Functional polymers and capsules for innovative paper products

创造具有独特性能的创新纸品是应对加拿大造纸业健康发展的挑战的最佳途径之一。将开发一系列具有量身定制结构的新型阳离子聚合物/胶囊，用作各种增值特种纸产品的功能性添加剂或增强现有纸产品的性能。该应用还可以扩展到其他领域，如生物材料和环境修复。拟议的研究包括三个项目：1)量身定制的阳离子聚乙烯醇(PVA)；2)具有功能修饰臂的纳米胶囊星形聚合物；3)响应性纳米胶囊和功能介孔微粒。官能团、侧链和试剂将通过各种最先进的技术被整合到聚合物/胶囊中，包括活性自由基聚合、共聚、后接枝和可控负载。这些聚合技术使我们能够通过控制臂的组成/数目和侧链长度等参数来制备性能可调的聚合物，并合成具有可逆负载和释放功能的pH响应型纳米胶囊。由于阳离子和水溶性或分散性，聚合物/胶囊在造纸湿部加入后将与纤维素纤维很好地保持在一起，从而促进其应用。从根本上建立功能添加剂的结构-性能关系，将为进一步的大分子设计提供指导。星形聚合物的新颖性部分依赖于官能链和负载试剂之间的协同作用。除消毒剂和抗真菌聚合物外，特殊染料或荧光探针也可以可控地装载和释放，从而将应用从抗真菌包装扩大到其他类型(如安全纸)。同时，具有明确链结构的阳离子PVA将提高我们对聚合物与纤维素纤维相互作用(吸附和渗透)的基本理解，并有可能降低纸浆打浆过程中所需的能量。

Creating innovative paper products with unique properties is one of the best approaches to address the challenges of maintaining a healthy and growing papermaking industry in Canada. A range of novel cationic polymers/capsules with tailored structures will be developed, and used as functional additives for various value-added specialty paper products or enhancing the performance of existing paper products. The application can also be extended to other areas like biomaterials and environmental remediation. The proposed research consists of three projects: 1) tailor-modified cationic-polyvinyl alcohol (PVA); 2) nanocapsule-based star polymers with functional-modified arms; 3) responsive nanocapsules and functional mesoporous microparticles. The functional groups, pendant chains and agents will be incorporated into polymers/capsules via various state-of-art techniques, including living-free radical polymerization, copolymerization, post-grafting and controllable loading. Those polymerization techniques enable us to prepare the polymers with tuneable properties by manipulating the parameters such as arm composition/numbers and pendant chain lengths, and to synthesize the pH-responsive nanocapsules with reversible loading and release of functional agents. Due to cationic and water-soluble or dispersible nature, the polymers/capsules will be well retained with cellulose fibres after being added at the wet-end of papermaking, thus facilitating their application. The establishment of structure-property relation for functional additives from a fundamental point of view will provide a guide for further macromolecular design. Part of the novelty of star polymers relies on the synergy between functional chains and agents loaded. Apart from disinfectant and antifungi polymers, specialty dye or fluorescent probes could also be controllably loaded and released, thus expanding the application from antifungi packaging to other types (e.g., security paper). Meanwhile, the cationic-PVA with well-defined chain architectures will improve our fundamental understanding of the interaction (adsorption and penetration) of polymers with cellulose fibres, and potentially reduce the energy required in pulp refining processes.