Application of twin polymerization by a base-catalysed, surface-mediated coating procedure is shown on different templates. Post-polymerization treatment leads to microporous shells on MWCNTs, N-doped carbon particles, and copper particles.

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Synthesis, characterization and electrochemical evaluation of composite electrodes – synthesized via twin polymerization – for utilization in vanadium redox flow batteries.

Water-soluble bis(N-acylpiperidone)s with aldehyde-like reactivity are reported to react rapidly with polyvinylamine at room temperature, providing unprecedented clean reaction products. Unlike most amine/ketone reactions that result in arbitrary mixtures of imines, aminals, hemiaminals, or hydrates, in the present study hemiaminals, aminals, or hemiaminal/aminal mixtures are exclusively found. Detailed NMR spectroscopy of solutions, gels, and solids, aided by model reactions, reveals that the hemiaminal/aminal ratio depends on pH, water content, and crosslinking density. Network formation is fully reversible upon changes in pH, with the resulting moduli from rheology spanning almost 3 orders of magnitude. The selfhealing ability of the system is probed by rheology as well, demonstrating maintained material properties of fractured and healed samples. The unusually clean, fast, and reversible chemistry highlights bispiperidones as a class of efficient building blocks with unprecedented possibilities in dynamic covalent chemistry.

The solvatochromic ThTCF probe responds to anion coordination. Correlations of UV/Vis data from ThTCF with various basicity-related polarity scales (Kamlet-Taft β, Freire EHB, Laurence β1) allow an evaluation of their physical significance.