An investigation into the mechanism by which ethylene thiourea (ETU) cross-links polychloroprene in combination with zinc oxide (ZnO) was undertaken. This was achieved through an examination of the mechanisms of cross-linking polychloroprene rubber (CR) with ETU and ZnO separately and in unison. Spectroscopic and physical characterisation techniques were employed to probe the cross-linking mechanisms of CR using other standard rubber accelerators and model compounds with analogous structures and functionalities to ETU. These investigations have resulted in the proposal of a new mechanism by which ETU and ZnO can synergistically cross-link polychloroprene, in addition to providing new evidence to support concomitant mechanisms already published for cross-linking polychloroprene.

Results of a pioneering study are presented in which for the first time, crystallization, phase separation and Marangoni instabilities occurring during the spin-coating of polymer blends are directly visualized, in real-space and real-time. The results provide exciting new insights into the process of self-assembly, taking place during spin-coating, paving the way for the rational design of processing conditions, to allow desired morphologies to be obtained.

Metal-binding polymer fibres have attracted major attention for diverse applications in membranes for metal sequestration from waste waters, non-woven wound dressings, matrices for photocatalysis, and many more. This paper reports the design and synthesis of an 8-hydroxyquinoline-based zinc-binding styrenic monomer, QuiBoc. Its subsequent polymerisation by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) yielded welldefined polymers, PQuiBoc, of controllable molar masses (6 and 12 kg/mol) with low dispersities (Ð, Mw/Mn < 1.3). Protected (PQuiBoc) and deprotected (PQuiOH) derivatives of the polymer exhibited high zinc-binding capacity, as determined by semi-quantitative SEM/EDXA analyses, allowing the electrospinning of microfibres from a PQuiBoc/polystyrene (PS) blend without the need for removal of the protecting group. Simple "dip-coating" of the fibrous mats into ZnO suspensions showed that PQuiBoc/PS microfibres with only 20% PQuiBoc content had almost three-fold higher loadings of ZnO (29%) in comparison to neat PS microfibres (11%).

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