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A series of ester‐ether copolymers were obtained via the reaction between α,ω‐dihydroxyl poly(ϵ‐caprolactone) (PCL) and ethylene oxide (EO) or monosubstituted epoxides catalyzed by strong phosphazene bases. The two types of monomeric units were distributed in highly random manners due to the concurrence of epoxide ring‐opening and fast transesterification reactions. The substituent of epoxide showed an interesting bidirectional effect on the enzymatic degradability of the copolymer. Compared with PCL, copolymers derived from EO exhibited enhanced hydrophilicity and decreased crystallinity which then resulted in higher degradability. For the copolymers derived from propylene oxide and 1,2‐butylene oxide, the hydrophobic alkyl pendant groups also allowed lower crystallinity of the copolymers thus higher degradation rates. However, further enlarging the pendant groups by using styrene oxide or 2‐ethylhexyl glycidyl ether caused a decrease in the degradation rate, which might be ascribed to the higher bulkiness hindering the contact of ester groups with lipase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a fully aqueous- and air-compatible chemical approach to preparing high-performance conductive textiles. In this method, the surfaces of textile materials are first modified with an aqueous solution of double-bond-containing silane molecules to form a surface-anchoring layer for subsequent in situ free-radical polymerization of [2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethylammonium chloride (METAC) in the air. Thin layers of poly-METAC (PMETAC) are therefore covalently grafted on top of the silane-modified textile surface. Cu- or Ni-coated textiles are finally fabricated by electroless deposition (ELD) onto the PMETAC-modified textiles. Parameters including polymerization time, temperature, and ELD conditions are studied to optimize the whole fabrication process. The as-made conductive textiles exhibit sheet resistance as low as 0.2 Ω sq−1, which makes them highly suitable for use as conductive wires and interconnects in flexible and wearable electronic devices. More importantly, the chemical method is fully compatible with the conventional 'pad-dry-cure' fabrication process in the textile manufacturing industry, thus indicating that it is very promising for high-throughput and roll-to-roll fabrication of high-performance metal-coated conductive textiles in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]