Polymer Diffusion in PBMA Latex Films Using a Polymerizable Benzophenone Derivative as an Energy Transfer Acceptor

Overview of Silica-Polymer Nanostructures for Waterborne High-Performance Coatings

Combining organic and inorganic components at a nanoscale is an effective way to obtain high performance coating materials with excellent chemical and physical properties. This review focuses on recent approaches to prepare hybrid nanostructured waterborne coating materials combining the mechanical properties and versatility of silica as the inorganic filler, with the flexural properties and ease of processing of the polymer matrix. We cover silica-polymer coupling agents used to link the organic and inorganic components, the formation of hybrid films from these silica-polymer nanostructures, and their different applications. These hybrid nanostructures can be used to prepare high performance functional coatings with different properties from optical transparency, to resistance to temperature, hydrophobicity, anti-corrosion, resistance to scratch, and antimicrobial activity.

100th Anniversary of Macromolecular Science Viewpoint: Enabling Advances in Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques

In the past few decades there has been a revolution in the field of optical microscopy with emerging capabilities such as super-resolution and single-molecule fluorescence techniques. Combined with the classical advantages of fluorescence imaging, such as chemical labeling specificity, and noninvasive sample preparation and imaging, these methods have enabled significant advances in our polymer community. This Viewpoint discusses several of these capabilities and how they can uniquely offer information where other characterization techniques are limited. Several examples are highlighted that demonstrate the ability of fluorescence microscopy to understand key questions in polymer science such as single-molecule diffusion and orientation, 3D nanostructural morphology, and interfacial and multicomponent dynamics. Finally, we briefly discuss opportunities for further advances in techniques that may allow them to make an even greater contribution in polymer science.

Understanding particle formation in surfactant-free waterborne coatings prepared by emulsification of pre-formed polymers

Concern for the environment has been driving major changes in the coatings industry.

Smart polymer nanoparticles for high-performance water-borne coatings

Poly(butyl methacrylate) nanoparticles encapsulating a silica precursor, tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), were synthesized by a two-step emulsion polymerization process. We show that TEOS remains mostly unreacted inside the nanoparticles in water but acts both as a plasticizer and cross-linker in films cast from the dispersions. The diffusion-enhancing plasticizing effect is dominant at annealing temperatures closer to the glass-transition temperature of the polymer, and sol-gel cross-linking reactions predominate at higher temperatures. By choosing an appropriate annealing temperature, we were able to balance polymer interdiffusion and silica cross-linking to obtain films with good mechanical properties and excellent chemical resistance. The hybrid cross-linked films produced from these novel "smart" nanoparticles can be used in water-borne environmentally friendly coatings for high-performance applications.

Functional Films from Silica/Polymer Nanoparticles

High performance functional coatings, based on hybrid organic/inorganic materials, are being developed to combine the polymer flexibility and ease of processing with the mechanical properties and versatility of inorganic materials. By incorporating silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) in the polymeric matrices, it is possible to obtain hybrid polymer films with increased tensile strength and impact resistance, without decreasing the flexural properties of the polymer matrix. The SiNPs can further be used as carriers to impart other functionalities (optical, etc.) to the hybrid films. By using polymer-coated SiNPs, it is possible to reduce particle aggregation in the films and, thus, achieve more homogeneous distributions of the inorganic components and, therefore, better properties. On the other hand, by coating polymer particles with silica, one can create hierarchically structured materials, for example to obtain superhydrophobic coatings. In this review, we will cover the latest developments in films prepared from hybrid polymer/silica functional systems.

Formation of hybrid films from perylenediimide-labeled core-shell silica-polymer nanoparticles

We prepared water-dispersible core-shell nanoparticles with a perylenediimide-labeled silica core and a poly(butyl methacrylate) shell, for application in photoactive high performance coatings. Films cast from water dispersions of the core-shell nanoparticles are flexible and transparent, featuring homogeneously dispersed silica nanoparticles, and exhibiting fluorescence under appropriate excitation. We characterized the film formation process using nanoparticles where the polymer shell has been labeled with either a non-fluorescent N-benzophenone derivative (NBen) or a fluorescent phenanthrene derivative (PheBMA). We used Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) from PheBMA to NBen to follow the interparticle interdiffusion of the polymer anchored to the silica surface that occurs after the dried dispersions are annealing above the glass transition temperature of the polymer. By calculating the evolution of the FRET quantum efficiency with annealing time, we could estimate the approximate fraction of mixing (fm) between polymer from neighbor particles, and from this, the apparent diffusion coefficients (Dapp) for this process. For long annealing times, the limiting values of fm are slightly lower than for films of pure PBMA particles at similar temperatures (go up to 80% of total possible mixing). The corresponding diffusion coefficients are also very similar to those reported for films of pure PBMA, indicating that the fact that the polymer chains are anchored to the silica particles does not significantly hinder the diffusion process during the initial part of the mixing process. From the temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficients, we found an effective activation energy for diffusion of Ea=38 kcal/mol, very similar to the value obtained for particles of the same polymer without the silica core. With these results, we show that, although the polymer is grafted to the silica surface, polymer interdiffusion during film formation is not significantly decreased by the silica core. This explains the excellent properties of the photoactive high performance coatings formed from the core-shell nanoparticles.

The influence of nanoparticle architecture on latex film formation and healing properties

We present a study of chain interdiffusion in films formed by specially architectured PBMA nanoparticles by Förster Resonance Energy Transfer -FRET. Polymer nanoparticles contained linear chains with narrower molecular weight distributions than other previous reports, allowing a more detailed study. Apparent fractions of mixing and diffusion coefficients, determined from the quantum efficiency of energy transfer, were used to characterize the interdiffusion mechanism in the different films. The resistance of the films to dissolution by a good solvent was finally correlated with the interdiffusion results, in order to get information about film healing. We concluded that whenever interdiffusion occurs between nanoparticles containing linear chains and fully cross-linked nanoparticles, healing becomes more effective in spite of showing slower interdiffusion. We also observed that particles with longer chains are more effective for film healing. Finally, we concluded that interdiffusion occurs both ways across interfaces in blends formed by particles swollen with linear chains of different molecular weights.

Schizophrenic behavior of a thermoresponsive double hydrophilic diblock copolymer at the air-water interface

The thermoresponsive behavior of the rhodamine B end-labeled double hydrophilic block copolymer (DHBC) poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide)-b-poly(N,N-diethylacrylamide) (RhB-PDMA(207)-b-PDEA(177)) and the 1:1 segmental mixture of PDEA and rhodamine B end-labeled PDMA homopolymers was studied over the range of 10-40 degrees C at the air-water interface. The increase in collapse surface pressure (second plateau regime) of the DHBC with temperature confirms the thermoresponsiveness of PDEA at the interface. The sum of the pi-A isotherms of the two single homopolymers weighted by composition closely follows the pi-A isotherm of the DHBC, suggesting that the behavior of each block of the DHBC is not influenced by the presence of the other block. Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers of DHBC deposited on glass substrates were analyzed by laser scanning confocal fluorescence microscopy (LSCFM), showing schizophrenic behavior: at low temperature, the RhB-PDMA block dominates the inside of bright (core) microdomains, switching to the outside (shell) at temperatures above the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of PDEA. This core-shell inversion triggered by the temperature increase was not detected in the homopolymer mixture. The present results suggest that both the covalent bond between the two blocks of the DHBC and the tendency of rhodamine B to aggregate play a role in the formation of the bright cores at low temperature whereas PDEA thermoaggregation is responsible for the formation of the dark cores above the LCST of PDEA.

In Situ Investigation of Drug Diffusion in Hydrogels by the Refractive Index Method

This work describes a simple but novel analytical method for in situ monitoring of the diffusion process of drugs in hydrogels based on refractive index measurements. The diffusion process was monitored by recording the refraction of a laser beam passing through a triangular cell, which allows the determination of changes in the refractive index distribution from the deviated distance of the linear beam. Compared to conventional methods, this new method exhibits advantages such as more simplicity, lower cost, and speed. Further, the refractive index method permits the determination of the concentration distribution of solutes in the hydrogels at any time during the diffusion process under nondestructive circumstances. The precision was determined by successfully applying this new method to the diffusion of a typical antibiotic drug, cefazolin sodium, in agarose gels of various concentrations. By employing Fick's second law, the diffusion behavior was investigated and the diffusion coefficients of cefazolin sodium in agarose gels were therefore obtained. Amsden's physical model based on obstruction effect was applied to the simulation of the diffusion process of cefazolin sodium and turned out to fit the results quite well.