Grafting of poly(methyl methacrylate) from narrow disperse polymer particles by surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) was investigated. Polydivinylbenzene (PDVB) particles were prepared by dispersion polymerization with poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) as the stabilizer. Chloromethylated PDVB was used as initiating core sites for subsequent ATRP of methyl methacrylate with CuBr/bpy as catalyst system. It was found that poly(methyl methacrylate) was grafted not only from the particle surfaces but also from within a thin shell layer, leading to particles size increases from 2.38-3.00 μm with a core-shell structure particles. The grafted core-shell particles were characterized with FTIR, SEM, DSC.

The surface of nano-TiO2 was encapsulated with hydroxyl-propyl-methyl cellulose (HPMC), and then cografted with acrylates. Conditions of absorbing and grafting have been studied. Modified nano-TiO2 particles were characterized by FT-IR spectra, TEM and TG analysis. It was convinced from FT-IR studies that both methyl methacrylate (MMA) and butyl-methacrylate (BMA) were co-grafted onto the surface of nano-TiO2 particles. TEM images show that the surface of nano-TiO2 particles was successfully modified by a thick layer of film-like polymer. TG results demonstrate that the decomposition temperature of HPMC-g-PMMA/PBMA, which has been grafted onto the surface of nano-TiO2, is 56.9 K higher than that of HPMC-g-PMMA/PBMA.

A side-on liquid crystalline monomer, 2,5-bis[(4-hexyloxyphenyl)oxycarbonyl]styrene) (HPCS), was successfully polymerized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). The polymerization was catalyzed by CuBr/PMDETA in chlorobenzene at 90℃ with (1-bromoethyl)benzene as the initiator. The polymers have narrow MWD. It is the second example of mesogen-jacketed liquid crystalline polymer (MJLCP) prepared by ATRP.

New polymeric adsorbents (ZH-02, ZH-03) containing benzoyl group for adsorbing and removing 4-methylaniline from its aqueous solutions were prepared. Studies on the isotherms and the comparison of desorption conditions evidenced through the adsorption of 4-methylaniline in water onto ZH-02 and ZH-03, namely that there are chemisorption’s transitions at a proper higher temperature. Mini-column adsorption studies of 4-methylaniline on XAD-4, ZH-02 and ZH-03 at 288 K show that the breakthrough capacities are 2.39, 2.99 and 3.19 mmol/g and the total capacities are 3.45, 3.92 and 4.35 mmol/g, respectively.

Fe(II) pyridinebisimine complexes activated with trialkylaluminium or modified methylaluminoxane (MMAO) as catalysts were employed for the polymerization of butyl methacrylate (BMA). Polymer yields, catalytic activities and molecular weights as well as molecular weight distributions of BMA can be controlled over a wide range by varying the reaction parameters such as cocatalyst, Al/Fe molar ratio, monomer/catalyst molar ratio, monomer concentration and reaction temperature used in the polymerization. The catalytic activity of Fe(II) complex was 11.1 kgpolym/molFe·h and the highest yield could reach 99.1% under optimum condition.

Small fixed aggregates of a poly(ethylene oxide)-block-polybutadiene diblock copolymer (PEO-b-PB) in THF solution were obtained by adding a selective solvent for PB blocks, followed by cross-linking the PB shells. The morphologies of the nanostructured particles with a cross-linked shell were investigated by atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The average behaviors of the PEO crystallization and melting confined within the nanostructured particles were studied by using differential scanning calorimetry experiments. For the deeply cross-linked sample (SCL-1), the crystallization of the PEO blocks was fully confined. The individual nanoparticles only crystallized at very low crystallization temperatures (Tcs), wherein the homogenous primary nucleation determined the overall crystallization rate. For the lightly cross-linked sample (SCL-2), the confinement effect was Tc dependent. At Tc ≤ 42℃, the crystallization and melting behaviors of SCL-2 were similar to those of the pure PEO-b-PB diblock copolymer. At Tc > 42℃, SCL-2 could form PEO lamellae thicker than those of the pure PEO-b-PB crystallized at the same Tc.

Intermittent shear flow including start-up flow and small oscillatory amplitude time sweep or stress relaxation after cessation of shear flow was used to study the rheological behavior and internal structure of thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer (TLCP). There are two kinds of intermittent shear flow: all start-up flows are in the same direction (intermittent flow forward: IFF) and start-up flows change their directions alternately (intermittent flow reversal: IFR). The results show that the stress of start-up flow of IFF and IFR in the test process is not superposed, indicating different changes of internal structure of thermotropic LCP (TLCP). Two main factors affect structure changes in the experimental time scale. One relates to long-term texture relaxation process, the other is an interchain reaction that becomes important after 30 min. The two factors raise the stress of IFF, but express complex effects for the stress of IFR. The latter factor becomes very important at long time annealing process. The relaxation behavior was also studied by the application of wide range relaxation spectrum calculated from the combined dynamic modulus, which gave three characteristic relaxation times (0.3, 10 and 600 s) ascribable to the relaxations of less-phase orientation, domain orientation, and domain deformation, respectively. The result also shows that the domain coalescence (texture relaxation), a long relaxation time, is a much slow process and lasts beyond 2400 s of the test time.

Grafting of polystyrene with narrowly dispersed polymer microspheres through surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) was investigated. Polydivinylbenzene (PDVB) microspheres were prepared by dispersion polymerization with poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) as stabilizer. The surfaces of PDVB microspheres were chloromethylated by chloromethyl methyl ether in the presence of zinc chloride as catalyst to form chloromethylbenzene initiating core sites for subsequent ATRP grafting of styrene using CuCl/bpy as catalytic system. Polystyrene was found to be grafted not only from the particle surfaces but also from within a thin shell layer, resulting in the formation of particles size increased from 2.38 μm to 2.58 μm, which can further grow to 2.93 μm during secondary grafting polymerization of styrene. This demonstrates that grafting polymerization proceeds through a typical ATRP procedure with living nature. All of the prepared microspheres have narrow particle size distribution with coefficient of variation around 10%.

A neutral nickel (II) catalyst D, {[O-(3-cyclohexyl)(5-Cl)C6H2-ortho-C(H)＝N-2,6-C6H3(i-Pr)2]Ni(Ph3P)(Ph)} has been synthesized and characterized by 1H-NMR, FTIR and elemental analysis. The results indicate that Al(i-Bu)3 is an effective cocatalyst for the neutral nickel catalyst. With bis(1,5-cyclooctadiene) nickel(0) [Ni(COD)2] or Al(i-Bu)3 as a co-catalyst, the neutral nickel catalyst D is active for ethylene polymerisation and copolymerisation with polar monomers (tert-butyl 10-undecenoate(BU), methyl 10-undecenoate (MU), allyl alcohol (AA) and 4-penten-1-ol (PO)) under mild conditions. The resulting polymers were characterized by 1H-NMR, FTIR, DSC, and GPC. From the comparative studies, Ni(COD)2 is more active than Al(i-Bu)3 for ethylene homopolymerization, while Al(i-Bu)3 is more effective than Ni(COD)2 for ethylene copolymerisation with polar monomers. The polymerization parameters which affect both the catalytic activity and properties of the resulting polyethylene were investigated in detail. Under the conditions of 20 mmol catalyst D and Ni(COD)2/D = 3 (molar ratio) in 30 mL toluene solution at 45℃, 12 × 105 Pa ethylene for 20 min, the polymerization activity reaches as high as 7.29 × 105 gPE·(mol·Ni·h)-1 and Mη is 7.16 × 104 g·mol-1. For ethylene copolymerization with polar monomers, the effect of comonomer concentrations was examined. As high as 0.97 mol% of MU, 1.06 mol% of BU, 1.04 mol% of AA and 1.37 mol% of PO were incorporated into the polymer, respectively, catalyzed by D/Al(i-Bu)3 system.

Direct difference methods have been used to solve the simultaneous non-linear partial differential equations for melt spinning without recourse to linearisation or perturbation approximation. The stability of each difference schemes was studied by error analysis using the Taylor series, and by comparison of the results obtained from numerical simulation with the logical value in melt spinning. It is found that computation with 19 digit long double precision has significantly simplified the stability problem of difference equations. Using this method, the precise critical draw ratio of draw resonance in an isothermal and uniform tension spinning of Newtonian fluids can be obtained in between 20.218 and 21.219, a figure consistent with 20.218 which was obtained by a linear perturbation approximation method by Kase and Denn. It thus has paved the way to computation of full information for unsteady melt spinning processes using the difference method.

The conformational properties and elastic behaviors of protein-like single chains in the process of tensile elongation were investigated by means of Monte Carlo method. The sequences of protein-like single chains contain two types of residues: hydrophobic (H) and hydrophilic (P). The average conformations and thermodynamics statistical properties of protein-like single chains with various elongation ratio l were calculated. It was found that the mean-square end-to-end distance r increases with elongation ratio l. The tensor eigenvalues ratio of : decreases with elongation ratio l for short (HP)x protein-like polymers, however, the ratio of : increases with elongation ratio l, especially for long (H)x sequence. Average energy per bond increases with elongation ratio l, especially for (H)x protein-like single chains. Helmholtz free energy per bond also increases with elongation ratio l. Elastic force (f), energy contribution to force (fU) and entropy contribution to force (fS) for different protein-like single chains were also calculated. These investigations may provide some insights into elastic behaviors of proteins.

Lentinan samples, (13)-b-D-glucans containing 4.6-15.2 wt% proteins, coded as L-I1, L-I2, L-I3 and L-I4 (L-I) were isolated from four kinds of Lentinus edodes. These glucans were treated with acetone to remove the protein in order to obtain free protein glucans coded as LNP-I1, LNP-I2, LNP-I3 and LNP-I4 (LNP-I). The free-protein polysaccharides were sulfated to give derivatives (S-LNP-I) with degree of substitution (DS) from 0.4 to 0.8. The structural features and weight- average molecular weight (Mw) of the samples were investigated by using infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, 13C-NMR, size exclusion chromatography combined with laser light scattering (SEC-LLS) and viscometry. The effects of structure and conformation of the polysaccharides on antitumor activities were assayed in vivo (Sarcoma 180 solid tumors) and in vitro (Sarcoma 180, HL-60, MCF-7 and Vero tumors). The results indicated that the predominant species of the samples L-I and LNP-I in 0.2 mol/L NaCl aqueous solution existed as triple-helical chains with high rigidity and in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as single-flexible chains. Interestingly, the antitumor activities of LNP-I are lower than those of the native glucans (L-I), whereas their sulfated derivatives have higher inhibition ratio against Sarcoma 180 than LNP-I. The results reveal that the binding of protein, sulfated modification and the triple helix conformation are important factors in the enhancement of the antitumor activities of polysaccharides on the whole.

The miscibility, mechanical properties, morphology and toughening mechanism of PC/PBA-PMMA blends were investigated. The dynamic mechanical results show that PC/PBA-PMMA blend has good miscibility and strong interfacial adhesion. The Izod impact strength of blend PC/PBA-PMMA with 4% (volume fraction) PBA-PMMA core-shell modifier is 16 times higher than that of pure PC. The core-shell volume fraction and thickness of the PMMA shell have effect on the toughness of PC/PBA-PMMA blends. As PMMA volume fraction increases, the toughness of PC/PBA-PMMA blend increases, and reaches a maximum value at 30% volume fraction of PMMA or so. The tensile properties of PC/PBA-PMMA blend with a minimum amount of PBA-PMMA modifier show that brittle-tough transition has no significant variance in comparison with that of pure PC. The scanning electron microscopic (SEM) observation indicates that the toughening mechanism of the blend with the pseudo-ductile matrix modified by small core-shell latex polymer particles is the synergetic effect of cavitation and shear yielding of the matrix.