Themed collection RSC Applied Polymers Advisory Board

The drive towards a circular economy in plastic materials has become a worldwide goal.

BN doping improved UHMWPE's thermal conductivity but caused poor interfaces, while thermal annealing partially healed the filler–matrix interface and restored its breakdown strength.

Using phosphorus-containing, cationic polymers synthesized by REM-GTP, novel siRNA delivery agents were developed that demonstrate excellent siRNA encapsulation and efficient endosomal escape and gene silencing, while showing low cytotoxicity.

Understanding the interactions between bacterial cellulose and pectin gels enables the tuning of the properties of cellulose/pectin foams, highlighting the potential for sustainable, biodegradable materials to compete with petroleum-based materials.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a ubiquitous thermoplastic used in textiles and packaging, is one of the primary contributors to plastic pollution.

Degradable semiconducting polymers featuring acid-labile imine bonds are often investigated for use in transient electronics.

Biobased water soluble polyesters derived from xylose and made by ROCOP are able to stabilise the amorphous phases of nifedipine and mefenamic acid, enhancing their apparent solubility in water up to 918 and 142% respectively.

The role of acidic polymers in neutralising bacteriophages is investigated.

Polymerizable eutectic resins featuring a Z-connected bis-RAFT agent are applied to light-based 3D printing to prepare network copolymers with controlled microstructures, high strength, and thermoresponsive behavior.

This study combines ¹H NMR and chemometrics to determine optimal processing conditions for aromatic disulfide-based vitrimers, revealing a correlation between model reactions and vitrimer networks.

Multicolor 3D microstructures are printed using two-photon laser printing from formulations containing photopolymerizable dyes exhibiting red, green, and blue emission.

Uniform trehalose nanogels improve stability and solubility of glucagon in aqueous solution, particularly useful for long term storage at cold temperatures. Additionally, the glucagon nanogels were nontoxic, nonhemolytic, and efficacious in vitro.

Flexible and lightweight sensors can assess their environment for applications that include wearables for health monitoring and soft robotics.

The goal of this work is to develop polymer-based solid-state electrolytes for sodium-ion battery applications. Two polymers are blended in order to reduce the T_g and decouple ionic conductivity from polymer segmental motion. Furthermore, the addition of plasticizers further enhances the ionic conductivity.

A hard mesh with embedded adhesive makes a linerless stick-on-demand label possible.

BCNPs prepared from a kombucha co-culture can serve as a sustainable delivery platform for protein-based drugs. The amorphous nanoparticles form a mesh-like fibrillar network that is thermally stable and can be produced at scale.

Imine-based semiconducting polymers with thienoisoindigo-based monomers are 90% recoverable upon imine hydrolysis, enabling closed-loop recycling.

A capillary-based microfluidic device is used to prepare functionalized polymer microfibers in one-step involving monomer photopolymerization in the core phase and surface modification of the fibers by thiol-acrylate reactions at the interface.

Designing polyimide-ionenes through selection of building blocks leads to different properties and performances in gas separation membranes.

PANI/MWCNT electrode inks were developed with chitosan as an eco-friendly binder in water. Fabricated symmetric supercapacitors with PANI/MWCNT exhibited high specific capacitance and energy density suitable for sustainable energy storage applications.

Vat photopolymerization is able to produce intricate composite parts at high print speed, good part fidelity, and strong mechanical properties.

This works reports on novel polyimine vitrimers from a bio-based and fully aromatic scaffold. The dynamic networks possess high-performance thermal stability and charring behavior with facile thermomechanical and viscoelastic tunability.

New poly(ionic liquid) based on poly(diallyl dimethylammonium) and coumarate that can act as a corrosion inhibitor into an acrylic UV-cured formulation.