{"title":"Chloromethane-Enabled Quaternization of Linear Polyglycerol Amines and Their Application as Antibacterial Agents.","authors":"Natalie Hanheiser, Merlin Kleoff, Katharina Achazi, Abhishek Singh, Sebastian Riedel, Rainer Haag","doi":"10.1002/marc.202500111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202500111","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this study, the safe and scalable N-methylation of primary amines in a linear polyglycerol (LPG) backbone structure is reported with altering molecular weight using gaseous chloromethane for the generation of quaternary ammonium groups. All polymers are subsequently analyzed for their antibacterial and antibiofilm properties against drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), showing that the implementation of quaternary ammonium groups to a polymer backbone structure is an efficient way to generate new antimicrobial agents. Thereby, the molecular weight of the polymer backbone structure strongly correlates to its antibacterial effect and can be altered depending on the desired application.</p>","PeriodicalId":205,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Rapid Communications","volume":" ","pages":"e2500111"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143955500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Electrochemical Commodity Polymer Up- and Re-Cycling: Toward Sustainable and Circular Plastic Treatment.","authors":"Maxime Hourtoule, Sven Trienes, Lutz Ackermann","doi":"10.1002/marc.202500143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202500143","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The demand for commodity plastics reaches unprecedented dimensions. In contrast to the well-developed plethora of methods for polymer synthesis, sustainable strategies for the end-of-life management of plastics continue to be scarce. While mechanical re-cycling often results in downgraded materials, chemical re-cycling or up-cycling offers tremendous potential for an efficient and green approach, thereby addressing the precarious treatment of post-use plastics within a circular carbon economy. Recently, electrochemistry surfaced as a uniquely powerful tool for polymer up-cycling via polymer functionalization or degradation obtaining either novel polymers with valorized properties or high-value recycled small molecules, respectively. While discussing recent progress in that domain, future perspectives of electrochemical polymer modifications until January 2025 are outlined herein.</p>","PeriodicalId":205,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Rapid Communications","volume":" ","pages":"e2500143"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143956250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Self-Sustained Liquid Crystal Elastomer Actuators with Geometric Zero-Elastic-Energy Modes.","authors":"Tongzhi Zang, Reyihanguli Muhetaer, Chun Zhang, Shuang Fu, Junpeng Cheng, Xili Lu, Jianshe Hu, Hesheng Xia, Yue Zhao","doi":"10.1002/marc.202500134","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202500134","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Recently, a novel and fascinating actuation mode of liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs), known as geometric zero-elastic-energy modes (ZEEMs), has drawn intensive research interest. Based on this actuation mechanism, LCE actuators exhibit untethered, autonomous movements under external stimulations, demonstrating significant potential for applications in intelligent soft robots, autonomous energy conversion systems, and smart optical tuning components. This perspective provides a timely summary of the current research on LCE actuators based on ZEEMs and highlights their future development trends and prospects, which will be of great interest to broad communities of researchers in fields of LCEs, biomimetic smart materials, soft robotics, and actuators.</p>","PeriodicalId":205,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Rapid Communications","volume":" ","pages":"e2500134"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143956477","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mahesha Kodithuwakku Arachchige, Rohan Dharmarathna, Paul Fleischer, Antal Jákli
{"title":"Shape Changes of Liquid Crystal Elastomers Swollen by Low Molecular Weight Liquid Crystal Drops.","authors":"Mahesha Kodithuwakku Arachchige, Rohan Dharmarathna, Paul Fleischer, Antal Jákli","doi":"10.1002/marc.202500178","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202500178","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>An elastomer swelling actuator deforms by absorbing fluid, thus generating mechanical movement. It is shown that depositing small droplets of low molecular weight liquid crystal on liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) films leads to shape changes and bending actuation. It is found that the radially symmetric LCE director alignments provide radially symmetric hat shapes while swelling LCEs with uniform director structure lead to arch shapes. Hybrid samples (different director alignments on two sides) lead to more complicated bent shapes. All the observed shapes can be explained by the diffusion that mainly progresses along the direction normal to the director of the LCE. The swelling induced bending force elevates the top of the swollen LCE up to a factor of 30, providing a powerful and long-lasting actuation. These observations may lead to applications in various fields, like sealants, soft robotics, and biomedical devices.</p>","PeriodicalId":205,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Rapid Communications","volume":" ","pages":"e2500178"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143961090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dual-Functional Transparent Projection Film with Privacy Protection via Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Polymer Networks.","authors":"Jiahui Dong, Dirk J Broer, Danqing Liu","doi":"10.1002/marc.202500080","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202500080","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Transparent projection screens are widely used across various industries for applications that require overlaying digital content onto real-world environments while maintaining high transparency. However, existing technologies face challenges in balancing transparency, projection quality, and privacy protection. In this work, a novel transparent projection screen is based on cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) polymer networks is developed. The CLC networks are designed and fabricated to have a small birefringence to achieve a narrow bandwidth. This allows a selective reflection of designed colors for full-color projection, while allowing other light to transmit. The CLC films, designed with multi-layer CLC networks, selectively reflect red, green, and blue light to achieve high-quality full-color projection while maintaining transparency. The tri-layer CLC film demonstrates an average transparency of 70.2% and a color gamut covering 112% of the sRGB standard, ensuring vibrant and accurate color reproduction. To incorporate privacy protection, a hexa-layer CLC structure is developed, reflecting ≈100% of RGB light and preventing interior light from escaping, while still allowing ambient outdoor light to pass through. This dual functionality highlights the potential of CLC-based transparent projection films for applications in secure communication, immersive displays, and advanced visual technologies where both transparency and privacy are essential.</p>","PeriodicalId":205,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Rapid Communications","volume":" ","pages":"e2500080"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143951476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Niamh Bayliss, Matilde Concilio, Alexander Plucinski, Gokhan Yilmaz, C Remzi Becer, Bernhard V K J Schmidt
{"title":"Self-Coacervation of Oligo(ethylene glycol) and Oligo(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline)-Based Double Hydrophilic Brush Block Copolymers in Aqueous Solution.","authors":"Niamh Bayliss, Matilde Concilio, Alexander Plucinski, Gokhan Yilmaz, C Remzi Becer, Bernhard V K J Schmidt","doi":"10.1002/marc.202500151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202500151","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Coacervates are a highly relevant class of structures formed via liquid-liquid phase separation and new coacervate-forming polymers are highly sought after. Here, the formation of simple coacervate droplets from a double hydrophilic block copolymer (DHBC) with the combination of poly(oligo ethylene glycol methacrylate) (POEGMA) and poly(oligo 2-ethyl-2-oxazoline methacrylate) (POEtOx) without the use of external triggers or charges is shown. At a high concentration of 25 wt.%, the DHBC forms coacervate droplets with sizes in the low micrometre range. The droplets have relatively high stability over a long period of time with only minor coalescence observed after 4 weeks. At low concentrations, no coacervation is observed. Furthermore, copolymers of the monomers also do not show coacervation clearly indicating that the DHBC architecture is required to form the desired structures. The addition of guest polymers and biomacromolecules at low concentrations shows a specific partitioning behaviour with a preference for the polymer or the aqueous phase. At high guest concentrations, enrichment in the aqueous phase is observed, in line with common water-in-water (w/w) emulsions. These findings constitute a new direction for coacervate systems that are of interest for biotechnology, synthetic cell environment mimics and drug delivery.</p>","PeriodicalId":205,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Rapid Communications","volume":" ","pages":"e2500151"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143951538","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"FOIM: Thermal Foaming of Shape Memory Polyurethane Foil","authors":"Anna-Lisa Poser, Thorsten Pretsch","doi":"10.1002/marc.202570025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202570025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><b>Inside Front Cover</b>: On the bottom left-hand side of the cover, three people are sitting in front of a movie screen watching the film “FOIM”, a neologism from “FOIl” and “foaM”. This film is shown in five individual images on the right-hand side of the cover. It shows the gradual transformation of a foil of shape memory polymer into a foam, triggered by the application of heat. To illustrate the required temperature increase, the images contain a color gradient from cold (blue) to warm (red). The background of the cover exhibits a microscopic image of the foam, which is also colored using the same gradient. More details can be found in article 2401103 by Anna-Lisa Poser and Thorsten Pretsch.\u0000\u0000 <figure>\u0000 <div><picture>\u0000 <source></source></picture><p></p>\u0000 </div>\u0000 </figure></p>","PeriodicalId":205,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Rapid Communications","volume":"46 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/marc.202570025","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143840938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Maya D Montemayor, Ethan T Iverson, Landon R Dahle, Amy Green, Elizabeth Tenorio, Alexandra V Moran, Danixa Rodriguez-Melendez, Edward Chang, Margaret J Karim, Balakrishna Haridas, Jaime C Grunlan
{"title":"Polyelectrolyte Complex Coacervate Adhesive for Wearable Medical Devices.","authors":"Maya D Montemayor, Ethan T Iverson, Landon R Dahle, Amy Green, Elizabeth Tenorio, Alexandra V Moran, Danixa Rodriguez-Melendez, Edward Chang, Margaret J Karim, Balakrishna Haridas, Jaime C Grunlan","doi":"10.1002/marc.202500117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202500117","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Wearable electronics are becoming increasingly popular for personalized healthcare. These devices often use hydrophobic, pressure-sensitive adhesives to adhere to various parts of the body. With prolonged skin contact, commercial adhesives have been shown to cause allergic contact dermatitis as well as significant loss of adhesive strength when exposed to moisture and ionic compounds, such as sweat. To address these common issues, the development of a polyelectrolyte-based skin adhesive for wearable devices is underway. Here, it is demonstrated how coacervation is induced with a system composed of polyethylenimine (PEI) and sodium hexametaphosphate (PSP) as the counter polyelectrolyte. The coacervate is deposited onto a polyurethane film to form an effective adhesive that is mechanically comparable to a commercially available one, offering a promising alternative for wearable devices.</p>","PeriodicalId":205,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Rapid Communications","volume":" ","pages":"e2500117"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143954589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Free Volume Space of Polymers as a New Functional Nanospace: Synthesis of Guest Polymers","authors":"Sayaka Hirai, Tomoki Sakuma, Yuki Tokura, Hiroaki Imai, Ryo Seishima, Kohei Shigeta, Koji Okabayashi, Yuya Oaki","doi":"10.1002/marc.202570026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202570026","url":null,"abstract":"<p><b>Back Cover</b>: Fee volume space of conventional polymers is applied as a nanospace. No previous works have focused on such tiny space enclosed by polymer chains for the functionalization. In article 2400980, Yuya Oaki and co-workers show synthesis of conductive polymers in the nanospace from the guest monomer molecules in vapor phase.\u0000\u0000 <figure>\u0000 <div><picture>\u0000 <source></source></picture><p></p>\u0000 </div>\u0000 </figure></p>","PeriodicalId":205,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Rapid Communications","volume":"46 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/marc.202570026","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143840939","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reconnecting the World of Polymer Science","authors":"Bicheng Zhu, Hendrik Frisch","doi":"10.1002/marc.202500148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202500148","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":205,"journal":{"name":"Macromolecular Rapid Communications","volume":"46 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143840698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}