The toughness of a high-performance thermosetting epoxy network can be greatly improved by generating polyether sulfone−based macro- to nano-scale morphologies. Two polyethersulfones (PES) which only differ by their chain-end nature have been successively investigated as potential tougheners of a high-Tg thermoset matrix based on a mixture of trifunctional and difunctional aromatic epoxies and an aromatic diamine. For a given PES content, morphologies and toughness of the resulting matrices have been tuned by changing curing conditions and put into perspective with PES chain-end nature.
13 January 2009 in Macromolecular Rapid Communications
Among the various challenges in medicine, diagnosis, complete cure, and healing of cancers remain difficult given the heterogeneity and complexity of such a disease. Differing from conventional platforms with often unsatisfactory theranostic capabilities, the contribution of supramolecular interactions, such as hydrogen‐bonds (H‐bonds), to cancer nanotheranostics opens new perspectives for the design of biomedical materials, exhibiting remarkable properties and easier processability. Thanks to their dynamic characteristics, a feature generally observed for noncovalent interactions, H‐bonding (macro)molecules can be used as supramolecular motifs for yielding drug‐ and diagnostic carriers that possess attractive features, arising from the combination of assembled nanoplatforms and the responsiveness of H‐bonds. Thus, H‐bonded nanomedicine provides a rich toolbox that is useful to fulfill biomedical needs with unique advantages in early‐stage diagnosis and therapy, demonstrating the promising potential in clinical translations and applications. Here the design and synthetic routes toward H‐bonded nanomedicines, focus on the growing understanding of the structure‐function relationship for efficient cancer treatment are summarized. A guidance for designing new H‐bonded intelligent theranostic agents is proposed, to inspire more successful explorations of cancer nanotheranostics and finally to promote potential clinical translations.
18 December 2018 in Journal of Applied Polymer Science