The diffusion of charged ring polymers under confinement are ubiquitous in various fields including biomaterials and gene therapy. By using dynamic light scattering, we discover a dynamical transition for charged ring polymers with increasing ring concentration in the gel matrix from a diffusive state to a non-diffusive topological frustrated state.

This paper highlights dynamic structural color tuning mechanisms in cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs), elastomers (CLCEs), respectively under external stimuli including light, mechanical force, and swelling. These outstanding dynamic color-tuning capabilities lay a solid foundation for applications in information security, adaptive camouflage, and intelligent optical sensing systems.

Effects of the core-forming structure on polymerization-induced self-assembly as well as the morphology of block copolymer nanoparticles are investigated. It was found that the branched core-forming structure favored the formation of lower-order morphologies while the brush-like core-forming block favored the formation of higher-order morphologies.

Mechanically robust and degradable poly(urethane-urea) plastics for food packaging are fabricated by cross-linking tannic acid (TA) and castor oil. High content of antioxidant TA endows these bio-based plastics enhanced freshness preservation, significantly extending the shelf life of fruits. Meanwhile, these plastics can autonomously degrade into non-toxic species in soil.

A powerful flow chemistry platform for scalable synthesis of branched block copolymers was developed. This new method has many advantages over traditional batch methods, including high-throughput production (≥ 96 g/d), high efficiency in obtaining polymer libraries (≥ 528 samples/d), precise degree of polymerization (DP ≤ 4 repeat units), narrow molecular weight distribution (PDI < 1.2), and high stability over time (SD ≤ 3%).

In this work, we clarified the factors on the butadiene-maleic anhydride copolymerization and DA reaction, and proposed a two-step method to suppress the DA reaction and achieve high-yield production (~85 %) of cross-linked microspheres with controllable particle size (175 ~ 800 nm) by 2SP polymerization.

We present a topological design approach for ladder-like polysilsesquioxanes and copolymers. The cured materials exhibit excellent dielectric properties (D_k < 3.0, D_f < 10⁻²), superior thermal stability (T_d5 > 453 °C), reduced water absorption (from 0.33 wt% to 0.06 wt%) and enhanced mechanical properties.

Thermosets possess excellent mechanical properties, but are unable to be melt-processed like thermoplastics, which greatly limits their shape designs and applications. Herein, a self-growing strategy based on dynamic imidazole-urea moiety for melt-processing strong and tough thermosets is present.

To make up the gap/deficiency of unavailable of effective methodologies for real-time assessment of skin quality currently in the market, we have developed an innovative non-toxic, light-activated natural material collagen peptide-lithium chloride hydrogel mask, to effectively distinguishing various skin types.

Repeating the cycle of swelling-polymerization expands crosslinked polymers and leads to multiple networks, in which the polymer chains in first network would be stretched, forming internal tension to self-restrict the size expansion.

This study investigates the dispersion of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in a triblock copolymer polystyrene-polybutadiene-polystyrene (SBS) matrix using molecular simulations, revealing how the aspect ratio of CNTs and mechanical strain affect phase behavior and electrical conductivity of polymer nanocomposites, providing new insights for the design of polymer nanocomposites with high conductivity.