Highly Efficient Transfer of Amino Groups to Imidazolium Entities for Polymer Coupling and Cross-Linking

Sustainable Battery Materials from Biomass

Sustainable sources of energy have been identified as a possible way out of today's oil dependency and are being rapidly developed. In contrast, storage of energy to a large extent still relies on heavy metals in batteries. Especially when built from biomass-derived organics, organic batteries are promising alternatives and pave the way towards truly sustainable energy storage. First described in 2008, research on biomass-derived electrodes has been taken up by a multitude of researchers worldwide. Nowadays, in principle, electrodes in batteries could be composed of all kinds of carbonized and noncarbonized biomass: On one hand, all kinds of (waste) biomass may be carbonized and used in anodes of lithium- or sodium-ion batteries, cathodes in metal-sulfur or metal-oxygen batteries, or as conductive additives. On the other hand, a plethora of biomolecules, such as quinones, flavins, or carboxylates, contain redox-active groups that can be used as redox-active components in electrodes with very little chemical modification. Biomass-based binders can replace toxic halogenated commercial binders to enable a truly sustainable future of energy storage devices. Besides the electrodes, electrolytes and separators may also be synthesized from biomass. In this Review, recent research progress in this rapidly emerging field is summarized with a focus on potentially fully biowaste-derived batteries.

Multicomponent Radziszewski Emulsion Polymerization toward Macroporous Poly(ionic liquid) Catalysts

Interconnected macroporous imidazolium-based monoliths are produced via the modified Radziszewski multicomponent reaction (MCR) applied to triamines under high internal phase emulsion (HIPE) conditions. This straightforward one-pot synthesis combines the efficiency and versatility of MCRs with the ease of implementation of the emulsion templating polymerization process. The characterization of the chemical structure and morphology of the resulting materials confirms the formation of the expected macroporous poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) networks. The promising catalytic activity and recyclability of these porous PIL monoliths are illustrated for the transesterification reaction and the decarboxylation of caffeic acid. In these cases, almost complete conversion is reached while benefiting from the advantages associated with a heterogeneous catalyst.

High Throughput Preparation of UV-Protective Polymers from Essential Oil Extracts via the Biginelli Reaction

A high throughput (HTP) system has been developed to exploit new functional polymers. We synthesized 25 monomers in a mini-HTP manner through the tricomponent Biginelli reaction with high yields. The starting materials were five aldehydes extracted from essential oils. The 25 corresponding polymers were conveniently prepared via mini-HTP radical polymerization initially realizing the benefit of HTP methods to quickly fabricate sample libraries. The distinct radical scavenging ability of these Biginelli polymers was evaluated through a HTP measurement to choose the three best radical scavengers. This confirms the superiority of the HTP strategy to rapidly collect and analyze data. The selected polymers have been upgraded and screened according to different requirements for biomaterials and offer water-soluble and biocompatible copolymers that effectively protect cells from the fatal UV damage. This research is a straightforward way to establish new libraries of monomers with abundant diversity. It offers polymers with interesting functionalities. This suggests that a broader study of multicomponent reactions and HTP methods might be useful in many interdisciplinary fields. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a HTP study of the Biginelli reaction to develop a promising polymeric biomaterial, which might have important implications for the organic chemistry and polymer communities.

The multicomponent Debus–Radziszewski reaction in macromolecular chemistry

The well-known Debus–Radziszewski reaction is over one century old. However, this reaction has only been considered very recently as a new tool to design original imidazole and imidazolium-containing polymers by direct formation of the imidazole ring during the polymerization process. This article reports recent advances concerning the use of this newly emerging reaction in macromolecular chemistry.

One-pot synthesis of self-healable and recyclable ionogels based on polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers via Schiff base reaction

Novel ionogels with covalent polymeric networks based on polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers have been synthesized by the in situ crosslinking of amines via Schiff base reaction in the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([EMIM][OAc]).

The Hantzsch reaction in polymer chemistry: synthesis and tentative application

The recent utilization of the tetra-component Hantzsch reaction in polymer chemistry has been summarized.

Synthesis of imidazolium-crosslinked chitosan aerogel and its prospect as a dye removing adsorbent

Debus–Radziszewski imidazole synthesis was used to obtain crosslinked chitosan aerogel with very high adsorption towards anionic dye.

UV-Patterning of Ion Conducting Negative Tone Photoresists Using Azide-Functionalized Poly(Ionic Liquid)s

The patterning of solid electrolytes that builds upon traditional fabrication of semiconductors is described. An azide-functionalized poly(1,2,3-triazolium ionic liquid) is used as an ion conducting negative tone photoresist. After UV-irradiation through an optical mask, micron-scaled, patterned, solid polyelectrolyte layers with controlled sizes and shapes are obtained. Furthermore, alkylation of poly(1,2,3-triazole)s can be generalized to the synthesis of poly(ionic liquid)s with a tunable amount of pendant functionalities.