No abstract

Cover: The influence on polymerization kinetics of the Laplace pressure in polymer particles in heterogeneous radical polymerization is investigated. The Figure on the cover shows (kp/kt0.5)/(kp/kt0.5)0 (subscript 0 denotes atmospheric pressure) vs. particle radius for styrene at 60 °C at low conversion (black line) and 50% conversion (red line) with γ(styrene) = 30 mN · m−1. Further details can be found in the article by P. B. Zetterlund and M. Okubo* on page 40.

Electrically conductive polymer/rGO (reduced graphene oxide) films based on styrene and n-butyl acrylate are prepared by a variety of aqueous latex based routes involving ambient temperature film formation. Techniques based on miniemulsion polymerization using GO as surfactant and "physical mixing" approaches (i.e., mixing an aqueous polymer latex with an aqueous GO dispersion) are employed, followed by heat treatment of the films to convert GO to rGO. The distribution of GO sheets and the electrical conductivity depend strongly on the preparation method, with electrical conductivities in the range 9 × 10 −4 to 3.4 × 10 2 S/m. Higher electrical conductivities are obtained using physical mixing compared to miniemulsion polymerization, which is attributed to the former providing a higher level of self-alignment of rGO into larger linear domains. The present results illustrate how the distribution of GO sheets within these hybrid materials can to some extent be controlled by judicious choice of preparation method, thereby providing an attractive means of nanoengineering for specific potential applications.