Nanostructures and associated compositions, systems, and methods are provided. In some embodiments, a nanostructure may comprise polymers, intermolecular bonding groups, and a particle. The polymers may be associated with the particle and the intermolecular bonding groups may be associated with at least some of the polymers. In some embodiments, at least some of the intermolecular bonding groups may have a different chemical composition and/or chemical property than the polymers. In some embodiments, nanostructures may reversibly associate with each other via the intermolecular bonding groups to form a material. In some such cases, the intermolecular bonding groups on different nanostructures may reversibly associate with each other. In some embodiments, the nanostructures may be designed, such that the energy required to disassociate at least a portion of the nanostructures in the material is greater than the energy required to dissociate a single association between intermolecular bonding groups.

A partially hydrogenated block copolymer of the present invention includes: a polymer block (A) containing a vinyl aromatic monomer unit as a main component: and a polymer block (B) containing a conjugated diene monomer unit, wherein in a differential molecular weight distribution (B) of a degradation product of the partially hydrogenated block copolymer obtained by an ozone degradation method, a distribution of degree of hydrogenation H, which is given by a maximum peak height in a region of a molecular weight of 800 or more and 3,000 or less, is 0.01 to 0.5.

A strategy for the synthesis of semi-telechelic polyethylene through the palladium diimine-catalyzed chain transfer polymerization of ethylene using various silanes as chain transfer agents is reported. Polymer molecular weight and end-group chemical structure can be tuned by varying the chain transfer agent as well as its concentration. NMR spectroscopy confirms that the silicon of the chain transfer agent is incorporated into the polymer. The stability of the catalyst toward polar monomer enables the chain transfer polymerization of semi-telechelic poly(ethylene-methyl acrylate) copolymers.

The present invention relates to a method for preparing a modified conjugated diene-based polymer, and more particularly, provides a method for preparing a modified conjugated diene-based polymer including a step of polymerizing a conjugated diene-based monomer in the presence of an organometal compound in a hydrocarbon solvent to prepare an active polymer which is coupled with an organometal (S1); and a step of reacting or coupling the active polymer prepared in step (S1) with a modifier (S2), wherein step (S1) is continuously performed in two or more polymerization reactors, and a polymerization conversion ratio in a first reactor among the polymerization reactors is 50% or less.

A method of polymerizing a first, and a second class of monomers to form product polymer. The first class of monomers polymerize via a radical pathway in the presence of light, and the second class of monomers polymerize via an insertion pathway in the absence of light.

The present invention relates to a block copolymer that contains a polymer block A containing a farnesene-derived monomer unit (a1) and a random copolymer block B containing a C12 or lower conjugated diene-derived monomer unit (b1) and an aromatic vinyl compound-derived monomer unit (b2), the block copolymer having a ratio by mass of the polymer block A to the random copolymer block B (A/B) of 30/70 to 0.5/99.5, a content of the aromatic vinyl compound-derived monomer unit (b2) in the random copolymer block B of 1 to 50% by mass, and a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of 100,000 to 5,000,000.

A methodology is described for the synthesis of polyolefin containing block-copolymers using a catalytic postpolymerization modification strategy. Common polyolefin grades may be converted into macroinitiators using a cross-metathesis reaction. The functionalized polyolefins may then be used to initiate living: coordinative ring opening polymerization of cyclic ester monomer, anionic ring opening polymerization of epoxide monomer, and radical polymerization of vinylic monomer, to yield the corresponding block copolymers.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide: an optical pressure-sensitive adhesive layer which can suppress the occurrence of foaming, peeling, lifting or the like on an adherend (an optical film) under heating and humidification conditions, and which has high adhesion reliability and excellent durability at high temperatures; a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer attached optical film, having the aforementioned optical pressure-sensitive adhesive layer on at least one surface of the optical film; and further a liquid crystal display device using the aforementioned pressure-sensitive adhesive layer attached optical film. An optical pressure-sensitive adhesive layer formed from a pressure-sensitive adhesive composition containing a (meth)acrylic polymer, wherein the optical pressure-sensitive adhesive layer has a gel fraction of 70% or more and a creep value of 55 ?m or more when a load of 500 g is applied to the optical pressure-sensitive adhesive layer for 1 hour under an environment of 115? C.

In various embodiments, the present invention is directed to a centrally-functionalizable living cationic polymer or copolymer having a centrally-substituted tetraene group having the formula

##STR00001##

wherein each R is selected from the group consisting of a polymer or a copolymer, such as a polyisobutylene polymer or a poly(isobutylene-b-styrene) copolymer.

The present invention is a method for producing a conjugated diene random copolymer comprising polymerizing at least a conjugated diene monomer using a living radical polymerization method to produce a conjugated diene polymer that comprises a halogen atom at a terminal of a polymer chain, a living radical polymerization reaction being initiated using a copper salt, a multidentate ligand that comprises a nitrogen atom having an sp.sup.2 hybridized orbital as a coordinating atom, and an organic halide, to produce the conjugated diene polymer having a number average molecular weight (Mn) of 1,000 to 1,000,000 and a molecular weight distribution (Mw/Mn) of less than 2.0. The present invention provides a method for efficiently and inexpensively producing a conjugated diene polymer that includes a halogen atom at the terminal of the polymer chain, and has the desired molecular weight and a narrow molecular weight distribution.