Research articles

New acrylate and methacrylate monomers (1 and 2) incorporating a bulky and rigid norbornadiene dimer were synthesized and polymerized using borane- and aluminum-based Lewis pair catalysts. The resulting polymers exhibited high glass transition temperatures (T_g). Notably, poly2 exhibited high syndiotacticity (rr = 87%), attributed to steric hindrance of the bulky MAD-coordinated chain end, resulting in a T_g of 206 °C. These findings indicate that incorporating sterically demanding side chains and enhancing syndiatacticity through Lewis pair polymerization can lead to the development of thermally stable (meth)acrylic polymers.

Carboxy groups on cellulose nanowhiskers (CNWs) were quantified using two dyes in four states (original and purified methylene blue (MB) and toluidine blue O (TBO)). Only purified TBO yielded satisfactory accuracy. Unpurified TBO resulted in overestimation, attributed to impurities (typically inorganic salts), whereas unpurified and purified MB led to underestimation, the reasons for which are still unknown.

Coordination polymerization of (Z)-1-phenyl[3]dendralene(1Z-P3D) was investigated using by homogeneous neodymium catalyst. The polymer was obtained under the appropriate polymerization condition and the most part of polymer became insoluble in the progress of isolation. The microstructure of poly(1Z-P3D) prepared by neodymium catalyst was only 4,6-structure whereas poly(1Z-P3D) prepared by anionic initiator contained a predominant amount of 1,4-structure.

Illustration of photoanionic cross-linking of PSA by UV irradiation using photoreactive copolymers containing AOI and AAEM monomer units. The developed PSA tape showed good performance 2 h after coating and UV irradiation. The proposed polymer is expected to provide new benefits for PSA tape, such as temporarily fixing semiconductor devices.