Interfacial interaction is one of the most important factors in the construction of high-performance graphene-based elastomer composites. In this paper, graphene/poly (styrene-b-isoprene-b-styrene) (SIS) composites were prepared with solution mixing followed by an evaporation-induced self-assembly process. Various techniques such as scanning electron microscopy, UV-vis absorption spectra, tensile testing, Shore A hardness, surface resistance, thermal conductivity, and thermogravimetric analysis were conducted to characterize the microstructure and properties of the obtained composites. The results showed that the π–π stacking interfacial interaction between phenyl groups of SIS and graphene play an important role in the properties’ improvement, and the effect of interfacial interaction on the properties was revealed.

Functionalized graphene oxide modified polysebacic anhydride composites were synthesized by Steglich esterification and characterized by various techniques such as Fourier transform-infrared spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry, gel permeation chromatography, X-ray powder diffraction, dynamic light scattering, and scanning electron microscopy. In the release study using these composites, the release kinetics of drug loaded composites were studied in phosphate buffer saline, when the pH value was 7.4, at 37 °C using levofloxacin as a model antibacterial drug. In contrast to the pure polysebacic anhydride, different feeding ratio of graphene oxide modified polysebacic anhydride provides much longer drug release duration, and the drug release duration could be controlled by the molecular weight of the composites. In addition, the 2% graphene oxide modified polysebacic anhydride (M_w = 5000 D) exhibits a nearly perfect linear release behavior with an extended release time as long as 80 days, and the effective drug release amount exceeding 95%. The results of XRD indicated that the prepared graphene oxide contains adsorbing water, and it led to an obvious decrease in the molecular weight of polysebacic anhydride grafted on graphene oxide. This has affected the release behaviors to a certain extent. High molecular weight polysebacic anhydride grafted on dried graphene oxide and their release behaviors will be provided in our future work.

Dye pollution is a serious issue in current environment protection, and bio-based adsorbents have been receiving much attention in wastewater treatment, due to their low cost, renewable, and environmentally friendly characteristics. Bio-based sodium alginate/lignin composite (SA/Lig) hydrogel beads were fabricated by a facile cross-linking with calcium ion and used for the removal of methylene blue (MB). The obtained SA/Lig microbeads were characterized with SEM, FTIR, and TG, and the effect of lignin content, pH, and temperature on the MB adsorption was investigated. The results indicated that the introduction of aromatic lignin can not only enhance thermal stability but also can improve the adsorption performance. Under optimal conditions, the maximum adsorption capacity (254.3 mg/g) was obtained for the SA/Lig-20% beads, with a removal efficiency of 84.8%. The adsorption process for MB is endothermic, and the rate-limiting step is chemical adsorption. The removal efficiency is higher than 90% after five cycles, revealing that the prepared beads show good regeneration ability.

Here progress in the development of the catalytic addition polymerization and copolymerization of norbornene by various transition-metal complexes is described. A full literature account is given in this review mostly covering the years of 2000 to the early of 2009. The interest in vinyl homo-polynorbornene is driven by its dielectric and mechanical properties for the technical application as an interlevel dielectric in microelectronics applications. For comparison, the norbornene/olefin copolymerization is also considered. The metal catalysts of Ti, Cr, Zr, V, Fe, Co, Ni, Pd and Cu are introduced and methylalumoxane (MAO) or perfluorinated borane, e.g. B(C ₆ F ₅ ) ₃ , cocatalysts are presented in terms of their activity and ligand effects are emphasized.