Polymer Journal
Vol. 39, No. 1 (January, 2007)


[Review Article] Web Release Date: December 7, 2006
1-15 Preparation of Novel Polymer Hybrids from Imogolite Nanofiber
 K. Yamamoto, H. Otsuka, and A. Takahara
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 This review paper introduces the preparation of polymer hybrid materials from imogolite nanofiber by two different approaches. In order to realize the fine dispersion of imogolite in polymer matrix, poly(vinyl alcohol)/imogolite hybrids were prepared by in situ synthesis method of imogolite in polymer solution. In addition, through utilizing the strong interaction between phosphoric acid group and Al–OH on the surface of imogolite, poly(methyl methacrylate)/imogolite hybrid and enzyme/imogolite hybrid gel were prepared.

[Short Communication] Web Release Date: November 16, 2006
16-17 Regulation of Self-assembling Process of a Cationic β-Sheet Peptide by Photoisomerization of an Anionic Azobenzene Derivative
 T. Koga, M. Ushirogochi, and N. Higashi
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A novel photo-responsive supramolecular system has been fabricated, in which the self-assembling process of the cationic amphiphilic peptide into β-sheet nanofibers is regulated by photoisomerization of the exogenous anionic azobenzene derivative.

[Short Communication] Web Release Date: November 24, 2006
18-20 Synthesis of Nonporous Poly(N-alkylacrylamide) Gel Beads by Nonaqueous Sedimentation Polymerization
 T. Iizawa, T. Ishido, T. Gotoh, and S. Sakohara
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Nonaqueous sedimentation polymerization of droplets of a N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPA) solution in N-methyl-2-pyrolidinone (NMP) was conducted. The typical photographs of the obtained poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) beads (G-5) are shown in comparison with the shrunken beads (G-9) obtained from the conventional sedimentation polymerization of a NIPA solution in 20 wt % aqueous N,N-dimethylformamide solution. The nonporous G-5 beads are transparent, while the porous G-9 beads are opaque. When NMP was used as a solvent, the nonporous millimeter-sized poly(N-alkylacrylamide) beads can be easily obtained by nonaqueous sedimentation polymerization.

[Short Communication] Web Release Date: November 24, 2006
21-23 Solvent-Free Synthesis of Unmodified Cyclodextrin-Based Pseudopolyrotaxane and Polyrotaxane by Grinding
 R. Liu, A. Harada, and T. Takata
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Unmodified cyclodextrin-based polyrotaxane was synthesized by grinding a mixture of a bulky electrophile as an end-capping agent and a pseudopolyrotaxane consisting of α-cyclodextrin and bis(3-aminopropyl)-terminated polytetrahydrofuran without solvent. The pseudopolyrotaxane was prepared from a mixture of the components both by grinding without solvent and by sonication in water.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: November 24, 2006
24-33 End-chain and Mid-chain Functional Macrophotoinitiators of Poly(ε-caprolactone) and Their Molar Mass Effects on Strong Electrorheological Response
 H. Yilmaz, M. Değirmenci, Ü. Yilmaz, and H. I. Unal
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 In this study, electrical and ER properties of end-chain and mid-chain functional macrophotoinitiators of poly(ε-caprolactone), PCL, were investigated. For this purpose 4 different samples of PCL were synthesized with different molar masses. They were then ground milled for a few hours to obtain micron size. The particle sizes of the PCL′s were determined by dynamic light scattering. Further, the effects of suspension concentration, molar mass of the PCL′s, shear rate, electric field strength, frequency, promoter and temperature onto ER activities of suspensions were investigated.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: November 24, 2006
34-40 Structure of Regenerated Cellulose Films from Cellulose/Aqueous NaOH Solution as a Function of Coagulation Conditions
 G. Yang, H. Miyamoto, C. Yamane, and K. Okajima
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 The structure of regenerated cellulose films from cellulose/aqueous sodium hydroxide solution was investigated by X-ray diffraction and viscoelastic measurements. In the viscoelastic measurements, four kinds of dynamic absorption peaks or shoulders were observed, named α1, αsh, βa and γ. The analyses of peak temperatures (Tmax) and peak intensities (tanδmax) of these peaks revealed that there were two different kinds of amorphous regions.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: November 24, 2006
41-47 Electroless Copper Plating onto Polyimide Using Polymer Nanosheet as a Nano-Adhesive
 J. Matsui, K. Kubota, Y. Kado, and T. Miyashita
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 The photoreactive polymer nanosheets were used as nano-adhesion to attached electrolessly plated copper film onto a polyimide surface. The plated copper showed strong adhesion to a polyimide film. Moreover, micrometer copper lines were fabricated by photopatterning the polymer nanosheets. The process using polymer nanosheets as an adhesive required no surface modification of polyimide substrate and enabled microscale copper line fabrication without discharging harmful waste.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: December 1, 2006
48-54 Role of Stearic Acid in Preparing EPDM/Clay Nanocomposites by Melt Compounding
 Y. Ma, Q.-F. Li, L.-Q. Zhang, and Y.-P. Wu
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 EPDM/organic clay (OC) nanocomposites were prepared by melt blending. XRD results showed that macromolecules are difficult to directly intercalate into the OC interlayers, while under pretreating conditions (S-OC) with SA, stearic acid (SA) could easily intercalate into the interlayers, and expand the space to 3.9 nm. TEM observation showed OC pretreated with SA improved the dispersion of OC in EPDM. FT-IR results indicated that the esterification reaction between carboxyl groups of SA and hydroxyl groups of OC occurred, which was believed to be the driving force of SA intercalation.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: December 7, 2006
55-64 Acceleration Mechanism of Nucleation of Polymers by Nano-sizing of Nucleating Agent
 T. Urushihara, K. Okada, K. Watanabe, A. Toda, E. Tobita, N. Kawamoto, and M. Hikosaka
[Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]
 Acceleration mechanism of nucleation of polymers by nano-sizing of nucleating agent (NA) was solved based on kinetic study. Theoretical prediction in our previous study that I∝ I0∝ CNAaNA−1 was confirmed, where I is nucleation rate of polymers, I0 is prefactor, CNA is a concentration of NA and aNA is lateral size of NA crystal. It is concluded that decreasing aNA from the order of μm to nm and narrowing distribution of aNA are the most effective method to improve the nucleating ability of NA (Figure).

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: December 7, 2006
65-72 Electrospinning of Cellulose Acetate in Solvent Mixture N,N-Dimethylacetamide (DMAc)/Acetone
 H. Liu and C. Tang
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 Cellulose acetate nanofibers with mean diameter of 345 nm were generated from 25 wt % CA in 2:1 (v/v) DMAc/acetone by means of electrospinning technique. The critical chain entanglement concentration (Ce) for the electrospinning of CA in solvent DMAc/acetone highly depends on the composition ratio of each component. Ce substantially decreased with the increasing of component acetone in the solvent mixture. CA nanofibrous membrane with relatively uniform fiber structure and diameter less than 500 nm showed hydrophilic characteristic.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: December 7, 2006
73-80 Molecular Dynamics Study of the Adhesion between End-Grafted Polymer Films II —Effect of Grafting Density—
 H. Morita, H. Miura, M. Yamada, T. Yamaguchi, and M. Doi
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Adhesion between two polymer films consisting of end grafted polymer is studied by coarse-grained molecular dynamics. In this study, we discuss the effect of the grafting density along our previous study (Polymer Journal, 37, 782, (2005)). Three kinds of failure patterns; fibril, cavity and brittle failures can be obtained. The maximum adhesion stress and the adhesion energy are also obtained from our MD simulations and these behaviors are strongly dependent on the temperature and the grafting density.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: December 7, 2006
81-89 Highly Transparent Photosensitive Polybenzoxazole: Poly(o-hydroxy amide) Derived from 4,4′-(Hexafluoroisopropylidene)bis(o-aminophenol) and o-Substituted Dicarboxylic Acid Chlorides
 Y. Shibasaki, F. Toyokawa, S. Ando, and M. Ueda
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A novel poly(o-hydroxyamide) (PHA) as a precursor of photosensitive polybenzoxazole (PSPBO) that exhibits high transparency at 365 nm wavelength (i-line) has been developed. Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations using the B3LYP hybrid functional were performed to predict the transparencies of various o-hydroxyamides in the i-line region. Based on these results, several dicarboxylic acid chlorides were prepared and polymerized with 4,4′-(hexafluoroisopropylidene)bis(o-aminophenol). The resulting PHA-3 showed a high transparency (92%, 1.0× 10−3mol/L in N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc)), superior to that of the conventional PHA-1 (83% at the same concentration in DMAc) derived from 4,4′-oxybis(benzoyl chloride) in transparency. The positive-type PSPBO was then formulated based on PHA-3 with a cross-linker and a photoacid generator, and the resulting polymer film (1.5 μm-thick) demonstrated the high photosensitivity and contrast of 32 mJ/cm2 and 7.2, respectively.