High-thermoresistant biopolyimides become water-soluble like starch
This is the first ever report on the syntheses of water-soluble polyimides which are derived from bio-based resources, showing high transparency, tunable mechanical strength and the highest thermoresistance in water-soluble polymers.
Water-soluble polymers are of great interest in many areas of soft materials. These soft materials have been widely used in applications related to aqueous solutions, such as dispersants, aggregation agents, thickeners, moisturizers, binders, and hydrogels. With the increase in global awareness about environmental concerns, the importance of water-soluble materials has been highlighted and thereby researchers have expanded their application windows to electronics, functional coatings, advanced adhesives and biomedical materials. Most natural polymers such as polysaccharides, polypeptides, or their derivatives are water-soluble while synthetic water-soluble polymers are also available such as poly(ethylene oxide), poly(vinyl alcohol), polyacrylates, polyacrylamide, and their derivatives. However, conventional water-soluble polymers have limited applications due to their low thermal distortion temperatures (ca. 200 °C).
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