TY - JOUR A1 - Dev, Akhil A1 - Rösler, Alexander A1 - Schlaad, Helmut T1 - Limonene as a renewable unsaturated hydrocarbon solvent for living anionic polymerization of β-myrcene JF - Polymer chemistry N2 - The acyclic monoterpene beta-myrcene is polymerized by anionic polymerization at room temperature using sec-butyllithium as the initiator and the cyclic monoterpene DL-limonene as an unsaturated hydrocarbon solvent. The polymerization is a living process and allows production of polymyrcenes with narrow molar mass distribution ((sic) similar to 1.06) and high content of 1,4 units (similar to 90%) as well as block copolymers. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/d1py00570g SN - 1759-9954 SN - 1759-9962 VL - 12 IS - 21 SP - 3084 EP - 3087 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lüdecke, Nils A1 - Schlaad, Helmut T1 - Inspired by mussel adhesive protein BT - hydrophilic cationic copoly(2-oxazoline)s carrying catecholic side chains JF - Polymer Chemistry N2 - A set of new functionalized poly(2-oxazoline) homopolymers and copolymers carrying protected catecholic side chains were prepared by microwave-assisted cationic ring-opening (co)polymerization. The copolymerizations of 2-ethyl-2-oxazoline with either 2-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-, 2-(3,4-dimethoxybenzyl)-, or 2-(3,4-dimethoxycinnamyl)-2-oxazoline (comonomer ratio 90 : 10) produced gradient or random copolymers with narrow molar mass distributions. During the copolymerization with the 2-(3,4-dimethoxycinnamyl)-2-oxazoline, however, chain coupling reactions occurred at monomer conversions of >50%, supposedly via Michael-type addition of intermediately formed ketene N,O-acetal end groups to 3,4-dimethoxycinnamyl amide side chains. A poly[(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline)-grad-(2-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-2-oxazoline)] was examplarily subjected to partial demethylation and acidic hydrolysis to give a hydrophilic copolymer carrying both catecholic and cationic units, which is designed as a bioinspired adhesive copolymer mimicking mussel adhesive protein. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/d1py00679g SN - 1759-9962 VL - 12 IS - 37 SP - 5310 EP - 5319 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Debsharma, Tapas A1 - Schmidt, Bernd A1 - Laschewsky, Andre A1 - Schlaad, Helmut T1 - Ring-opening metathesis polymerization of unsaturated carbohydrate derivatives BT - levoglucosenyl alkyl ethers JF - Macromolecules : a publication of the American Chemical Society N2 - A series of biomass-derived levoglucosenyl alkyl ethers (alkyl = methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, isopropyl, and n-butyl) were synthesized and polymerized by ring-opening olefin metathesis polymerization using the Grubbs catalyst C793 at room temperature. Polymerizations were successfully performed in conventional solvents such as 1,4-dioxane and dichloromethane as well as in polar aprotic "green" solvents such as 2-methyltetrahydrofuran, dihydrolevoglucosenone (Cyrene), and ethyl acetate. The prepared polyacetals with degrees of polymerization of similar to 100 exhibit Schulz-Flory-type molar mass distributions and are thermoplastic materials with rather low glass transition temperatures in the range of 43-0 degrees C depending on the length of the alkyl substituent. Kinetic studies revealed that the polymerization proceeded rapidly to a steady state with a certain minimum monomer concentration threshold. When the steady state was reached, just about half of the [Ru] catalyst had been effective to initiate the polymerization, indicating that the initiation step was a slow process. The remaining catalyst was still active and did no longer react with monomers but with in-chain double bonds, cutting the formed polymer chains into shorter fragments. In the long term, all catalyst was consumed and propagating [Ru] chain ends were deactivated by the elimination of [Ru] from the chain ends to form inactive chains with terminal aldehyde groups. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.macromol.0c02821 SN - 0024-9297 SN - 1520-5835 VL - 54 IS - 6 SP - 2720 EP - 2728 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Keckeis, Philipp A1 - Zeller, Enriko A1 - Jung, Carina A1 - Besirske, Patricia A1 - Kirner, Felizitas A1 - Ruiz-Agudo, Cristina A1 - Schlaad, Helmut A1 - Cölfen, Helmut T1 - Modular toolkit of multifunctional block copoly(2-oxazoline)s for the synthesis of nanoparticles JF - Chemistry - a European journal N2 - Post-polymerization modification provides an elegant way to introduce chemical functionalities onto macromolecules to produce tailor-made materials with superior properties. This concept was adapted to well-defined block copolymers of the poly(2-oxazoline) family and demonstrated the large potential of these macromolecules as universal toolkit for numerous applications. Triblock copolymers with separated water-soluble, alkyne- and alkene-containing segments were synthesized and orthogonally modified with various low-molecular weight functional molecules by copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) and thiol-ene (TE) click reactions, respectively. Representative toolkit polymers were used for the synthesis of gold, iron oxide and silica nanoparticles. KW - block copolymers KW - click chemistry KW - nanoparticles KW - ring-opening KW - polymerization KW - surfactants Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202101327 SN - 0947-6539 SN - 1521-3765 VL - 27 IS - 32 SP - 8283 EP - 8287 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Glatzel, Julia A1 - Noack, Sebastian A1 - Schanzenbach, Dirk A1 - Schlaad, Helmut T1 - Anionic polymerization of dienes in ‘green’ solvents JF - Polymer international N2 - Isoprene and beta-myrcene were polymerized by anionic polymerization in bulk and in the 'green' ether solvents cyclopentyl methyl ether and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran and, for comparison, in cyclohexane and tetrahydrofuran. The polydienes produced in bulk and in cyclohexane contained high amounts of 1,4 units (>90%) whereas those produced in ether solvents were rich in 1,2 and 3,4 units (36%-86%). Comparison of the microstructures and glass transition temperatures of the polydienes obtained in the various solvents suggests that conventionally used solvents can be substituted by environmentally more friendly alternatives. KW - isoprene KW - β‐myrcene KW - anionic polymerization KW - green KW - solvents KW - microstructure KW - glass transition Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/pi.6152 SN - 0959-8103 SN - 1097-0126 VL - 70 IS - 2 SP - 181 EP - 184 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Matic, Aleksandar A1 - Hess, Andreas A1 - Schanzenbach, Dirk A1 - Schlaad, Helmut T1 - Epoxidized 1,4-polymyrcene JF - Polymer chemistry N2 - 1,4-Polymyrcene was synthesized by anionic polymerization and epoxidized using meta-chloroperbenzoic acid. Samples with different degrees of epoxidation (25%, 49%, 74%, and 98%) were prepared and examined according to their chemical and thermal properties. Epoxidation was found to increase the glass transition temperature (T-g = 14 degrees C for the 98% epoxidized 1,4-polymyrcene) as well as the shelf live (>10 months). The trisubstituted epoxide groups were remarkably stable against nucleophiles under basic conditions but cross-linked or hydrolyzed in the presence of an acid. Also, highly epoxidized 1,4-polymyrcene readily cross-linked upon annealing at 260 degrees C to produce an epoxy resin. KW - comb poly(beta-myrcene)-graft-poly(l-lactide) copolymers KW - thermoplastic elastomer synthesis KW - myrcen KW - polymerization KW - epoxidation Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c9py01783f SN - 1759-9954 SN - 1759-9962 VL - 11 IS - 7 SP - 1364 EP - 1368 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Das, Abhijna A1 - Noack, Sebastian A1 - Schlaad, Helmut A1 - Reiter, Günter A1 - Reiter, Renate T1 - Exploring pathways to equilibrate Langmuir polymer films JF - Langmuir N2 - Focusing on the phase-coexistence region in Langmuir films of poly(L-lactide), we investigated changes in nonequilibrated morphologies and the corresponding features of the isotherms induced by different experimental pathways of lateral compression and expansion. In this coexistence region, the surface pressure II was larger than the expected equilibrium value and was found to increase upon compression, i.e., exhibited a nonhorizontal plateau. As shown earlier by using microscopic techniques [Langmuir 2019, 35, 6129-6136], in this plateau region, well-ordered mesoscopic clusters coexisted with a surrounding matrix phase. We succeeded in reducing Pi either by slowing down the rate of compression or through increasing the waiting time after stopping the movement of the barriers, which allowed for relaxations in the coexistence region. Intriguingly, the most significant pressure reduction was observed when recompressing a film that had already been compressed and expanded, if the recompression was started from an area value smaller than the one anticipated for the onset of the coexistence region. This observation suggests a "self-seeding" behavior, i.e., pre-existing nuclei allowed to circumvent the nucleation step. The decrease in Pi was accompanied by a transformation of the initially formed metastable mesoscopic clusters into a thermodynamically favored filamentary morphology. Our results demonstrate that it is practically impossible to obtain fully equilibrated coexisting phases in a Langmuir polymer film, neither under conditions of extremely slow continuous compression nor for long waiting times at a constant area in the coexistence region which allow for reorganization. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c01268 SN - 0743-7463 VL - 36 IS - 28 SP - 8184 EP - 8192 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hess, Andreas A1 - Schmidt, Bernhard Volkmar Konrad Jakob A1 - Schlaad, Helmut T1 - Aminolysis induced functionalization of (RAFT) polymer-dithioester with thiols and disulfides JF - Polymer Chemistry N2 - A series of polystyrene- and poly(methyl methacrylate)-dithioesters was subjected to aminolysis under ambient atmospheric conditions, i.e., in the presence of oxygen. Polymer disulfide coupling by oxidation occurred within tens of minutes and the yield of disulfide-coupled polymer increased with decreasing polymer molar mass. Oxidation of thiolates is usually an unwanted side reaction, here it is employed to obtain exclusively polymeric mixed disulfides through in situ aminolysis/functionalization in the presence of a thiol. The in situ aminolysis/functionalization in the presence of a disulfide, Ellman's reagent or polymer disulfide, resulted in the exclusive formation of polymer-dithionitrobenzoic acid, which can be further reacted with a thiol to exchange the terminal functionality, or block copolymer with dynamic disulfide linker, respectively. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/d0py01365j SN - 1759-9954 SN - 1759-9962 VL - 11 IS - 48 SP - 7677 EP - 7684 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Al-Naji, Majd A1 - Schlaad, Helmut A1 - Antonietti, Markus T1 - New (and old) monomers from biorefineries to make polymer chemistry more sustainable JF - Macromolecular rapid communications N2 - This opinion article describes recent approaches to use the "biorefinery" concept to lower the carbon footprint of typical mass polymers, by replacing parts of the fossil monomers with similar or even the same monomer made from regrowing dendritic biomass. Herein, the new and green catalytic synthetic routes are for lactic acid (LA), isosorbide (IS), 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), and p-xylene (pXL). Furthermore, the synthesis of two unconventional lignocellulosic biomass derivable monomers, i.e., alpha-methylene-gamma-valerolactone (MeGVL) and levoglucosenol (LG), are presented. All those have the potential to enter in a cost-effective way, also the mass market and thereby recover lost areas for polymer materials. The differences of catalytic unit operations of the biorefinery are also discussed and the challenges that must be addressed along the synthesis path of each monomers. KW - biodegradable polymers KW - biorefineries KW - carbohydrate‐ based KW - monomers KW - green polymers KW - lignocellulosic biomass Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/marc.202000485 SN - 1022-1336 SN - 1521-3927 VL - 42 IS - 3 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kaya, Kerem A1 - Debsharma, Tapas A1 - Schlaad, Helmut A1 - Yagci, Yusuf T1 - Cellulose-based polyacetals by direct and sensitized photocationic ring-opening polymerization of levoglucosenyl methyl ether JF - Polymer Chemistry N2 - This study aims to explore the photoinitiated cationic ring-opening polymerization of levoglucosenyl methyl ether (LGME), a chemical obtained from the most abundant biomass - cellulose. Direct and sensitized photopolymerizations of LGME using photoinitiators acting at the near UV or visible range in conjunction with diphenyliodonium hexafluoroantimonate (DPI) yielded unsaturated polyacetals with varying molar masses and distributions. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/d0py01307b SN - 1759-9954 SN - 1759-9962 VL - 11 IS - 43 SP - 6884 EP - 6889 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER -