A solvent-free route of initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) was used to synthesize a bio-renewable poly(α-Methylene-γ-butyrolactone) (PMBL) polymer. α-MBL, also known as tulipalin A, is a bio-based monomer that can be a sustainable alternative to produce polymer coatings with interesting material properties. The produced polymers were deposited as thin films on three different types of substrates—polycarbonate (PC) sheets, microscopic glass, and silicon wafers—and characterized via an array of characterization techniques, including Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR), ultraviolet visible spectroscopy (UV–vis), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Optically transparent thin films and coatings of PMBL were found to have high thermal stability up to 310 °C. The resulting PMBL films also displayed good optical characteristics, and a high glass transition temperature (Tg~164 °C), higher than the Tg of its structurally resembling fossil-based linear analogue-poly(methyl methacrylate). The effect of monomer partial pressure to monomer saturation vapor pressure (Pm/Psat) on the deposition rate was investigated in this study. Both the deposition rate and molar masses increased linearly with Pm/Psat following the normal iCVD mechanism and kinetics that have been reported in literature.

Electrically conductive polymer nanocomposites have been the subject of intense research due to their promising potential as piezoresistive biomedical sensors, leveraging their flexibility and biocompatibility. Although intrinsically conductive polymers such as polypyrrole (PPy) and polyaniline have emerged as lucrative candidates, they are extremely limited in their processability by conventional solution-based approaches. In this work, ultrathin nanostructured coatings of doped PPy are realized on polyurethane films of different architectures via oxidative chemical vapor deposition to develop stretchable and flexible resistance-based strain sensors. Holding the substrates perpendicular to the reactant flows facilitates diffusive transport and ensures excellent conformality of the interfacial integrated PPy coatings throughout the 3D porous electrospun fiber mats in a single step. This allows the mechanically robust (stretchability > 400%, with fatigue resistance up to 1000 cycles) nanocomposites to elicit a reversible change of electrical resistance when subjected to consecutive cycles of stretching and releasing. The repeatable performance of the strain sensor is linear due to dimensional changes of the conductive network in the low-strain regime (ε ≤ 50%), while the evolution of nano-cracks leads to an exponential increase, which is observed in the high-strain regime, recording a gauge factor as high as 46 at 202% elongational strain. The stretchable conductive polymer nanocomposites also show biocompatibility toward human dermal fibroblasts, thus providing a promising path for use as piezoresistive strain sensors and finding applications in biomedical applications such as wearable, skin-mountable flexible electronics.

Plastic pollution is one of the main issues of the modern era. When plastic is wrongly disposed of, it can be found in contaminated water, land, and even in the air. One of the solutions to tackle plastic con-tamination in the world is introducing polymers that require fewermaterials to fulfill the same function in addition to biodegradable and biobased options. Biodegradable polymers tackle end-of-life pollution when wrongly discarded, and biobased polymers use fewer or none fossil-based resources. In this study, we characterize the bioplastics Polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT), Polybutylene succinate(PBS), and Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) as further steps to stage the features of promising alternatives to currently utilized plastics. We access the chemical, thermal and mechanical characteristics of commercially available PBAT, PBS, and PHBV polymers.These results help us to understand purity, process behavior, and per-ceive different porous morphology. In addition, we successfully produce porous materials using a green process with carbon dioxide. Because of their respective features, all three polymers resulted in microcellularporous, but PBAT and PBS resulted in closed cells and PHBV opencells. Since each polymer has different thermal properties, the process temperature follows their respective melting temperature.In order to see the morphology of each sample, the porous material was cut and analyzed under a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The possibility to make porous samples with different morphology also adds value to the polymers and introduces new options to fill more applications.