Publications associées à Equilibrium and Out-of-Equilibrium Adherence of Hydrogels against Polymer Brushes

Soft Mechanochemistry of Disulfide-Crosslinked Polymer Networks

Mechanochemistry harnesses mechanical force to facilitate chemical reactions. Traditionally, the field of polymer mechanochemistry has used methods to activate chemical bonds, which use forces that are larger than those that are required to break a covalen ...

EPFL2024

Valence can control the nonexponential viscoelastic relaxation of multivalent reversible gels

Hugo Camille Valentin Le Roy

Gels made of telechelic polymers connected by reversible cross-linkers are a versatile design platform for biocompatible viscoelastic materials. Their linear response to a step strain displays a fast, near-exponential relaxation when using low-valence cros ...

Amer Assoc Advancement Science2024

Process-Induced Structures of Injection-Molded High-Density Polyethylene-Combining X-ray Scattering and Finite Element Modeling

Marianne Liebi, Manuel Guizar Sicairos

The success of plastics heavily relies on fast melt processing methods used for large-scale industrial manufacturing, including injection molding. The hierarchical structure of the solid polymer depends on material selection combined with processing condit ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Excited State-Specific CASSCF Theory for the Torsion of Ethylene

State-specific complete active space self-consistent field (SS-CASSCF) theory has emerged as a promising route to accurately predict electronically excited energy surfaces away from molecular equilibria. However, its accuracy and practicality for chemical ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Tailoring p-Type Behavior in ZnO Quantum Dots through Enhanced Sol–Gel Synthesis: Mechanistic Insights into Zinc Vacancies

Jacques-Edouard Moser, Andrea Cannizzo, Etienne Christophe Socie, Camila Bacellar Cases Da Silveira, Victoria Kabanova

The synthesis and control of properties of p-type ZnO is crucial for a variety of optoelectronic and spintronic applications; however, it remains challenging due to the control of intrinsic midgap (defect) states. In this study, we demonstrate a synthetic ...

2024

The Structural Dispersity of Oligoethylene Glycol-Containing Polymer Brushes Determines Their Interfacial Properties

Harm-Anton Klok, Alberto Ongaro, Irene Filipucci

Ought to their bioinert properties and facile synthesis, poly[(oligoethylene glycol)methacrylate]s (POEGMAs) have been raised as attractive alternatives to poly(ethylene glycols) (PEGs) in an array of (bio)material applications, especially when they are ap ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Chalcogen bonding catalysis

Jieping Zhu

Catalysts play a major role in chemical synthesis, and catalysis is considered to be a green and economic process. Catalysis is dominated by covalent interactions between the catalyst and substrate. The design of non-covalent catalysts came into limelight ...

Royal Society of Chemistry2024

Localized Ionic Reinforcement of Double Network Granular Hydrogels

Esther Amstad, Alexandra Thoma

Nature produces soft materials with fascinating combinations of mechanical properties. For example, the mussel byssus embodies a combination of stiffness and toughness, a feature that is unmatched by synthetic hydrogels. Key to enabling these excellent mec ...

Wiley-V C H Verlag Gmbh2024

Biobased Composites from Eugenol- and Coumarin-Derived Methacrylic Latex and Hemp Nanocellulose: Cross-Linking via [2+2] Photocycloaddition and Barrier Properties

Yves Leterrier, Sara Dalle Vacche

A novel-biobased latex was synthesized by redox-initiated emulsion copolymerization of ethoxy dihydroeugenyl methacrylate with 5 wt % of a photosensitive methacrylate containing a coumarin group. A stable copolymer latex having 16 wt % solids content and a ...

Amer Chemical Soc2024

Supramolecular Polymer Brushes

Friederike Katharina Metze

Thin polymer coatings present a method to modify the surface properties of underlying substrates. Polymer-coated surfaces have been used as anticorrosive materials, surfaces with special wetting properties, antifriction materials, and as materials for biom ...

EPFL2023

Supramolecular Polymer Brushes Grown by Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization from Cucurbit[7]uril-based Non-Covalent Initiators

Harm-Anton Klok, Friederike Katharina Metze, Irene Filipucci

Polymer brushes are densely grafted, chain end-tethered assemblies of polymers that can be produced via surface-initiated polymerization. Typically, this is accomplished using initiators or chain transfer agents that are covalently attached to the substrat ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH2023

Supramolecular Modifications of Semicrystalline Polymers

Michael Alan Giffin

Supramolecular interactions play an important role in defining the structure and the resulting mechanical properties of materials. For instance, interchain hydrogen-bonding in PAs gives them superior strength and stiffness in engineering materials, while t ...

EPFL2023

On-Demand Cross-Linkable Bottlebrush Polymers for Voltage- Driven Artificial Muscles

Frank Nüesch, Francis Owusu, Yeerlan Adeli

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) generate motion resembling natural muscles in reliability, adaptability, elongation, and frequency of operation. They are highly attractive in implantable soft robots or artificial organs. However, many applications of ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2023

Rheological Properties of Ionically Crosslinked Viscoelastic 2D Films vs. Corresponding 3D Bulk Hydrogels

Esther Amstad, Gaia De Angelis

Ionically crosslinked hydrogels containing metal coordination motifs have piqued the interest of researchers in recent decades due to their self-healing and adhesive properties. In particular, catechol-functionalized bulk hydrogels have received a lot of a ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2023

Architecturally Diverse Polymer Brushes Prepared via Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

Sabrina Sant

Polymer brushes, which are polymers anchored to a solid substrate by one chainend, have the ability to modify the properties of an underlying substrate, offering intriguing features such as enhanced lubrication, reduced friction, colloidal stability, and a ...

EPFL2023

Opportunities, Challenges, and Pitfalls in Making, Characterizing, and Understanding Polymer Brushes

Harm-Anton Klok

Polymer brushes have been theoretically described, their behavior under diverse conditions has been modeled, and their preparation via surface-initiated polymerizations (SIPs) has been progressively refined. However, despite three decades of research endea ...

American Chemical Society2023

Influence of the molecular weight and physical properties of a thermoplastic polymer on its dynamic wetting behavior

Valentin Rougier

The wetting dynamics of molten thermoplastic polymers, which are known to influence the force balance of the triple line, are not understood properly despite their importance in many industrial processes. In particular, the influence of the molecular weigh ...

Elsevier2023

Scanning Small-Angle X-ray Scattering of Injection-Molded Polymers: Anisotropic Structure and Mechanical Properties of Low-Density Polyethylene

Marianne Liebi, Manuel Guizar Sicairos

Injection molding is known to create a layered anisotropicmorphologyacross the sample thickness due to varying shear and cooling ratesduring the manufacturing process. In this study, scanning small-angleX-ray scattering was used to visualize and quantify t ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2023

Tunnel junction sensing of TATP explosive at the single-molecule level

Radomir Zikic, Helena Miljkovic

Triacetone triperoxide (TATP) is a highly potent homemade explosive commonly used in terrorist attacks. Its detection poses a significant challenge due to its volatility, and the lack of portability of current sensing techniques. To address this issue, we ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2023

Bottlebrush Dielectric Elastomers with Improved Properties for Actuation

Yeerlan Adeli

Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEA) are elastic capacitors composed of a pair of compliant electrodes and a soft dielectric elastomer film sandwiched in between. This kind of stretchable capacitors can be actuated when charged, can generate electricity fr ...

EPFL2023