Polyethylene is known to be highly resistant to solvents, difficult to modify, and have inferior bonding strength. And it is generally accepted that the surface modification of PE is possible only by severing the main chain using physical methods, for instance by using plasma or flaring, and then introducing functional groups. However, in recently, Yao et al. found that a side chain crystalline polymer with long alkane side chain can adsorb on polyethylene surface by crystalline supramolecular interaction. And they also indicate that a side chain crystalline block copolymer consisted with side chain crystalline unit and functional polymer unit can modify polyethylene surface property by chemically.
In this study, we investigated the ability of these block co-polymers for modifying the surface of ultrahigh-molecular-weight polyethylene, which is one of the most challenging materials in terms of surface modification. The results show that dipping in highly dilute side chain crystalline block copolymer could modify the woven cloth of the ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene fiber to have good dyeability. The resulting dyeability is considerably more significant than that after conventional plasma and corona processing. These results indicate that side chain crystalline block copolymer can modify ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene fibers to exhibit various functionalities, and therefore significantly increase the breadth of applications of similar fibers.

Recently, biorefinery-derived cellulose nanofiber (CNF) products have been extensively utilized. Chemical pulp fiber is the main raw material in the production of CNFs, while recycled pulp fiber can also be used. In this study, CNFs were prepared from recycled pulp fiber by the aqueous counter collision (ACC) method as a nano-engineering mechanical treatment. Scanning electron microscopy observations showed that the width of the CNF from the recycled pulp fiber was less than 100 nm and decreased with an increase in the number of the treatment. The FT-IR spectra and X-ray diffraction profiles of CNFs from the recycled pulp fiber showed the same molecular structure and cellulose I with the same degree of crystallinity compared with CNFs prepared from the virgin pulp fiber.

A temperature-jump hot-stage, which is applicable to in situ observations by various methods, such as optical microscopy, light and X-ray scattering measurements, has been developed. By working out differences between the rapidness of temperature-jump and the handling ability, a small sample cell combined with a thin manipulator is employed; polymer sample is sandwiched by two cover glasses of 9 mm square in size with 0.15 mm thick for typical optical observations. The sample temperature decreased exponentially with the elapsed time during a temperature-jump step. The characteristic time τ of cooling (or heating), i.e. the time when the remaining temperature difference to the objective temperature T₂ reach 1/e of the width of a temperature jump ǀT₁ ­ T₂ǀ, was ca. 0.62 s when the above mentioned small glass cell was adopted, where e is the base of natural logarithms. By extending the jump step multiple, temperature histories in varieties of polymer processing can be reproduced under in situ observation. As the example of use, an efficient method to evaluate the growth rate of polymer spherulite is presented.