Abstract Considerable research has focused on the control of the physiological activity of fruits and vegetables in postharvest conditions as well as microbial decay. The use of edible coatings (ECs) carrying active compounds (e.g., antimicrobials) represents an alternative preservation technology since they can modify the internal gas composition by creating a modified atmosphere through the regulation of the gas exchange (oxygen, carbon dioxide, volatiles) while … Continue reading Starch-Based Coatings for Preservation of Fruits and Vegetables

Abstract Self-healing superhydrophobic surfaces have been fabricated by casting and drying water-soluble amphiphilic polymer suspensions at room temperature through thermal reconstruction. When compared with previous methods, this approach exploits modified natural hierarchical microstructures from wood instead of artificially constructing them for superhydrophobic morphology, which involves neither organic solvent nor inorganic particles nor complex procedures. The obtained superhydrophobic surface has acceptable resistance to abrasion. The surface … Continue reading Fabrication of Self-healing Superhydrophobic Surfaces from Water-Soluble Polymer Suspensions Free of Inorganic Particles through Polymer Thermal Reconstruction

Four different biorenewable methacrylated/acrylated monomers, namely, methacrylated fatty acid (MFA), methacrylated eugenol (ME), isobornyl methacrylate (IM), and isobornyl acrylate (IA) were employed as reactive diluents (RDs) to replace styrene (St) in a maleinated acrylated epoxidized soybean oil (MAESO) resin to produce bio-based thermosetting resins using free radical polymerization. The curing kinetics, gelation times, double bond conversions, thermal–mechanical properties, and thermal stabilities of MAESO-RD resin systems … Continue reading Bio-based reactive diluents as sustainable replacements for styrene in MAESO resin

Abstract A large amount of research has been devoted to developing novel superhydrophobic coatings. However, it is still a great challenge to pursuean environmentally friendly method that leads to superhydrophobic coatings. Herein, we demonstrate for the first time, an environmentally friendly method for the preparation of conductive superhydrophobic coatings with sandwich-like structures by using aminoethylaminopropyl polydimethylsiloxane modified waterborne polyurethane (SiWPU) and N-octadecylamine functionalized multi-wall carbon nanotubes. … Continue reading An Environmentally Friendly Approach for the Fabrication of Conductive Superhydrophobic Coatings with Sandwich-Like Structures

Abstract Dual component microencapsulated hydrophobic amine and microencapsulated isocyanate were designed and fabricated for self-healing anti-corrosion coating. In this system, novel hydrophobic polyaspartic acid ester (PAE) and isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) were microencapsulated respectively with melamine-formaldehyde (MF) as shell via in situ polymerization. To reduce the reaction activity between shell-forming MF prepolymer and PAE, another self-healing agent tung oil (TO) was dissolved in PAE and subsequently … Continue reading Novel Dual-Component Microencapsulated Hydrophobic Amine and Microencapsulated Isocyanate Used for Self-Healing Anti-Corrosion Coating

Abstract Three different polyfunctional acrylate monomers—trimethylolpropantriacrylate (TMPTA), pentaerythritol triacrylate (PETA) and di(trimethylolpropane) tetraacrylate (DTTA)—have been used as comonomers in combination with a reactive resin consisting of poly(methylmethacrylate), dissolved in its monomer methylmethacrylate. Phenanthrene has been added to form a guest–host system. The level of phenanthrene present may be adjusted to tailor the refractive index in the system. Prior to curing, the shear rate and temperature-dependent … Continue reading Optical and Thermomechanical Properties of Doped Polyfunctional Acrylate Copolymers

Alkyd resins are versatile polymers which have applications in inks and various coatings like decorative paints. They are mainly composed of fatty acids, polyols and aromatic diacids. In this work, glutamic acid as well as N-acylated and N-alkylated derivatives there of were evaluated as bio-based substitutes for these aromatic diacid monomers in the synthesis of alkyd resins. The resins were characterised in terms of structure, molecular weight, … Continue reading Synthesis and characterisation of alkyd resins with glutamic acid-based monomers

A key for the preparation of polyacrylate-based polyurethane is the synthesis of hydroxyl-terminated polyacrylate. To our knowledge, exactly one hydroxyl group of every polyacrylate chain has not been reported. The hydroxyl-terminated poly(butyl acrylate) (PBA) has been successfully synthesized by degenerative iodine transfer polymerization (DITP) of the n-butyl acrylate (n-BA) using 4,4′-azobis(4-cyano-1-pentanol) (ACPO) and diiodoxylene (DIX) as initiator and chain transfer agent, respectively, and subsequently substituted reaction … Continue reading Synthesis of Waterborne Polyurethane by the Telechelic α,ω-Di(hydroxy)poly(n-butyl acrylate)