RESUMEN
Adhesion is one of the most ubiquitous practical applications at surfaces. With today's society calling increasingly for more reusable and "green" alternatives, the demand for readily reversible adhesives has triggered many studies into this field, in particular by incorporating molecular photoswitches into composite materials. Responsive polymers can act as reversible adhesives, but their employment brings about synthetic drawbacks and challenges in reproducibility and reusability. Here, our results demonstrate that even a low molecular weight photoswitch can serve as an on-demand adhesive when the intermolecular interactions are sufficiently strong. We show that readily accessible arylazoisoxazoles display a fast photoreversible solid-to-liquid phase transition and perform as excellent photoreversible adhesives, with a remarkable durability over 10 immediate reuse cycles without a loss in adhesive strength or an increase in the unprecedented response time. Furthermore, the versatility of photoreversible adhesion is shown at various surfaces ranging from polymeric materials to metals, demonstrating a wide field of potential application.
RESUMEN
The preparation of colloidal molecules (CMs), that is, clusters of colloids with a defined aggregation number and configuration, is of continued and significant interest in colloid chemistry and materials science and numerous interactions have been utilized to drive their (self-)assembly. However, only very few reports are available on the assembly of CMs based on host-guest chemistry. In this paper, we investigate the assembly of like-charged silica particles into well-defined, core-satellite ABn-type CMs in water, mediated by host-guest interactions and geometric constraints. Exploiting the inherent dynamics of noncovalent attraction and making use of a soft polymer shell to enhance multivalent host-guest interactions, we successfully synthesized AB3, AB4, and AB6 CMs by selecting the appropriate size ratio of satellite to core particles.
RESUMEN
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1039/C8SC04561E.].
RESUMEN
A hybrid hydrogel based on 1,3:2,4-dibenzylidene sorbitol (DBS) modified with acyl hydrazides combined with agarose was used for in situ reduction and binding of palladium from aqueous mixtures without the need for an external reducing agent. Palladium uptake was monitored and the formation of Pd nanoparticles (PdNPs) trapped within the gel and located close to the nanofibres was confirmed. This gel effectively scavenges palladium from solution to concentrations < 0.04 ppm - well below the recommended limits for pharmaceutical products. The resulting hybrid hydrogel with embedded PdNPs was used as a catalyst for Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions. The gel network stabilises PdNPs, preventing aggregation/leaching and giving excellent catalytic lifetimes. The gel acts as a simple reaction dosing form, being simply added to reactions performed in green solvents in air. Once reactions are complete, the gel can be simply removed, recycled and reused (>10 times). Reactions were purified by simple washing protocols, and leaching of Pd from the gels is limited (<1 ppm). The gels were also used in flow-through mode, giving efficient, rapid reactions, with easy work-up. These catalytic gels combine advantages of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts - they are solvent compatible with the reaction taking place in a solution-like environment, while the solid-like gel network enables catalyst recycling. In summary, these hydrogels scavenge 'waste' palladium and convert it into gel 'wealth' capable of efficient, environmentally-friendly Suzuki-Miyaura catalysis.