Polymer Journal
Vol. 39, No. 2 (February, 2007)

[Award Accounts: SPSJ Award (2005)] Web Release Date: January 16, 2007

91-114 Green and Sustainable Chemistry in Practice: Development and Industrialization of a Novel Process for Polycarbonate Production from CO2 without Using Phosgene  S. Fukuoka, M. Tojo, H. Hachiya, M. Aminaka, and K. Hasegawa [Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]

The world′s first process for producing polycarbonate using CO2 as starting material has been developed and succeeded in industrialization. The new process makes possible high-yield production of Cl-free and high quqlity PC and high-purity monoethyleneglycol, starting from ethylene oxide, by-produced CO2 and bisphenol-A. The PC produced by the new process is superior the conventional PCs. The new process not only overcomes all drawbacks of the conventional processes, but also satisfies all of 12 Principles of Green Chemistry.

[Short Communication] Web Release Date: December 27, 2006

115-117 Extraordinarily High Carbon Filler-Incorporating and Dispersing Ability of 9,9-Diarylfluorene-based Polymers as Matrix Resins  S. Kawasaki, M. Yamada, K. Kobori, T. Kakumoto, F. Jin, A. Tarutani, and T. Takata [Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]

The characteristic feature of fluorene-based polymer (FBP) as matrix resin that showed extremely high incorporating and dispersing powers toward carbon fillers yielding high quality composite materials was studied, along with the investigation of the property of FBP based on the structural characteristics of the 9,9-diaryl-substituted fluorene skeleton.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: December 14, 2006

118-128 Comprehensive Sequence Distribution Analysis of Butyl methacrylate-Acrylonitrile Copolymers by Two-dimensional NMR Spectroscopy  A. S. Brar and J. Kaur [Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]

The acrylonitirile-butyl methacrylate (A/B) copolymers were synthesized by solution polymerization utilizing 2,2′-azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as free radical initiator. Various 2D (HSQC, TOCSY, and HMBC) NMR techniques in conjugation with 1D (1H, 13C{1H}, and DEPT) NMR experiments have been exploited as an efficacious method for the analysis of microstructure of acrylonitrile-butyl methacrylate copolymers. Heteronuclear multiple-bond correlation (HMBC) spectroscopy has been employed to study carbon (carbonyl/nitrile)-proton coupling.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: December 21, 2006

129-137 Photosensitive Polyesterimides Based on Reaction Development Patterning  S. Sugawara, M. Tomoi, and T. Oyama [Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]

The polyesterimide films containing the photosensitive agent, diazonaphthoquinone compound PC-5®, gave positive patterns by UV irradiation and the following development with ethanolamine/N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone/H2O mixture. Clear and sharp line/space patterns at 10 μm dimensions with ∼15 μm film thickness were observed without any peeling off, swelling and deformation. The pattern forming mechanism is based on reaction development patterning (RDP).

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: December 14, 2006

138-146 Miscibility and Properties of Acid-Treated Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes/Polyurethane Nanocomposites  C.-H. Lee, J.-Y. Liu, S.-L. Chen, and Y.-Z. Wang [Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]

Nanocomposites based on Polyurethane and acid-treatment multi-walled carbon nanotubes (A-MWNTs) are prepared by solution blending The modified MWNTs exhibited improved dispersion in organic solvents and miscibility with the PU matrix The interaction degree of miscibility between the MWNTs and hydrogen bonding index (HBI) measured by FT-IR was employed to show the degree of interchain hydrogen bonding. Composites films with higher A-MWNT content exhibit higher HBI and the degree of miscibility is significantly improved.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: December 21, 2006

147-154 Calorimetric and High Pressure Fluorescence Studies of the Salt Effects on Thermolysin  M. Kitayaki, T. Tada, T. Matsumoto, and S. Kunugi [Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]

Catalytic activity and thermal stability of thermolysin were highly affected by addition of salt. The increase in catalytic rate was Na+ ≈ K+ > Ca2+ > Mg2+ and Cl− ≈ Br− > I− ≈ SO42− > SCN−, which are in inverse order of the DSC instability. −Δ V of transition once decreased by addition of salt, but then increased at higher concentration; Δ V being more negative with increasing temperature. The results are discussed with respect to the ion distribution among the low- and high-density water phases.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: December 14, 2006

155-162 Magnetic Orientation of Microcylinders in Liquid Crystalline Diblock Copolymer and Clarification of Its Orientation Mechanism  M. Adachi, F. Takazawa, N. Tomikawa, M. Tokita, and J. Watanabe [Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]

Magnetic field orients the cylindrical and/or anisotropic microsegregated stcrutures in the mixtures of a LC homopolymer and a LC block copolymer irrespective of extremely low PS segment content of 12–2%. Such persistent formation of anisotropic PS microdomains in the LC field indicates a significant interplay between the microdomain and liquid crystalline structures.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: December 21, 2006

163-174 Microstructural Characterisation and Properties Evaluation of Poly(methyl methacrylate-co-ester)s  S. Agarwal [Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]

Microstructural characterisation of degradable poly(MMA-co-ester)s is reported using 1D and 2D NMR techniques. Different amounts of ester linkages are introduced onto the poly(methyl methacrylate) backbone generating new degradable materials ranging from amorphous to crystalline with a range of softening temperatures and very high thermal stability. Also, shape memory and heat-shrinkable properties of these materials are explored.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: December 27, 2006

175-180 Grafting of Polymers onto Carbon Microcoil Surface by Ligand-Exchange Reaction of Ferrocene Moieties of Polymer with Polycondensed Aromatic Rings of the Surface  H. Morohashi, Y. Nishida, Y. Takahashi, K. Fujiki, T. Yamauchi, N. Tsubokawa, and S. Motojima [Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]

To improve the dispersibility of carbon microcoil (CMC) in solvents and polymer matrices, the grafting of copolymer containing vinyl ferrocene (VFE) onto surface by ligand-exchange reaction with ferrocene moieties of the copolymer and polycondensed aromatic rings of CMC was investigated. It was found that by heating of CMC with poly(VFE-co-MMA) and poly(VFE-co-St) in the presence of AlCl3 and Al powder as catalyst, these copolymers were grafted onto the surface. The polymer-grafted CMC gave a stable dispersion in solvents for grafted polymer.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: December 27, 2006

181-186 Microwaves Determine the Orientational Distribution of Collagen Fibers in a Whole Cobra Skin  K. Niitsuma, S. Miyagawa, and S. Osaki [Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]

The orientational distribution of collagen fibers in a whole cobra skin. The length and inclination of the line segments represent the net degree of fiber orientation and the direction of fiber orientation, respectively.

[Note] Web Release Date: December 14, 2006

187-191 Preparation of Polystyrene Nanoparticles by Seed Polymerization Using Amphiphilic Random Copolymer Micelles as Seeds  N. Suzuki, Y. Morishima, S. Arimori, and T. Endo [Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]

Polystyrene monodisperse colloidal particles with diameters ranging 70–250 nm were prepared using amphiphilic random copolymer. From profiles of time evolution of the monomer conversion and of the size of resulting particles, the mean volume of the particle was found to increase almost linearly with the conversion, evidencing that the amphiphilic polymer micelles act as seeds for the styrene polymerization and that the particles grow in size as the polymerization proceeds due to the buildup of polystyrene within the particles.