Nanoincorporation of layered double hydroxides into a miscible blend system of cellulose acetate with poly(acryloyl morpholine).

Blend miscibility of cellulose acetate (CA) with poly(acryloyl morpholine) (PACMO) was examined by thermal transition measurements and solid-state (13)C NMR spectroscopy, in which CA materials of acetyl DS=1.80-2.95 were used. All the blends prepared gave a single Tg and formed an amorphous monophase homogeneous within a distance of ∼2.0nm. An Al/Mg-based, layered double hydroxide (LDH) was modified with different ionic oligomers, and an attempt was made to incorporate the respective organophilic LDHs (3-3.5wt%) into blend films of the miscible PACMO/CA pair, via bulk polymerization of an ACMO monomer/organo-LDH mixture and then blending CA with the polymer/inorganic hybrid precursor. Particularly, 12-hydroxystearic acid-modified LDH was well exfoliated and ultimately dispersed in the PACMO/CA matrix on a scale of less than a few tens of nanometers in thickness. This gave rise to a successful reinforcement effect leading to the improvement in thermo-mechanical property of the polymer blends.

Preparation of cholesteric (hydroxypropyl)cellulose/polymer networks and ion-mediated control of their optical properties.

(Hydroxypropyl)cellulose (HPC)/vinyl polymer networks were synthesized in film form from liquid-crystalline solutions of HPC in a mixed solvent of methacrylate monomer/methanol/water (2:1:2 in weight) containing cross-linking agents, via photopolymerization of the methacrylate monomer. Di(ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether methacrylate (DEGMEM) or 2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate (HPMA) was used as the polymerizing monomer, and tetra(ethylene glycol) diacrylate and glutaraldehyde were the cross-linkers for the monomers and HPC, respectively. The polymer composite films, HPC/PDEGMEM and HPC/PHPMA, prepared at ca. 60-70 wt % concentrations of HPC in the starting solutions, were iridescently colored due to the selective light reflection, originating from the cholesteric helical arrangement carried over successively into the network system. When the cholesteric films were immersed and swollen in water containing an inorganic neutral salt, their coloration and optical turbidity varied according to a strength of 'chaotropicity' of the impregnant ions. This ionic effect may be interpreted as essentially identical with that found formerly in the coexistent salt-sort dependence of the cholesteric pitch and lower critical solution temperature for HPC aqueous solutions. It is also demonstrated that visual appearance of the swollen networks can be changed by application of an electric potential of practical magnitude between both edges of the samples of rectangular shape.