Showing papers in "Progress in Polymer Science in 2013"

TL;DR: In this paper, the surface of inorganic nanoparticles is modified to improve the interfacial interactions between the inorganic particles and the polymer matrix, which improves the properties of polymeric composites.

TL;DR: The most promising nanoscale fillers are layered silicate nanoclays such as montmorillonite and kaolinite as mentioned in this paper, which can provide active and/or smart properties to food packaging systems.

TL;DR: The state of the art in the field of antimicrobial polymeric systems during the last decade is described in this paper, where a classification of the different materials is carried out dividing basically those synthetic polymers that exhibit antimicrobial activity by themselves; those whose biocidal activity is conferred through their chemical modification; those that incorporate antimicrobial organic compounds with either low or high molecular weight; and those that involve the addition of active inorganic systems.

TL;DR: A survey of recent work on poly(ionic liquid)s or polymerized ionic liquids (PILs) can be found in this paper, where a short explanation of the interconnection as well as the intrinsic differences between PILs and ionic liquid is given.

TL;DR: This article provides a comprehensive review on the elastomeric biomaterials used in tissue engineering, with emphasis on the most important candidates to date.

TL;DR: In this article, a comprehensive review of NMP is presented, from its discovery to 2012, covering all aspects, features and achievements of the NMP, from synthetic approaches to nitroxides and alkoxyamines, kinetic aspects and polymerization features.

TL;DR: The main achievements in nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP) from its discovery to late 2010 are discussed in this paper, where various synthetic approaches to nitroxides and alkoxyamines are first presented.

TL;DR: A recent review as mentioned in this paper highlights the main researches and developments in polylactide-based nanocomposites during this last decade, highlighting the main applications of PLA in automotive and electronics.

TL;DR: The basic working principles and the state of the art device design of bulk heterojunction solar cells are reviewed and the importance of high power conversion efficiencies for the commercial exploitation is outlined and different efficiency models for bulk heterovoltaic cells are discussed.

TL;DR: A broad review on the recent advances in the research and development of biobased plastics and bionanocomposites that are used in various applications such as packaging, durable goods, electronics and biomedical uses is presented in this paper.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed an extension of electrospinning towards fiber formation based not only on polymers of synthetic, biological nature, but also on metals, metal oxides, ceramics, organic/organic, organic-inorganic as well as inorganic/inorganic composite systems.

TL;DR: In this paper, a review of conjugated polymers with 1D and 2D topological structures is presented, and a design approach for the alternating donor-acceptor (D-A) copolymers is proposed.

TL;DR: A review of the application of the Diels-Alder (DA) reaction between furan and maleimide moieties can be found in this paper, where the authors provide a critical survey covering a few decades of growing interest in the application to polymer chemistry of the DA reaction.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review the latest on geminate and nongeminate recombination in organic solar cells and discuss the key loss mechanisms in charge carrier recombination, which is one of the most promising alternative energy sources because of their ease of processing and their potential to be produced using large scale techniques such as roll-to-roll, newspaper style, coating.

TL;DR: In this paper, a review of the most recent advances in stretchable and self-healing polymers and devices for Electronic Skin (E-skin) applications is presented. But, the majority of organic materials can generally be rendered flexible, such materials are not stretchable, which is a key mechanical property necessary to realize applications of E-skin for prosthetics, artificial intelligence, systems for robotics, personal health monitoring, biocompatibility, and communication devices.

TL;DR: The aim of this paper is to review for the first time the main synthetic approaches developed for the design of novel catechol-based polymer materials and highlight the importance of these groups as versatile platforms for further functionalization of the macromolecular structures, but also surfaces.

TL;DR: Conducting polymers have been widely used in biomedical applications such as biosensors and tissue engineering but their non-degradability still poses a limitation.

TL;DR: In this article, the promising prospects of poly(lactic acid) based nanostructured materials considering two main potential uses, packaging and tissue engineering, are reported, and a comprehensive analysis of the recent advances in tissue engineering applications focusing in the synthesis of PLA nanoparticles, the processing of PLA based multifunctional nanocomposites and PLA surface modification techniques.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the ecological impacts of using conventional flame retardants, thereby signifying the necessity to use eco-friendly agents, and explore the use of various nanofillers for this purpose, compare their performance with traditional systems, provide insights into different testing standards and combustion mechanisms, modelling aspects of the combustion behavior, and identify novel approaches that could be considered for meeting the fire safety standards with ecofriendly materials.

TL;DR: In this article, a review comprehensively covers current understanding with respect to PHA biosynthesis and crystallinity, and the effect of composition, microstructure and supramacromolecular structures on chemomechanical properties.

TL;DR: Halloysite is a biocompatible material and its simple processing combined with low cost make it a perspective additive for polymeric biocomposites as mentioned in this paper, however, these tubes have smaller diameter and much lower loading capacity for macromolecules.

TL;DR: A review of the state-of-the-art in the field of starch-based nano-biocomposites can be found in this article, where various types of nanofillers that have been used with plasticised starch are discussed such as phyllosilicates, hectorite, sepiolite, etc.

TL;DR: This review highlights the recent advance in this field and focuses on two types of polymeric micelles that can respond to the physiological signals, i.e., intracellular pH- and reduction-sensitive micells.

TL;DR: In this paper, the effects of thermal annealing of polyimide membranes are briefly discussed, before giving an extensive review of the many crosslinking methods that have been described in literature.

TL;DR: Current research trends in nanocomposite materials for tissue engineering, including strategies for fabrication of nanocomPOSite scaffolds with highly porous and interconnected pores are presented.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a review of the development in the use of epichlorohydrin as a cross-linking agent for water-insoluble β-cyclodextrin based polymers.

TL;DR: In this review, in situ gelling systems were classified into chemical reaction driven gelation and physicochemical association driven gelations and the triggering mechanism involved in each process and the characteristics of each system are comparatively discussed.

TL;DR: A comprehensive review of ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuators is presented in this article, where a thorough comparison of different state-of-the-art ion exchange membranes is presented along with the recent trends in modeling and control approaches of IPMC actuators.

TL;DR: In this article, the synthesis, self-assembly and properties of well-defined polyhedral oligomeric silsequioxane (POSS) based hybrid polymers are reviewed.

TL;DR: In this article, a flexible and highly adaptable platform for the design of soft and versatile interfaces with an outlook toward their use in material science, engineering and catalysis for in situ metal nanoparticle preparation within hydrogels for the catalysis purpose is addressed.