eXPRESS Polymer Letters (Jan 2020)

Artificial reactor containing polymeric bilayer architectures for the formation of self-controlled tandem catalytic-ability

  • Z. Xia,
  • W. Wei,
  • M. Zhu,
  • S. Wu,
  • X. Shen,
  • S. Li

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3144/expresspolymlett.2020.3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 1
pp. 12 – 25

Abstract

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For addressing the present challenges in tandem catalysts, an artificial reactor capable of self-controlled tandem catalytic-ability was reported in this study. Inspired from the polymeric properties and divisional isolation for tandem processes in natural biological systems, this reactor was fabricated with polymeric bilayer architectures. The first layer was made of a reactive shape memory polymer that contained thermosensitive polymeric networks, acting as a molecular switch for the occurrence of the precedent hydrolysis of bis(4-nitrophenyl)carbonate. The second layer consisted of a molecularly-imprinted polymer and encapsulated Ag nanoparticles, allowing access to the succeeding reduction of the intermediate 4-nitrophenol. In a cooperative way, the polymeric bilayer architectures planted in this artificial reactor led to the formation of self-controlled tandem catalytic-ability. The suggested design for this artificial reactor shares a promising prospect with the struggling tandem catalysts, which leads to opportunities to develop controllable tandem processes.

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