@article {43645,
	title = {Thermally conductive thin films derived from defect free graphene-natural rubber latex nanocomposite: preparation and properties},
	journal = {Carbon},
	volume = {119},
	year = {2017},
	month = {AUG},
	pages = {527-534},
	abstract = {Commercially useful rubber products viz. gloves, condoms, tyres, and rubber hoses used in high temperature environments, etc., require efficient thermal conductivity, which increases the lifetime of these products. Graphene can fetch this property, if it is effectively incorporated into the rubber matrix. The great challenge in preparing graphene-rubber nanocomposites is formulating a scalable method to produce defect free graphene and its homogeneous dispersion into polymer matrices through an aqueous medium. Here, we used a simple method to produce defect free few layer (2-5) graphene, which can be easily dispersed into natural rubber (NR) latex without adversely affecting its colloidal stability. The resulting new composite showed large increase in thermal conductivity (480-980\%) along with 40\% increase in tensile properties and 60\% improvement in electrical conductivity. This study provides a novel and generalized approach for the preparation of graphene based thermally conductive rubber nanocomposites. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.},
	doi = {10.1016/j.carbon.2017.04.068},
	author = {George, Gejo and Sisupal, Suja Bhargavan and Tomy, Teenu and Pottammal, Bincy Akkoli and Kumaran, Alaganandam and Suvekbala, Vemparthan and Gopimohan, Rajmohan and Sivaram, Swaminathan and Ragupathy, Lakshminarayanan}
}
@article {48390,
	title = {Toughening poly(l-lactide) blends: effectiveness of sequence-controlled six-arm star-branched block copolymers of poly(L-lactide) and poly(epsilon-caprolactone)},
	journal = {ACS Omega},
	volume = {7},
	year = {2022},
	month = {MAR},
	pages = {9118-9129},
	type = {Article},
	abstract = {<p>
	Well-defined six-arm star-branched bio-degradable block copolymers of L-lactide and epsilon-caprolactone were prepared using controlled ring-opening polymerization and a sequential monomer addition method using dipentaerythritol as the initiator core and organocatalysts at low temperatures in solution. Sequence of enchainment was changed by reversing the order of monomer addition giving, either, a crystalline PLA block or an amorphous PCL block as the outer segment. Well-defined six-arm poly(epsilon-caprolactone-b-L-lactide, 6s-PCL-b-PLA) block copolymers were obtained with a range of segment molecular weights. However, in the case of six-arm poly(L-lactide-b-epsilon-caprolactone, 6s-PLA-b-PCL), disruption of the block structure was observed on account of competing transesterification reactions accompanying a chain-growth reaction. Such sequence-controlled block copolymers showed interesting phase morphologies, as evidenced by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies. 6s-PCL-b-PLA showed two glass-transition temperatures and two melting temperatures characteristic of the amorphous and crystalline blocks. 6s-PCL-b-PLA and 6s-PLA-b-PCL with different segment chain lengths were solution blended (10 wt \%) with a commercially sourced PLA. All the blends were highly transparent. The structure and properties of the blend were examined by DSC, measurement of mechanical properties, and scanning electron microscopy. The results show that a phase-separated 6s-PCL-b-PLA copolymer results in two- to three-fold improvement in tensile toughness without the loss of modulus. A possible hypothesis for the mechanism of tensile toughness in the blend has been proposed.</p>
},
	issn = {2470-1343},
	doi = {10.1021/acsomega.1c04486},
	author = {Deokar, Megha D. and Garnaik, Baijayantimala and Sivaram, Swaminathan}
}
