This paper systematically reviewed the progress of conductive polymer composites with different conductive fillers (metals and their oxides, carbon-based materials, intrinsically conductive polymers, MXenes, etc.) relying on rich material forms (hydrogel, aerogel, fiber, film, elastomer) in terms of mechanical property regulation strategies and techniques.

A new carbon/nickel microwave absorption material is produced from nickel-based metal-backboned polymers through a thermal reduction method. It shows a minimum reflection loss of −49.1 dB at 13.04 GHz due to the molecule-level nickel doping for stable heterogeneous interface between carbon and metal nickel regions.

A semi-interpenetrating polymer network (s-IPN) strategy is proposed to prepare high-performance anion-exchange membranes (AEMs) with vinylic addition polynorbornene backbones. The synthesis involves easily accessible starting materials including poly(5-vinyl-2-norbornene) (PVNB).

We proposed a catalyst competition mechanism through experimental validation and computational simulations, successfully elucidating the origins of broad molecular weight distributions in step-growth polymerization, which holds significant guidance for the synthesis and processing of conjugated polymers.

A series of crosslinked CPI films were prepared by incorporating 1,3-PBO as a crosslinking agent. The reaction between oxazole and carboxyl groups forms crosslinked structures, while partially transforms the rigid imide rings into more flexible groups. This approach provides an efficient strategy to enhance the comprehensive performance of CPI by balancing the formation of crosslinks with chain flexibility.

X-ray responsive pNIPAm microgel-based interferometers are capable of showing tunable colors in response to 0-16 Gy X-rays. This feature enables interferometers to trigger drug release through X-ray stimulation.

Amine has been used as a selectivity-switching agent in the two-component catalytic system consisting of triethylborane and a phosphazene base. The addition of an amine promptly switches Lewis pair-catalyzed ring-opening polymerization of epoxide to organobase-catalyzed ROP of δ-valerolactone, thus facilitating one-pot block copolymerization.

A ready-to-use, easy-to-interpret, inexpensive, reusable, and wearable all-in-one UV monitoring and shielding sensor SP-TPE@PU textile has been developed. The SP-TPE@PU textile can rapidly exhibit significant and reversible color changes due to the efficient isomerization of SP-TPE. Simple and easy operation, significant and reversible color changes, good breathability and mechanical properties make the SP-TPE@PU textiles ideal for sun protection and health management.

Energy diagram of the studied devices and transport of photogenerated charge carriers. HTL and ETL are hole and electron transport layers, respectively; PL is photoluminescence; CPF is copolyfluorene with dicyanostilbene (FFCN) or dicyanophenatrene (PFCN). CPF and PTCDI were used as photoactive materials. The structure of the PFCN copolymer (top).

The multi-arm architecture interfered with spherulite growth, but promoted nucleation and alkaline degradation of star-shaped PLAs. With the increase of M_n, the crystallization rate first increased and then decreased, while the alkaline degradation rate was the opposite, which was attributed to the competition between segmental mobility and central core confinement.

The critical work for the strain-induced formation of crystallization of unentangled or slightly entangled poly(L-lactic acid) telechelic ionomers depends on whether it appears before or after the stress overshoot attributable to strain-induced ion dissociation.

A talc-POE hybrid network is formed in PP/POE/talc ternary blends with talc fillers selectively located at POE phase interface. The linear rheology behavior indicates that besides the "volume exclusion effect" of POE phase for talc fillers, the talc-POE hybrid network can further contribute to the reinforcement effect.

We prepared thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) from polycaprolactone diol, diphenylmethane-4,4-diisocyanate, and 1,4-butanediol. The viscoelastic behaviors of three TPUs with different hard segment content during thermal annealing process are investigated. The results obtained in this study would be crucial for the processing of TPU materials.

The camphor-assisted transfer method enables high-fidelity graphene transfer onto polymer films, effectively overcoming issues such as residue and transfer-induced strain. The smooth transition between liquid, solid, and vapor states of camphor stands out as a key feature and success factor of this intermediate for graphene transfer. This study emphasizes the critical role of polymer porosity in graphene transfer, with camphor sublimation through polymer essential for ensuring successful outcomes.

By utilizing mortise-like clamping jaws and dogbone-shaped specimens, an improved X-ray apparatus that combines tensile testing and X-ray diffraction has been designed and constructed to investigate the “stress-deformation-segmental orientation” relationship in elastomers with high extensibilities. Due to the minimization of experimental errors from sample slippage or premature fracture, this setup allows for the simultaneous recording of high-quality mechanical responses and 2D diffraction patterns. Furthermore, the local extension ratio can be accurately determined based on thickness variation, and the Hermans' orientation function was demonstrated to be a reliable method with high accuracy to calculate the segmental orientation parameter ⟨P₂⟩ in elastomeric samples under high degree of stretching.

In situ melt pre-shear induced oriented precursors of PP directly lead to the formation of different kind of oriented crystal structure of PP, which has a significant effect on the subsequent crystallization (including crystallization behavior, crystal properties, crystal structure and morphology) of PB in PB/PP blends.

This study employed molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the rheological properties of three polymer melts with equivalent degrees of entanglement. Higher stretching rates led to significant alignment and elongation of polymer chains. Molecular-level analysis of entanglement evolution supports the hypothesis of no entanglement between polymer chains during rapid steady-state elongation.

We develop a simple and efficient algorithm to identify the chirality of polymer knots, which is very useful in the research of polymer knots. We prove the correctness of this algorithm mathematically.

Schematic diagram of the Study. (1) Data Collecting: Conducting experiments and processing raw data for a comprehensive dataset. (2) Modeling: Training and comparing to obtain optimal DNN models, which are then interpreted with Shapley additive explanations (SHAP). (3) Predicting: Predicting the sample space to facilitate the design of composite processes.

The study utilizes molecular dynamics simulations to explore how graphene nanopore charge densities affect ssDNA translocation. Results show that higher negative charges on graphene significantly slow ssDNA movement, thereby enhancing DNA sequencing accuracy by improving ionic current blockades. This highlights the potential of negatively charged graphene nanopores in sequencing optimization.

The work is devoted to utilizing pre-trained Mol2Vec embeddings for the polymer properties prediction on a small dataset. The graphical abstract shows the comparison between performance metrics of model depending on the type of input.

Molecular dynamics simulations were used to investigate the changes of hydrogen bonds and entanglements during stretching. In addition, the interplay between hydrogen bond network and entangled network during stretching was also revealed.