Surface modification of boron nitride nanosheets with polycationic electrolytes through ARGET ATRP for enhancing mechanical properties of cellulose film

Highly Swellable and Stretchable Thermoresponsive Hydrogels Enabled by Functionalized Boron Nitride Nanosheets

“…Pristine BNNSs and the mixture of BNNSs and PNIPAM were unstable in water, but f‐BNNSs were stable, indicating that f‐BNNSs have excellent dispersion performance in water (Figure S1, Supporting Information). [ 22 ] The f‐BNNSs could cause rapid agglomeration to a bigger size after heating in a water bath at 40 °C for 5 min, and the f‐BNNSs could return to a dispersed state when the temperature is down to 40 °C, indicating that PNIPAM brushes of f‐BNNSs have thermal response performance (Figure S2, Supporting Information). [ 2 ] X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis was performed to investigate the chemical compositions of BNNSs and f‐BNNSs.…”

“…[ 25 ] For the f‐BNNSs, there was a new peak located at 286.0 eV, which can be assigned to C (Figure 2b). [ 22 ] The curves of f‐BNNS could be fitted into three peaks located at 285.0, 286.1, and 287.8 eV, attributed to the C from CC, CN, and CO groups of the PNIPAM chain, respectively (Figure 2c). [ 23 ] The O1s peaks at 532.1 and 533.1 eV were attributed to the O from CO and CO groups (Figure 2d).…”

“…[ 23 ] The O1s peaks at 532.1 and 533.1 eV were attributed to the O from CO and CO groups (Figure 2d). [ 22 ] The chemical structure of f‐BNNS was also confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy. The FT‐IR spectra of f‐BNNS had two new peaks at 1680 and 1160 cm −1 , ascribing to CO stretching and the CN bending of the PNIPAM chain, respectively (Figure S3, Supporting Information).…”

“…In our previous work, poly(2‐acrylamido‐2‐methylpropane sulfonic acid)‐functionalized BNNSs were prepared through activators regenerated by electron transfer atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET ATRP), and the functionalized‐BNNSs as reinforced nanofillers to fabricate poly(acrylamide‐ co ‐maleic anhydride) hydrogel. [ 21–23 ] Interestingly, this designed strategy enables the hydrogel exhibit excellent strength and stretchability simultaneously, which was attributed to functionalized‐BNNSs to have excellent hydrophilicity and have strong interactions with the polymer matrix. [ 21 ] Herein, PNIPAM‐functionalized BNNSs (f‐BNNSs) were prepared by the same method, and a facile strategy was demonstrated to effectively improve the mechanical and swelling properties of the hydrogel by introducing f‐BNNSs into poly(maleic anhydride‐functionalized β‐cyclodextrin‐ co ‐ N ‐isopropylacrylamide (P(MAH‐β‐CD‐ co ‐NIPAM)) hydrogel.…”

Surface-Induced ARGET ATRP for Silicon Nanoparticles with Fluorescent Polymer Brushes

“…However, traditional ATRP is sensitive to oxygen and requires high transition-metal (Cu (I)) complex catalyst concentration to maintain activity throughout the polymerization process, which results in an inevitable metal residue in final products and is harmful to physiological systems [20]. Several new ATRP techniques were developed to solve these drawbacks in recent years, especially the technique of activators regenerated by electron transfer for ATRP (ARGET ATRP), can effectively decrease the amount of metal catalyst required by introducing excess reducing agent, the ARGET ATRP technique allows the utilization of ppm level of Cu catalysts to greatly reduce the sensitivity of oxygen, with good prospects for use in industry [21,22,23,24,25].…”