Front Cover: Reversibly coagulatable and redispersible polyacrylate latexes are prepared by emulsion (co)poly-merization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) using a polymeric surfactant, PDMAEMA-block-PMMA. The resulting PMMA latexes can be readily coagulated with a trace amount of caustic soda. The coagulated latex pastes, after washing, can also be redispersed into fresh water to form stable emulsions by CO₂ bubbling with ultrasonication. The coagulation and redispersion processes are repeatable. Further details can be found in the article by Q. Zhang, G. Yu, W.-J. Wang,* B.-G. Li, and S. Zhu* on page 916.

Back Cover: Alkene and alkyne functionalized reactive polymers provide a facile strategy of surface modification that can readily proceed with promising thiol-ene and thiol-yne coupling reactions. Designer surfaces are demonstrated by low-protein fouling surfaces on silver, titanium, stainless steel, glass, PMMA, and PDMS substrates, as well as using cysteine-containing functional peptides to manipulate cell attachments. Further details can be found in the article by J.-T. Wu, C.-H. Huang, W.-C. Liang, Y.-L. Wu, J. Yu, and H.-Y. Chen* on page 922.

Alkene metathesis is powerful in the synthesis of vinyl-bridged conjugated polymers. Using either ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) or ADMET (acyclic diene metathesis) poly(paraphenylenevinylene)s (PPVs), and polyacetylenes (PAs) can be prepared efficiently. The influence of monomer, catalyst, and choice of method upon the properties of the formed polymers are discussed in this review.

Square-millimeter-sized free-floating translucent films are formed in physiological buffer by multiway connections between biotinylated collagen-like triple-helical peptides and avidin. The film thicknesses can be controlled by the concentrations of the components, and the surfaces can be further modified by taking advantage of exposed biotin (or avidin) functionalities.

A polymeric surfactant (PDMAEMA-block-PMMA) was used to prepare reversibly coagulatable and redispersible PMMA latexes through RAFT (co)polymerization. The emulsions could be coagulated by N₂ bubbling with gentle heating. The coagulated latex pastes after washing could also be redispersed into fresh water to form stable emulsions by CO₂ bubbling with ultrasonication. The coagulation and redispersion processes were repeatable.

Vapor-deposited reactive polymer coatings provide a general route to support thiol-ene and thiol-yne reactions on a variety of substrate materials. Surface functions can be activated through a simple design of thiol-terminated molecules, and the corresponding responses are efficiently and accurately manipulated.

Inverse suspension polymerization is used for the first time to produce ion- imprinted polymer beads. This facile approach leads to materials with high site accessibility and large adsorption capacities. The ratio between the functional monomer and the crosslinker plays an important role on the “imprinting effect” of the polymers.

Uniform polymeric dimers are efficiently obtained via hydrophobic interactions from amphiphilic mixed-shell micelles under optimized conditions in selective solvent. These micelles are fabricated by non-covalent crosslinking methods. The results are fully characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.

A versatile synthetic approach for bifunctionalized polythiophenes is described. The active end-group further reacts with DNA via “click” chemistry to form a polythiophene/DNA hybrid structure. Engineering the end functionalization is meant not only to allow for the synthesis of novel block copolymers, but also to be a platform for molecular level study.

An efficient way to measure proton self-diffusion coefficients (D) of small penetrant molecules in semicrystalline polymers with different shapes and sizes and by using unilateral NMR is introduced. One-dimensional profiles of D across plates of semicrystalline polymers with several millimeter thickness and a heterogeneous structure are reported for the first time.