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Current methods to contain and decontaminate materials contacted by toxic chemical warfare agents (CWAs) have disadvantages with respect to ease of delivery, portability, and effectiveness on porous substrates. A portable, easy-to-use, spreadable coating that immediately acts as a barrier to contain CWA vapors on contacted substrates and also decontaminates soaked-in CWAs is highly desired. A new type of decontaminating barrier coating for sulfur mustard (i.e., blister agent) CWAs has been developed that is made of (1) a spreadable nonvolatile, fluid matrix based on a room-temperature ionic liquid (RTIL), (2) an organic gelator that acts as a solidifying agent to help the applied coating adhere to and prevent runoff from angled or vertical surfaces, and (3) a polyamine that acts as a reagent to chemically degrade and help draw out adsorbed blister agent. When applied to porous and nonporous substrates contacted with 2-chloroethyl ethyl sulfide (CEES, a mustard agent simulant), this spreadable, soft solid ...

New polymerizable gemini ammonium surfactants can be cross-linked in a type I bicontinuous cubic lyotropic liquid crystal phase with water to afford nanoporous polymer membranes with sub-1 nm 3D pores for water nanofiltration applications.

A room-temperature ionic liquid was combined with a low-molecular-weight organic gelator to form a cuttable, soft gel solid. When used as a supported membrane, this material has enhanced transport properties for CO2 gas separations compared to traditional supported liquid membranes, while showing increased mechanical stability.

Transition-metal-containing analogues of a polymerizable lyotropic liquid crystal were prepared from sodium p-styryloctadecanoate by ion exchange with water-soluble metal chlorides, nitrates, and acetates. The mesophases of these amphiphilic monomers were investigated by polarized light microscopy, low-angle X-ray diffraction, and infrared spectroscopy. It was found that cadmium(II), manganese(II), and cobalt(II) p-styryloctadecanoate form an inverted hexagonal lyotropic phase at ambient temperature (22 °C), while the copper(II) salt forms a columnar hexagonal thermotropic phase. The monomers can be cross-linked photolytically in their respective liquid crystal phases with retention of phase architecture to yield polymer networks containing ordered microdomains of transition-metal ions. The relationship between the dimensions of the hexagonal mesophase formed and the identity of the counterion present in each salt is discussed. The polymerized inverted hexagonal phase of the cadmium salt was also used as ...

Nanostructured, heterogeneous, chiral Diels−Alder catalysts that are entirely organic in nature were prepared by synthesizing a polymerizable chiral imidazolidinone derivative (1). Acidification of 1 simultaneously activates the catalyst and allows the molecule to form different lyotropic liquid crystal phases. Subsequent photo-cross-linking affords nanoporous organic solids with good active site access and high enantioselectivities.

A lyotropic liquid crystal (LLC) monomer was successfully blended and cross-linked with commercial butyl rubber (BR) to afford ordered, nanoporous polymer composites. These materials retain much of the excellent chemical resistance of BR but also provide a measure of water vapor permeability, which is lacking in pure BR materials but essential for protective garment applications.

A nanostructured, polymer-supported Sc(III) catalyst for heterogeneous Lewis acid catalysis in water was prepared by quantitative Sc(III) exchange of a cross-linked inverted hexagonal assembly containing sodium sulfonate groups. The material was found to catalyze Mukaiyama aldol and Mannich reactions with a syn/anti product ratio of ca. 2/1, whereas Sc(III) catalysts in solution and on amorphous polymer supports do not show any significant syn/anti diastereoselectivity under similar conditions.

Ion exchange of Pd(II) ions into a nanostructured lyotropic liquid crystal network, followed by reduction with hydrogen gas, generates a polymer composite containing finely dispersed, catalytically active Pd nanoparticles 4−7 nm in diameter. Loss of order upon nanoparticle growth appears to be due to residual mobility in the polymer matrix near the ionic headgroups. The Pd nanoparticle composite exhibits excellent product selectivity in benzaldehyde hydrogenation and high reactivity in catalyzing Heck olefinations.