Thermoset elastomers derived from carvomenthide.

Renewable thermoset elastomers were prepared using the plant-based monomer carvomenthide. Controlled ring-opening transesterification polymerization of carvomenthide using diethylene glycol as an initiator gave α,ω-dihydroxyl poly(carvomenthide) (HO-PCM-OH), which was subsequently converted to carboxy-telechelic poly(carvomenthide) (HOOC-PCM-COOH) by esterification with excess succinic anhydride through a one-pot, two-step process, leading to no crystallinity, high viscosity, strong thermal resistance, and low glass transition temperature of the resulting functionalized polyester. Thermal curing processes of the resulting 3, 6, and 12 kg mol(-1) prepolymers were achieved with trifunctional aziridine to give cross-linked PCM elastomers. The thermal properties, mechanical behavior, and biocompatibility of the rubbery thermoset products were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, thermal gravimetric analysis, dynamic mechanical analysis, tensile tests under static and cyclic loads, and cell adherence. These new materials are useful candidates to satisfy the design objective for the engineering of a variety of soft tissues.

Tunable softening and toughening of individualized cellulose nanofibers-polyurethane urea elastomer composites.

A series of elastomeric nanocomposites with superior tensile strength and extensibility, simultaneously exhibiting softening, was prepared using in situ polymerization by homogeneously dispersing TEMPO-oxidized cellulose individualized nanofibers (TOCNs) in a polyurethane urea (PUU) matrix. The structure of these PUU composites covalently cross-linked with the TOCNs was characterized. It was interesting to find that the amount and size of the hard domains in the composites gradually decreased by introducing crosslinkable TOCNs. With only 2wt% of TOCNs incorporated, a 10.4-fold increase in tensile strength, 5.5-fold increase in strain-to-failure, and a decrease of 35% in the coefficient of thermal expansion were achieved, compared with those of neat PUU. However, the elastic modulus of the nanocomposites gradually decreased with up to 1wt% of TOCNs. Conversely, with 2wt% of TOCNs, the stiffness of the elastomers again increased, due to filler-filler interaction over the CNFs percolation in the nanocomposites.

Effects of the addition of dimer acid alkyl esters on the properties of ethyl cellulose.

In this study, we synthesized dimer acid (DA) esters, having short to long alkyl chains, (DA-Cn) by the Diels-Alder reaction and subsequent esterification reaction of fatty acids that were prepared by the hydrolysis of waste vegetable oil. It was found that the DA-Cn were thermally more stable than common petroleum-based plasticizer DOP. When the DOP, DA, or DA-Cn with short alkyl chains were added to ethyl cellulose (EC), the optical clarity and SEM images of the samples showed their good miscibility with those additives in a micro-scale. It was also found that the rubbery modulus of the EC decreased with increasing amount of additives; the type of the additives did not affect the rates of the decrease in the rubbery modulus. The main transition temperatures of the EC containing either DA or DA-C1 or DA-C4 decreased with increasing amounts of those additives and were comparable to that of the DOP-containing EC. The above findings suggested that the DA and its esters with short alkyl chains could act as effective plasticizer and, thus, could be used instead of the DOP. In addition, the results obtained from tensile testing and leaching experiments implied that the DA might be better plasticizer than the DA-C1 and DA-C4, at least in some cases, because of hydrogen-bonding with the EC.

Quantitative analysis of cyclic dimer fatty acid content in the dimerization product by proton NMR spectroscopy.

In this work, (1)H NMR is utilized for the quantitative analysis of a specific cyclic dimer fatty acid in a dimer acid mixture using the pseudo-standard material of mesitylene on the basis of its structural similarity. Mesitylene and cyclic dimer acid levels were determined using the signal of the proton on the cyclic ring (δ=6.8) referenced to the signal of maleic acid (δ=6.2). The content of the cyclic dimer fatty acid was successfully determined through the standard curve of mesitylene and the reported equation. Using the linearity of the mesitylene curve, the cyclic dimer fatty acid in the oil mixture was quantified. The results suggest that the proposed method can be used to quantify cyclic compounds in mixtures to optimize the dimerization process.

High-level extracellular production and characterization of Candida antarctica lipase B in Pichia pastoris.

The gene encoding lipase B from Candida antarctica (CalB) was expressed in Pichia pastoris after it was synthesized by the recursive PCR and cloned into the Pichia expression plasmid, pPICZαA. The CalB was successfully secreted in the recombinant P. pastoris strain X-33 with an apparent molecular weight of 34 kDa. For 140 h flask culture, the dry cell weight and the extracellular lipase activity reached at 5.4 g/l and 57.9 U/l toward p-nitrophenyl palmitate, respectively. When we performed the fed-batch fermentation using a methanol feeding strategy for 110 h, the dry cell weight and the extracellular lipase activity were increased to 135.7 g/l and 11,900 U/l; the CalB protein concentration was 1.18 g/l of culture supernatant. The characteristics of CalB recovered from the P. pastoris culture were compared with the commercial form of CalB produced in Aspergillus oryzae. The kinetic constants and specific activity, the effects of activity and stability on temperature and pH, the glycosylation extent, the degree of immobilization on macroporous resin and the yield of esterification reaction between oleic acid and n-butanol were almost identical to each other. Therefore, we successfully proved that the Pichia-based expression system for CalB in this study was industrially promising compared with one of the most efficient production systems.