ABSTRACTPhenolic polymers and phenol formaldehyde resins are of great interest for a number of electronic and industrial applications. Unfortunately, the toxic nature of the starting materials (formaldehyde) and harsh reaction conditions required for the synthesis of these polymers have severely limited their use in today’s markets. We present here an alternative, biocatalytic approach where the enzyme horseradish peroxidase is used to polymerize phenol in the presence of a template such as polyethylene oxide. Here the template serves as a surfactant that can both emulsify the phenol and polyphenol chains during polymerization and maintain water/solvent solubility of the final polyphenol/template complex. The reactants and the reaction conditions of this approach are mild and result in high molecular weight, electrically and optically active, water-soluble complexes of polyphenol and the template used. High molecular weight water-soluble polyphenol/polyethylene oxide complexes were formed. The ionic conductivity and potential use of these polymers as polyelectrolytes for battery and solution cell applications will be discussed.
3D printed oral theophylline doses with innovative ‘radiator-like’ design: Impact of polyethylene oxide (PEO) molecular weight