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Published on: June 30, 2018
Rational Design of Functional Bottlebrush Polymers for Polylactide Blends with Improved Toughness and Antibacterial
Jae Jun Kim1, Hyojin Jung1, Yejin Kim1
1Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Institute of Chemical Processes, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul08826, Republic of Korea.
None:
A series of bottlebrush polymers was rationally synthesized using norbornene-functionalized polylactide (NB-PLA), polycaprolactone (NB-PCL), and quaternized poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (NB-QPDM) via ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). These polymeric additives enabled the simultaneous improvement of toughness and antibacterial activity in PLA blends. Incorporating 10 wt % of P34, which consists of NB-PLA, NB-PCL, and NB-QPDM with backbone degrees of polymerization of 6, 34, and 4, respectively, led to a significant increase in tensile toughness while maintaining the tensile strength and Young's modulus comparable to neat PLA. This enhancement could be ascribed to the combined effects of a dispersed toughening phase and a weak physical network structure. Furthermore, the PLA blend containing P34 exhibited outstanding antibacterial efficacy of 99.5% against E. coli, which originated from the presence of a quaternary ammonium group.
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