Mid Sweden University

In 2020 the fuel sulphur limit in international shipping was reduced from 3.5 to 0.5 wt%. Three adaptive measures dominate: (i) increased exhaust gas cleaning in the maritime industry enabling continued use of high-sulphur fuel oil, (ii) increased refining output ratio of low-sulphur fuels, and iii) increased use of blended fuels. As (i) and (ii) are insufficient to comply with the new demand, refiners will resort to (iii), which requires increased crude oil throughput. Extracted crude oil will typically oxidize completely over longer time periods, so increased crude oil throughput is synonymous with increased CO2 emissions of up to 323 Mton in 2020, corresponding to similar to 1% of the total global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. Transferring demand from low-value to high-value oil products cause indirect CO2 emissions, and vice versa. CO2 emissions can be mitigated by prioritizing demand reduction according to oil product value starting with the most valuable products.

Engineered polymeric nanoparticles (NPs) have been comprehensively explored as potential platforms for diagnosis and targeted therapy for several diseases including cancer. Herein, we designed functional poly(acrylic acid)-b-poly(butyl acrylate) (PAA-b-PBA) NPs using reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT)-mediated emulsion polymerization via polymerization-induced self-assembly (PISA). The hydrophilic PAA-macroRAFT, forming a stabilizing shell (i.e., corona), was chain-extended using the hydrophobic monomer n-butyl acrylate (n-BA), resulting in stable, monodisperse, and reproducible PAA-b-PBA NPs, typically having a diameter of 130 nm. The surface engineering of the PAA-b-PBA NP post-PISA were explored using a two-step approach. The hydrophilic NP-shell corona was modified with allyl groups under mild conditions, using allylamine in water, which resulted in stable allyl-functional NPs (allyl-NPs) suitable for further bioconjugation. The allyl-NPs were subsequently conjugated with a thiol-functional fluorescent dye (BODIPY-SH) to the allyl groups using "thiol-ene"-click chemistry, to mimic the attachment of a thiol-functional target ligand. The successful attachment of BODIPY-SH to the allyl-NPs was corroborated by UV-vis spectroscopy, showing the characteristic absorbance of the BODIPY-fluorophore at 500 nm. Despite modification of NPs with allyl groups and attachment of BODIPY-SH, the NPs retained their colloidal stability and monodispersity as indicated by DLS. This demonstrates that post-PISA functionalization is a robust method for synthesizing functional NPs. Neither the NPs nor allyl-NPs showed significant cytotoxicity toward RAW264.7 or MCF-7 cell lines, which indicates their desirable safety profile. The cellular uptake of the NPs using J774A cells in vitro was found to be time and concentration dependent. The anti-cancer drug doxorubicin was efficiently (90%) encapsulated into the PAA-b-PBA NPs during NP formation. After a small initial burst release during the first 2 h, a controlled release pattern over 7 days was observed. The present investigation demonstrates a potential method for functionalizing polymeric NP post-PISA to produce carriers designed for targeted drug delivery.

No one can have missed the growing global environmental problems with plastics ending up as microplastics in food, water, and soil, and the associated effects on nature, wildlife, and humans. A hitherto not specifically investigated source of microplastics is polymer blends. A 1 g polymer blend can contain millions to billions of micrometer-sized species of the dispersed phase and therefore aging-induced fragmentation of the polymer blends can lead to the release of an enormous amount of microplastics. Especially if the stability of the dispersed material is higher than that of the surrounding matrix, the risk of microplastic migration is notable, for instance, if the matrix material is biodegradable and the dispersed material is not. The release can also be much faster if the matrix polymer is biodegradable. The purpose of writing this feature article is to arise public and academic attention to the large microplastic risk from polymer blends during their development, production, use, and waste handling.

Among the various requirements that high voltage direct current (HVDC) insulation materials need to satisfy, sufficiently low electrical conductivity is one of the most important. The leading commercial HVDC insulation material is currently an exceptionally clean cross-linked low-density polyethylene (XLPE). Previous studies have reported that the DC-conductivity of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) can be markedly reduced either by including a fraction of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) or by adding a small amount of a well dispersed, semiconducting nanofiller such as Al2O3 coated with a silane. This study demonstrates that by combining these two strategies a synergistic effect can be achieved, resulting in an insulation material with an ultra-low electrical conductivity. The addition of both HDPE and C-8-Al2O3 nanoparticles to LDPE resulted in ultra-insulating nanocomposites with a conductivity around 500 times lower than of the neat LDPE at an electric field of 32 kV/mm and 60-90 degrees C. The new nanocomposite is thus a promising material regarding the electrical conductivity and it can be further optimized since the polyethylene blend and the nanoparticles can be improved independently.

Polymer degradation under oxidative conditions, particularly under accelerated stresses such as increased temperatures and irradiation, often exhibits spatially heterogeneous oxidation profiles. This well-known behavior is the result of diffusion-limited oxidation (DLO), which occurs when the oxidation rate is faster than the resupply of oxygen through diffusion into the material. So far most theoretical model descriptions have focused on DLO in equilibrium situations in which the underlying material properties do not change with increasing degradation levels or are constant (i.e. time-independent) variables. An extension of a previously developed finite element model is now presented, which accommodates time-dependent variables that are either explicitly time-dependent (i.e. changes homogeneously throughout the material), or through a feedback mechanism driven by the localized degree of oxidation, which results in spatial variations in the material properties responsible for specific DLO behavior. This model is realized in COMSOL Multiphysics and is capable of geometries in 1D up to 3D. Additionally, specific theoretical cases in 1D are shown which relate to known non-stationary phenomena in polymer degradation. They illustrate the effect on the resulting oxidation profile, when the oxygen diffusivity, solubility or oxidation rate properties change over time and in space. With COMSOL based FEM, it is now possible to model DLO for whatever material behavior may exist or could be envisaged.

Destruction of the spherulite structure in low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is shown to result in a more insulating material at low temperatures, while the reverse effect is observed at high temperatures. On average, the change in morphology reduced the conductivity by a factor of 4, but this morphology-related decrease in conductivity was relatively small compared with the conductivity drop of more than 2 decades that was observed after slight oxidation of the LDPE (at 25 degrees C and 30 kV mm(-1)). The conductivity of LDPE was measured at different temperatures (25-60 degrees C) and at different electrical field strengths (3.3-30 kV mm(-1)) for multiple samples with a total crystalline content of 51 wt%. The transformation from a 5 mu m coherent structure of spherulites in the LDPE to an evenly dispersed random lamellar phase (with retained crystallinity) was achieved by extrusion melt processing. The addition of 50 ppm commercial phenolic antioxidant to the LDPE matrix (e.g. for the long-term use of polyethylene in high voltage direct current (HVDC) cables) gave a conductivity ca. 3 times higher than that of the same material without antioxidants at 60 degrees C (the operating temperature for the cables). For larger amounts of antioxidant up to 1000 ppm, the DC conductivity remained stable at ca. 1 x 10(-14) S m(-1). Finite element modeling (FEM) simulations were carried out to model the phenomena observed, and the results suggested that the higher conductivity of the spherulite-containing LDPE stems from the displacement and increased presence of polymeric irregularities (formed during crystallization) in the border regions of the spherulite structures.

Virgin biopolymers are often brittle and, therefore, need the addition of plasticizers to obtain the required mechanical properties for practical applications, e.g. in bags and disposable kitchen items. In this article, based on a combined experimental and modelling approach, it is shown that it is possible to rank molecules with respect to their plasticization efficiency (depression in glass transition temperature with PVT data and reduced stiffness and strength) using molecular dynamics simulations. Starch was used as the polymeric matrix material due to its promising potential as a sustainable, eco-friendly, biobased replacement for fossil-based plastics. Three polyols (glycerol, sorbitol and xylitol), two ethanolamines and glucose were investigated. The results indicate that molecular simulations can be used to find the optimal plasticizer among a set of candidates, or to design/identify better plasticizers in a complex polymer system. Glycerol was the most efficient of the six plasticizers, explained by it forming the least amount of hydrogen bonds, having the shortest hydrogen bond lifetimes and low molecular rigidity. Hence, not only was it possible to rank plasticizers, the ranking results could also be explained by the simulations.

The aim of this study was to find alternative starch plasticizers to glycerol that yielded a less tacky material in high-moisture conditions without leading to starch crystallization. A range of glycerol films containing different potential plasticizers (linear alkane diols) were therefore produced, and it was shown that 1,3-propanediol, in combination with glycerol, was a possible solution to the problem. Several additional interesting features of the starch films were however also revealed. The larger diols, instead of showing plasticizing features, yielded a variety of unexpected structures and film properties. Films with 1,6-hexanediol and 1,7-heptanediol showed an ultraporous film surface and near-isoporous core. The most striking feature was that starch films with these two diols moved/rotated over the surface when placed on water, with no other stimulus than the interaction with water. Films with 1,8-octanediol and 1,10-decanediol did not show these features, but there was clear evidence of a structure with phase-separated crystallized diol in a starch matrix, as observed in high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images.

Peroxides are widely used as crosslinkers in polyethylene (PE) drinking water pipes. Cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) has better mechanical properties than PE, but peroxide decomposition by-products can migrate from PEX water pipes into the drinking water unless sufficient preventive actions are undertaken. This work systematically examines the migration of tert-Butyl methyl ether (MTBE), a dominating crosslinking by-product from PEX water pipes, into tap water by utilizing both experimental techniques and finite element (FEM) diffusion modeling. The effects of pipe geometry, tap water temperature (23–80 °C), boundary conditions (air or water interface) and degasing (at 180 °C) were considered. The MTBE diffusivity increased strongly with increasing temperature and it was concluded that a desired water quality can be achieved with proper degasing of the PEX pipes. As the FEM simulations were in excellent agreement with the experimental results, the model can accurately predict the MTBE concentration as a function of time, water temperature and PEX pipe geometry, and enable the pipe manufacturers to aid in ensuring desirable drinking water quality.