Polymer Journal
Vol. 40, No. 12 (December, 2008)


[Review Article] Web Release Date: June 25, 2008
1121-1131 High Performance Polybenzoxazines as a Novel Type of Phenolic Resin
 T. Takeichi, T. Kawauchi, and T. Agag
[Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]
Polybenzoxazines that can be obtained by the thermally induced ring-opening polymerization of cyclic benzoxazine monomers are expected as a novel type of phenolic resins. Herein, we report on our various approaches for performance enhancement of polybenzoxazines, including the designs of novel monomers, high molecular weight polymeric precursors, polymer alloys, and hybrids with inorganics.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: October 8, 2008
1132-1139 Self-organization of Water Soluble and Amphiphile Crosslinked Carboxymethylpullulan
 M. Legros, V. Dulong, L. Picton, and D. Le Cerf
[Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]
Hydrosoluble and amphiphile crosslinked derivatives of carboxymethylpullulan possess a double organization (chemical and physical) which evolve with polymer concentration and the nature of the solvent giving species with varied structure and size.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: October 1, 2008
1140-1148 Homopolymerization and Copolymerization with Styrene of Various Alkoxyvinylsilanes and Oxidative Transformation of C-Si Bond in the Resulting Copolymers to Afford Poly[(vinyl alcohol)-co-styrene]s
 E. Ihara, A. Kurokawa, T. Itoh, and K. Inoue
[Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]
Radical (co)polymerization behavior of various alkoxyvinylsilanes 1–6 was systematically investigated. Homopolymerization and copolymerization with styrene of these alkoxyvinylsilanes were performed under various conditions in order to find appropriate initiating systems for the radical polymerizations. Transformation of some of the copolymers into poly(vinyl alcohol-co-styrene)s was examined via oxidative cleavage of the Si-C bonds in the alkoxyvinylsilane repeating units.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: October 8, 2008
1149-1156 Synthesis and Properties of Segmented Poly(urethane-urea)s Containing Phosphorylcholine Moiety in the Side-Chain
 Y. Nagase, S. Nakajima, M. Oku, Y. Iwasaki, and K. Ishihara
[Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]
Novel segmented poly(urethane-urea)s containing phosphorylcholine (PC) group were prepared from the aromatic diamine compound with PC group. The obtained poly(urethane-urea)s exhibited the elastic property derived from the main chain structure, and also the excellent biocompatibility even though the PC content was around 15 wt. %. Therefore, the introduction of PC group in the side chain of polymers was effective to develop the biocompatibility, which would be due to the surface property covered with polar PC units.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: October 16, 2008
1157-1163 Preparation and Characterization of Poly(vinylpyrrolidone)/Zirconium Oxide Hybrids by Using Inorganic Nanocrystals
 T. Otsuka and Y. Chujo
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PVP and ZrO2 nanocrystal hybrids were prepared by simple blending method. Hydrogen bonding interactions between amide groups of PVP and Zr-OH groups from ZrO2 nanocrystal played an important role for the homogeneity and transparency of PVP/ZrO2 hybrids. The ZrO2 nanocrystals were dispersed well in the PVP matrix and demonstrated no aggregation and phase separation. The obtained hybrids exhibited excellent thermal and optical properties.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: October 16, 2008
1164-1169 Brand-new Biomass-based Vinyl Polymers from 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural
 N. Yoshida, N. Kasuya, N. Haga, and K. Fukuda
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Novel biomass-based vinyl polymers were synthesized from 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF) or 5-(methoxymethyl)furfural (MMF) as the starting material. Poly(5-methoxymethyl-2-vinylfuran) (PMMVF) exhibited better thermal resistance than poly(5-hydroxymethyl-2-vinylfuran) (PHMVF).

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: October 16, 2008
1170-1179 Modification of Cellulose by Using Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization and Ring-Opening Polymerization
 F. Chang, K. Yamabuki, K. Onimura, and T. Oishi
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The cellulose chloroacetate (Cell-ClAc) with a degree of substitution (DS) value of about 2.1 was synthesized. And it was used as macro-initiator for ATRP of vinyl monomers. The preparation of block copolymers by using the first ATRP product as initiator for the second ATRP of another monomer was performed. In addition, the different reactions including AGET ATRP of 3-ethyl-3-methacryloyloxymethyloxetane (EMO) and ROP of cyclic ester proceed simultaneously in the same reaction system by using the same initiator was also carried out.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: October 22, 2008
1180-1184 Honeycomb-Structured Porous Films Controlled by the Temperature of Water Bath
 B. He, J. Li, X. Zhang, Z. Li, Y. Hou, and C. Shi
[Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]
A new technique based on Breath Figures method was introduced to fabricate porous film in a chamber with a water bath. The pore size of the film increases with an increase in the water-bath temperature. And the porous film from the “dilute” solution can be readily formed even at a low relative humidity (RH), while the porous film from the “concentrated” solution can be fabricated only at a rather high RH. The regularity of porous film becomes better at the higher RH and higher concentration.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: October 22, 2008
1185-1190 Electronic Structure of Metallocene-based Polymers
 Y. Matsuura, R. Odani, and Y. Tanaka
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The band structures of metallocene-based polymers in which the nearest metalloecenes were directly linked by a C-C bond have been determined by employing the tight-binding crystal orbital (CO) method. In particular, we determined the band structures of metallocene-based alternate copolymers whose metal sequences in a unit cell were Fe-Co, Fe-Fe-Co-Co, Fe-Ni, Ru-Co and Os-Co. Furthermore, we examined the effect of inserting the bridging part of boron-, phosphorus-, and sulfur bridges between the nearest ferrocenes upon the band structures of ferrocene-based polymers.

[Regular Article] Web Release Date: October 22, 2008
1191-1194 Two-dimensional Self-assembly of a Designed Amphiphilic Peptide at Air/Water Interface
 M. Tanaka, K. Ogura, S. Abiko, N. Koshikawa, and T. Kinoshita
[Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]
A peptide having alternate sequence of hydrophobic and hydrophilic amino acid residues, (QAQL)4, and the corresponding PEG attached moiety, (QAQL)4-PEG were designed to form a nano-architecture on the basis of β-sheet structure at the air/water interface. The monolayer of (QAQL)4 showed an arranged nano-fibrous object. (QAQL)4-PEG showed a morphological change of the nano-architecture from disk-like structure to fibrous array depending on the compressing degree.

[Note] Web Release Date: October 8, 2008
1195-1198 Morphology and Structure of Ring-banded Spherulites Obtained by Solvent Evaporation in PLLA/PAAC Blend Films
 Y. Li, X. Liu, D. Chao, L. Cui, and W. Zhang
[Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]
The crystallization behavior in thin films of poly(L-lactic acid) and an electroactive polyamide blends has been investigated by DSC, PLM and AFM. The concentric ring-banded spherulites were observed from DMF solution under a solvent evaporation rate of 2.8 μL/min. In addition, the crystallization mechanism was also discussed.

[Note] Web Release Date: October 16, 2008
1199-1203 Highly Conductive Polyfuran-13X Zeolite-Polyaniline Composite
 P. Saha Sardar, S. Ghosh, M. Biswas, and N. Ballav
[Full Text PDF(J-STAGE)]
A composite of polyfuran with 13X-zeolite was prepared for the first time using chemical oxidative polymerization of furan. The composite showed much improved thermal stability compared to bare polymer and behaved like an insulator. Interestingly incorporation of a small amount of conducing polyaniline significantly enhanced the conductivity. Entropy activation was proposed to explain such unexpected behavior regarding high conductivity of the binary polymer composite.