{"title":"Parameters Governing Void Formation and Expansion of Hollow Natural Rubber Latex Particles for Their Use as Bio-based Nanocapsules","authors":"Duangkamol Promlok, Teeraporn Suteewong, Duangporn Polpanich, Pramuan Tangboriboonrat","doi":"10.1002/mren.202400036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mren.202400036","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This work reports the hollow latex (HL) particles developed from natural rubber latex particles (NRPs), known for their broad size distribution and non-spherical shape. HL-NRPs, prepared via the seeded emulsion polymerization in one pot, are studied as potential bio-based nanocapsules for the first time. Effects of types of crosslinking agents and swelling agents, the addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and monomer compositions on the void formation and expansion are systematically investigated. The combined effects of phase separation between NR core swelled with divinyl benzene (DVB) and hydrophilic poly(methyl methacrylate/acrylic acid) P(MMA/AA) shell, the entanglement of rubber chains copolymerized with MMA/DVB/AA monomers, and the osmosis from external aqueous medium promoted the void formation. While crosslinking agents affected the void formation and shell strength, SDS and type of monomers governed colloidal stability and polymerization loci as well as morphology, respectively. The ability of HL-NRPs as nanocapsules is explored by encapsulating fluorescent dyes, i.e., hydrophilic fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and lipophilic Nile red (NiR), as model cargo. From the dye release test after 24 h, the cumulative concentrations of FITC in methanol and of NiR in tetrahydrofuran are 0.17 and 0.11 µg mL<sup>−1</sup>, respectively. The results suggested that FITC is released from HL-NRPs easier than NiR possibly due to the different encapsulation location.</p>","PeriodicalId":18052,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Reaction Engineering","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143431306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yui Maejima, Mana Tomizawa, Ai Takabatake, Shin-ichi Takeda, Hiroshi Fudouzi, Keiki Kishikawa, Michinari Kohri
{"title":"Michael Addition Reaction-Assisted Surface Modification of Melanin Particles for Water-Repellent Structural Color Coating","authors":"Yui Maejima, Mana Tomizawa, Ai Takabatake, Shin-ichi Takeda, Hiroshi Fudouzi, Keiki Kishikawa, Michinari Kohri","doi":"10.1002/mren.202400040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mren.202400040","url":null,"abstract":"<p>There is significant interest in developing paints based on structural colors, which do not fade like dyes and pigments. To use these paints as coatings, it is necessary to have a technology that can easily impart structural color to the material's surface without changing color based on the viewing angle. In addition, water-repellent properties that lead to stain resistance are required for practical application. This study applies a structural color coating by synthesizing hydrophobic melanin particles using the Michael addition reaction and arranging these particles on a substrate at high speed. The resulting coating film shows angle-independent structural color due to the amorphous structure of the particle arrangement, and the color tone could be controlled by adjusting the particle size. The combination of the particle's hydrophobic surface and the microscopic unevenness from the arrangement structure produced a superhydrophobic coating with a contact angle of over 160°. Since the Lotus effect, resulting from superhydrophobic surfaces, can maintain the cleanliness of structural color coatings, the findings of this research will contribute to the development of next-generation coating technology.</p>","PeriodicalId":18052,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Reaction Engineering","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143431307","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lorena Vanessa Medeiros Dantas, Amanda Meneses Araújo, Janetty Jany Pereira Barros, Mary Gleyce Andrade da Silva, Carlos Bruno Barreto Luna, Elieber Bezerra, José Vinícius Barreto, Edcleide Araújo, Renato Pereira de Melo, Renate Maria Ramos Wellen
{"title":"Using Urban Residue in Polylactic Acid Composites Part I: Effect of Castor Oil on the Crystallization Kinetics","authors":"Lorena Vanessa Medeiros Dantas, Amanda Meneses Araújo, Janetty Jany Pereira Barros, Mary Gleyce Andrade da Silva, Carlos Bruno Barreto Luna, Elieber Bezerra, José Vinícius Barreto, Edcleide Araújo, Renato Pereira de Melo, Renate Maria Ramos Wellen","doi":"10.1002/mren.202400039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mren.202400039","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This work aimed analyzing the chemical and thermal aspects of Polylactic Acid (PLA) composites with Coconut Fiber (CF) and irradiated Coconut Fiber (CFI), upon castor oil (CO) addition. Influence of treated and untreated CF, at 10 and 20 wt.%, on the crystallization kinetics of PLA/CO composites is also investigated. At first, CF is chemically treated through mercerization under NaOH solution with subsequent gamma irradiation. Chemical changes include absence of bands ≈3300 cm<sup>−1</sup> and the presence of vibrations at 3000–2851 cm<sup>−1</sup> in composites with treated fibers, as evidenced by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Thermal behavior, as well as crystallization kinetics, are investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) at different heating rates (5, 10, 15, and 20 °C min<sup>−1</sup>), using Pseudo-Avrami (PA), Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose (KAS), and Ozawa-Flynn-Wall (OFW) models. Activation energy (E<sub>a</sub>) is calculated using OFW, KAS, Friedman (FR), and Vyazovkin (VZ) methods. Results showed changes in the FTIR spectra for PLA/5%CO/10%CF and PLA/5%CO/20%CFI, indicating absence of the carbonyl group (1594 cm<sup>−1</sup>) present in the ester group of PLA. Insertion of CFs increased the crystallization temperature. Presence of CFI provided an inversion in E<sub>a</sub>, when compared to PLA/CO, suggesting that irradiation induces PLA stronger interactions. Gathered results highlight the potential of modified coconut fibers for the development of sustainable composite materials.</p>","PeriodicalId":18052,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Reaction Engineering","volume":"19 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143840915","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Carlos Antonio Ramirez-Foyo, Omar García-Valdez, Alfred C. W. Leung, Edmond Lam, Pascale Champagne, Michael F. Cunningham
{"title":"Grafting Well-Defined Synthetic Polymers to Chitosan Nanocrystals via Nitroxide-Mediated Polymerization","authors":"Carlos Antonio Ramirez-Foyo, Omar García-Valdez, Alfred C. W. Leung, Edmond Lam, Pascale Champagne, Michael F. Cunningham","doi":"10.1002/mren.202400031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mren.202400031","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Chitosan nanocrystals (ChsNCs) are a renewable resource attracting research interest due to their outstanding physical, chemical, and mechanical properties. ChsNCs exhibit promising potential applications as reinforcing materials in polymer-based nanocomposites. However, the hydrophilic surface of ChsNCs leads to poor dispersibility in hydrophobic polymer matrices, hindering these potential applications. In this work, the first graft modification of ChsNCs using nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP) is reported. ChsNCs are initially functionalized with glycidyl methacrylate to provide a reactive surface group that enables the polymer-graft modification. Polystyrene and poly (methyl methacrylate) with well-defined molecular weight polymers are first synthesized via NMP, and the polymers are then <i>“grafted to”</i> the ChsNCs surface, yielding polymer-graft modified ChsNCs.</p>","PeriodicalId":18052,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Reaction Engineering","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143431424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alaa El Halabi, Anh-Duong Dieu Vo, Kaveh Abdi, Piet D. Iedema, Kimberley B. McAuley
{"title":"Modeling of 1,6-Hexanediol Diacrylate Photopolymerization with Spatial Gradients and Film Shrinkage","authors":"Alaa El Halabi, Anh-Duong Dieu Vo, Kaveh Abdi, Piet D. Iedema, Kimberley B. McAuley","doi":"10.1002/mren.202400038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mren.202400038","url":null,"abstract":"<p>A dynamic model is proposed to account for shrinkage and swelling during the photopolymerization of 1,6-hexanediol diacrylate (HDDA) with the bifunctional initiator bis-acylphosphine oxide (BAPO) in the presence of oxygen. The model is composed of 14 partial differential equations (PDEs) that are used to track changes in film thickness along with time- and spatially-varying concentrations of monomer, initiator, oxygen, pendant vinyl groups, and seven types of radicals. Shrinkage has a noticeable influence on the model predictions. For a variety of simulated photopolymerization experiments, there is ≈9% discrepancy between predicted overall vinyl-group conversions obtained from the current model with shrinkage and a previous model without. Prediction discrepancies become larger for simulated experiments involving thin films (8 µm) or low light intensities (1200 W m<sup>−2</sup>). In the future, it will be important to re-estimate the kinetic parameters used in the shrinkage model to obtain accurate model predictions for use in process improvement studies.</p>","PeriodicalId":18052,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Reaction Engineering","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/mren.202400038","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143431842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Design of Emulsion Polymerization Reactors for Monomer-Transport Limited Emulsion Polymerization","authors":"Francis Joseph Schork","doi":"10.1002/mren.202400028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mren.202400028","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Damkohler Number (<i>Da</i>) analysis can identify monomers and emulsion polymerization operating regimes where the polymerization may be monomer-transport, rather than reaction-limited. In these cases, the expected monomer concentration in the growing polymer particles will be reduced due to the transport limitation. This will reduce the expected rate of polymerization, and require the design of a larger polymerization reactor for a given production rate. In heterogenous catalysis, an effectiveness factor is used to quantify the reduction in reaction rate and necessarily increase reactor size to compensate. This paper will show that it is possible to use Da (functionally equivalent to the Thiele Modulus in heterogeneous catalysis) to estimate an effectiveness factor for emulsion polymerization. Also shown is a procedure for calculating the monomer feed ratio during binary copolymerization when one must not only take into account the reactivity ratios but also the possibility that one of the monomers is monomer-transport limited. The method provides the monomer feed ratio during the semibatch phase of a binary copolymerization. This alternative to starved-feed polymerization shall result in much faster polymerization and higher polymerization kettle utility.</p>","PeriodicalId":18052,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Reaction Engineering","volume":"19 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/mren.202400028","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143840826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Soft–Soft Nanocomposite Approach for Design of Water-Borne Acrylic Surface Coatings","authors":"Elizabeth M. Eaves, Peter A. Lovell","doi":"10.1002/mren.202400032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mren.202400032","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Poly[(<i>n</i>-butyl methacrylate)-<i>co</i>-(<i>n</i>-butyl acrylate)]-based core-shell latexes are prepared by emulsion polymerization with a shell copolymer glass transition temperature (<i>T</i><sub>g</sub>) of 5 °C, but differences in core copolymer wt.% (4–90) and <i>T</i><sub>g</sub> (5–25 °C), and in wt.% of diacetone acrylamide (DAAM) in the shell copolymer, which facilitates crosslinking in the percolating phase of films through addition of adipic acid dihydrazide. Analysis of samples removed from reactions, together with analysis of film cross-sections by atomic force microscopy (AFM), confirms the core-shell particle structures and honeycomb morphologies in films, with simultaneous AFM and infrared spectroscopy showing the distribution of hydrazone crosslinks. Increasing wt.% DAAM (i.e., degree of crosslinking) in the percolating phase shifts film tensile stress–strain curves towards higher stresses and lower extensions at break. For core and shell copolymer <i>T</i><sub>g</sub>s of 5 °C there is a small effect of core wt.%. At 70 and 80 wt.% core, increasing core copolymer <i>T</i><sub>g</sub> also shifts the curves towards higher stresses and lower extensions at break. Thus by combining effects of core copolymer wt.% and <i>T</i><sub>g</sub> with effects of wt.% DAAM in the shell through the soft–soft nanocomposite approach, it is possible to achieve a wide range of tensile deformation behavior in films that have quite similar overall copolymer compositions.</p>","PeriodicalId":18052,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Reaction Engineering","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/mren.202400032","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143431789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Light-Based Desalination of Water Using Polypyrrole-Coated Fabrics","authors":"Ryuga Sakabe, Kanade Matsui, Takahiro Funatsu, Tomoyasu Hirai, Yoshinobu Nakamura, Syuji Fujii","doi":"10.1002/mren.202400034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/mren.202400034","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Fabrics consisting of cotton-core/polypyrrole (PPy)-sheath fibers (cotton/PPy fabrics) are synthesized by aqueous chemical oxidative seeded polymerization of pyrrole and are utilized as a solar evaporation device. Scanning electron microscopy studies and elemental microanalyses reveal the thickness of the PPy sheath increases from a few tens nm to ≈200 nm with an increase of pyrrole monomer concentration in the polymerization system. The temperature of cotton/PPy fabrics increases upon irradiation with artificial sunlight to ≈33–45 °C in the dry state, due to light-to-heat photothermal conversion by the PPy component. Thanks to the photothermal property of the fabrics, water impregnated within the cotton/PPy fabrics can evaporate efficiently under the irradiation of artificial sunlight. Light-induced water evaporation experiment using an artificial seawater confirms that ionic concentrations drastically decreases, indicating successful desalination.</p>","PeriodicalId":18052,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Reaction Engineering","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2024-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143431167","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}