on the multiscale construction strategies of molecular functionalization, interfacial assembly, and macroscopic integration are illustrated. Then, recent advancements of electrochemical energy storage, flexible sensors, energy harvesting, optoelectronic devices, and integrated platforms are highlighted and their advantages of conductivity, ion transport, mechanical flexibility, and multifunctional responsiveness are exemplified. Finally, essential challenges of structure-property synergy, scale-up fabrication, and long-term stability are illustrated and discussed and the future development of cellulose-based flexible electronics for sustainable intelligent systems are outlined.

Natural rubber (NR), derived from renewable latex, offers a sustainable alternative to petroleum-based elastomers and exhibits exceptional toughness via strain-induced crystallization (SIC). However, as a kinetically governed process, SIC manifests only below specific thresholds of temperature and strain rate, limiting its effectiveness under demanding conditions. Expanding this SIC-active regime remains a long-standing challenge. Here, we demonstrate that reintroducing dried latex serum (DS)-a waste byproduct of coagulation-substantially boosts SIC-driven reinforcement in NR by promoting supramolecular network formation. Mechanical testing shows that DS addition not only increases tearing strength but also expands the SIC-active window, raising the upper-limit temperature by about 20°C and the strain-rate threshold by more than several folds. Time-resolved wide-angle X-ray scattering reveals both earlier onset and higher crystallinity of SIC. Among DS constituents, L-quebrachitol-a five hydroxy polyol-is identified as a key contributor. Systematic screening highlights that polyols with more than three hydroxy groups are particularly effective in reinforcing SIC. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest that these polyols form bifurcated hydrogen bonds with ester-terminated polyisoprene chains, generating dynamic but persistent networks that facilitate SIC. This work provides a general and sustainable framework for designing SIC-toughened soft materials through supermolecular reinforcement, while valorizing latex waste.

The glycocalyx, a dense layer of glycoproteins and glycolipids on eukaryotic cells, is essential for cellular functions such as communication, signaling, and pathogen interactions. Certain components spontaneously organize into membrane microdomains, enhancing glycan-lectin interactions by clustering glycoproteins and glycolipids. However, studying these dynamic systems in native membranes is difficult due to their high heterogeneity. Synthetic glycocalyx mimetics have thus become valuable tools to replicate such complex interactions. In this study, we present diacetylene-containing multivalent glycomimetic ligands for integration into giant unilamellar vesicles as model membranes. We demonstrate the synthesis and application of a novel SPPoS-compatible building block that enables site-selective incorporation of a diacetylene moiety into sequence-defined, lipidated glycan mimetics. When incorporated into GUVs, the glycomimetic ligands cluster upon lectin binding, bringing diacetylene units into close proximity. UV irradiation then induces polymerization, yielding fluorescent polydiacetylene clusters that mimic receptor-mediated glycan clustering in cell membranes. This approach allows precise control over glycan cluster formation and provides a versatile platform for studying multivalent glycan-lectin interactions in clustering and membrane microdomain organization. By stabilizing glycan clusters, this system offers valuable potential for advancing our understanding of membrane-associated glycan interactions and their role in cellular signaling.

Snail slime, also known as mucus, presents great potential due to its broad spectrum of ingredients, including the eponymous structural proteins (Mucins), glycoproteins, and bioactive compounds such as hyaluronic acid and allantoin. It is most prominently applied in the cosmetic industry as a raw material for the production of protein-based hybrid hydrogels, and is also known to have potential for synthetic chemistry. For instance, it has been shown to have the ability to form catalytically active gold NPs (Au-NPs) under mild conditions. In this research, these key features are combined, the ability to reduce gold solutions, stabilize their NPs, and be a chemical building block, for developing Au-NP-comprising hydrogel structures from snail slime. Au-NPs are produced under environmentally friendly conditions and integrated into bio-based hydrogels for a sustainable reaction process. In the form of micro-scale dots, the newly designed Au-NP-hydrogels are successfully implemented in a microfluidic single-chamber reactor and utilized for the decolouration (= degradation) of Rhodamine 6G. A path toward a multi-functional, environmentally friendly microfluidic test chip, utilizing the versatile catalytic activity of green gold NPs, embedded in biogenic and hydrogel materials, is hence presented.