Alkylphenols are widely used as plastic additives and surfactants. We report the identification of an alkylphenol, nonylphenol, as an estrogenic substance released from plastic centrifuge tubes. This compound was extracted with methanol, purified by flash chromatography and reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography, and identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Nonylphenol ...

Spherical silica particles that are able to assemble at a phase boundary of a dual-phase mixture of water and an immiscible organic solvent were prepared by a partial modification of their surface hydroxyl groups with an alkylsilylation agent. Scanning electron microscopic observation of these particles in which their remaining surface hydroxyl groups had been selectively modified with colloida...

A synthetic method was developed to chemically attach few molecules of simple sugars like glucose, mannose, galactose, maltose and xylose (0.09 0.37 wt%) and with quaternary nitrogen pendants (0.42 0.46 atomic%) along the polybutadiene section of polystyrene-block-polybutadiene-block-polystyrene (SBS) block copolymer. These functionalized SBS copolymers were evaluated for biodegradation using t...

A new solid phase catalyst, poly(N-4-vinylbenzyl-1,4,7-triazacyclononane) copper(I) complex, grafted onto polystyrene particles, has been employed for the oxidative polymerization of 2,6-dimethylphenol using an aqueous biphasic (water/toluene) solvent system. The solid catalyst was synthesized by first grafting N-(4-vinylbenzyl)-1,4,7-triaza-cyclononane onto polystyrene particles using a radica...

High modulus bitumens modified by polystyrene-block-polybutadiene-block-polystyrene (SBS) with different molecular structure were investigated on dynamic shear rheometer and fluorescence microscopy to evaluate viscoelastic properties and morphology of binders. The results shows that storage modulus (G’) is obviously less than loss modulus (G”), which means viscous behaviour of bitumen is domina...

Colloidal particles with two or more different surface properties (Janus particles) are of interest in catalysis, biological imaging, and drug delivery. Eccentric nanoparticles are a type of Janus particle consisting of a shell that envelops the majority of a core particle, leaving a portion of the core surface exposed. Previous work to synthesize eccentric nanoparticles from silica and polysty...

Hexagonally ordered arrays of polystyrene (PS) microspheres were prepared by a modified air-water self-assembly method. A detailed analysis of the air-water interface self-assembly process was conducted. Several parameters affect the quality of the monolayer colloidal crystals, i.e., the colloidal microsphere concentration on the latex, the surfactant concentration, the polystyrene microsphere ...

Superhydrophobic particulate films were fabricated via deposition of raspberry-like fluorescent PS/CdTe/silica microspheres on clean glass substrates and surface modification. Particularly, the fluorescent microspheres were prepared by a kind of modified strategy, namely introducing poly (acrylic acid)-functionalized polystyrene microspheres and thiol-stabilized CdTe quantum dots into a hydroly...

Crystallization and morphological features of syndiotactic-b-atactic polystyrene stereodiblock copolymers (sPS-b-aPS), atactic/syndiotactic polystyrene blends (aPS/sPS), and aPS/sPS blends modified with sPS-b-aPS, with different compositions in aPS and sPS, have been investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized light optical microscopy (POM) and wide angle X-ray diffrac...

We report chemical modification of self-assembled block copolymer thin films by ultraviolet light that enhances the block-selective affinity of organometallic precursors otherwise lacking preference for either copolymer block. Sequential precursor loading and reaction facilitate formation of zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, and aluminum oxide nanostructures within the polystyrene domains of both l...