Advanced Synthesis & New Architectures
Session Chairs
Jens Gaitzsch (Leibniz-Institute of Polymer Research, Dresden, Germany)
Felix Schacher (Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany)
Invited Speakers
Liheng Cai (University of Virginia, USA)
Bottlebrush Polymers, Networks, Biomaterials, and Tissue Mimics (Shared talk with Bio-Medical Applications)
A bottlebrush polymer consists of a long linear backbone densely grafted with many relatively short side chains. In some instances, the bottlebrush backbone can fold to store length, a phenomenon opposite to the prevailing understanding of bottlebrush polymers. Using this so-called foldable bottlebrush polymer as a network strand provides a universal strategy for decoupling stiffness and extensibility of single-network elastomers, the fundamental component of all kinds of polymer networks. Bottlebrush polymers can be used as a platform to engineer modular biomaterials for therapeutic delivery. A voxelated bioprinting technology will be shown for transforming cell-instructive bottlebrush biomaterials into functional 3D tissue mimics for basic and translational biomedicine.
Miroslava Duskova-Smrckova (Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague)
Formation and structure of polyaspartic-polyurea networks for coatings and thermosets with high sustainability. Experimental insights and statistical modelling
Polyaspartics crosslinked through urea bonds are a novel class of thermosetting materials with great potential for sustainability and environmental friendliness without compromising the material performance. This research conjoins experimental insights with simulations that combine kinetic theory and the statistical approach of the Theory of branching processes. Side reactions are incorporated through their effect on the building units, which in turn govern the gelation, network evolution, and final material properties. The resulting model provides a predictive tool for designing realistic systems of next-generation polyaspartic coatings and thermosets.
Bela Ivan (HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary)
Bicontinuous Nanophasic Amphiphilic Conetworks, their Gels and Nanohybrids for Advanced Applications: from Intelligent Drug Release to Highly Efficient Nanocatalysts and Beyond (Shared talk with Amphiphilic Gels and Networks)
Our research focuses on the synthesis, structure-property investigations and application possibilities of polymer conetworks, composed of covalently linked hydrophilic and hydrophobic polymers chains. Utilization of the bicontinuous nanophase separated morphology of such conetworks in various fields, especially in the biomedical areas and as nanohybrid materials, is one of the recent challenging tasks with this emerging class of crosslinked macromolecular assemblies. This presentation will deal with the latest achievements in our laboratories in these research and development fields.
Jeremiah Johnson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
Deconstructing Polymer Networks to Decode Their Structure (shared talk with Elasticity and Fracture of Gels, Elastomers, and Composites)
The properties of polymer networks are governed by their composition and topology across multiple length scales. Certain stochastic topological features of networks, including loops, remain challenging to measure and control. This talk will introduce Network Disassembly Spectrometry (NDS) as an experimental tool to measure cyclic and dangling end structures in polymer networks. A novel “time-dependent” NDS method will be introduced, which unveils new interactions between enzymes and topological features in hydrogels.
Sergei Sheiko (University of North Carolina, USA)
Bottlebrush elastomers and gels: Programming tissue-mimetic properties by architecture
Bottlebrush macromolecules are resourceful building blocks for constructing tissue-mimetic materials with sought after combinations of softness, damping, swelling, and adhesion. Densely grafted side chains define physical properties in two ways: (i) they disentangle network strands and (ii) they increase strand persistent length. The first trait alleviates constraints for lowering the crosslink density, enabling supersoft and super-swelling polymer networks that closely match soft tissues like brain and jellyfish. The second trait - variable persistence length - controls elastic modulus, strain-stiffening, and relaxation times. By architecturally adjusting the size and flexibility of brush-like network strands, we can create materials possessing oxymoronic property combinations, such as being soft-yet-firm, elastic-yet-dissipating, and stiff-yet-stretchable.
Contributed talks and posters
... will be continuously added until the abstract acceptance deadline.