MOLECULAR ENGINEERING STUDIES ON NONTHROMBOGENIC BIOMATERIALS——A NOVEL CLASS OF NONTHROMBOGENIC BIOMATERIALS WITH ZWITTERIONIC STRUCTURE OF CARBOXYBETAINES

N,N-dimethyl-N-methacryloyloxyethyl-N-carboxyethyl ammonium(DMMCA)was graft-copolymerized onto thesurface of segmented poly(ether urethane)(SPEU)and PE film.The carboxybetaine structure on SPEU and PE filmsurfaces was confirmed by ATR-FTIR,XPS and water contact angle measurements.Through the experiments with plateletadhesion and protein adhesion assay in vitro,the two materials studied,including poly-DMMCA gel,all show excellentnonthrombogenicity.This confirms once again that the zwitterionic molecular structure on the surfaces of materials isessential for improving their nonthrombogenicity and biocompatibility.

Grafting Vinyl Monomers onto Chitosan:IV:Graft Copolymerized of Acrylicacid onto Chitosan Using Ceric Ammonium Nitrate as the Initiator— Characterization and Antimicrobial Activities

Acrylicacid was grafted onto chitosan by using the ceric ammonium nitrate as the initiator. The effect of initiator concentration, monomer concentration, time & temperature on % G and % GE were studied. The grafted samples were characterized using FTIR, TGA, SEM and XRD methods. From the FTIR data it was ascertained that grafting has occurred considerably. The morphology of the grafted polymer was observed from the SEM picture. The thermal analysis indicated the different stages of degradation of the grafted copolymer. Evidence of grafting was obtained from comparison of SEM, XRD, and FTIR of the grafted and nongrafted chitosan as well as solubility characteristics of the products. The antibacterial and antifungal activities of the grafted polymer have also been investigated.

Effects of Branches on the Crystallization Kinetics of Polypropylene-gPolystyrene and Polypropylene-g-Poly(n-butyl acrylate) Graft Copolymers with Well-defined Molecular Structures

Effects of branches on the crystallization kinetics of polypropylene-g-polystyrene （PP-g-PS） and polypropylene-g- poly（n-butyl acrylate） （PP-g-PnBA） graft copolymers with well-defined molecular structures were systematically investigated by DSC. The Avrami equation was used to analyze the isothermal crystallization process, while the analysis of nonisothermal crystallization process was based on the Jeziorny-modified Avrami model and Mo model. The kinetics results of isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization verified the peculiar effects of branches on the crystallization process of PP backbones in PP-g-PS and PP-g-PnBA graft copolymers： on one hand, the interaction between branches （n-n interaction between PS branches, or dipole-dipole interaction between PnBA branches） restrained the mobility and reptation ability of the PP backbones, which hindered the crystallization process; on the other hand, the heterogeneous nucleation effect resulting from the branched structure and fluctuation-assisted nucleation mechanism （caused by microphase separation between the PS or PnBA rich phase and the PP rich phase） became more pronounced with increasing branch length, which facilitated the crystallization process.

SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE ASSISTED SYNTHESIS OF AMPHIPHILIC GRAFT COPOLYMERS BASED ON POLY(STYRENE-CO-MALEIC ANHYDRIDE) WITH METHOXYL POLY(ETHYLENE GLYCOL) SIDE CHAINS

Supercritical carbon dioxide （scCO2） was used as a reaction medium in synthesizing amphiphilic graft copolymers composed of poly（styrene-co-maleic anhydride） （SMA） backbones and methoxyl poly（ethylene glycol） （MPEG） side chains via esterification. The synthesized copolymers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy （FTIR）, gel permeation chromatography （GPC）, IH-NMR, thermo-gravimetric analysis （TGA） and differential scanning calorimetric analysis （DSC）. The gelation phenomenon was suppressed effectively by tuning reaction conditions. The influences of scCO2 temperature and pressure on the conversion of anhydride were investigated. It was found that the highest conversion ratio occurred at 80~C under a constant pressure of 14 MPa or 26 MPa. With the increase of scCO2 pressure, the conversion ratio increased first, and then leveled off. The conversion ratio of anhydride could be controlled by regulating the reaction conditions. It was also revealed that using low molecular weight MPEG brought a high conversion ratio of anhydride.