Abstract Patterns on polymers usually have different mechanical properties as those of the substrates, causing deformation or distortion and even detachment of the patterns from the polymer substrates. Herein, we present a wrinkling strategy, which utilizes photolithography to define the area of stress distribution by light-induced physical crosslinking of polymers and controls diffusion of residual solvent to redistribute the stress and then offers the same material for patterns as substrate by thermal polymerization, providing uniform wrinkles without worrying about force relaxation. The strategy allows the recording and hiding of up to eight switchable images in one place that can be read by the naked eye without crosstalk, applying the wrinkled polymer for optical anti-counterfeiting. The wrinkled polyimide film was also utilized to act as a substrate for the creation of fine copper circuit by a full-additive process. It generates flexible integrated circuit (IC) carrier board with copper wire density of 400% higher than that of the state-of-the-art in industry while fulfilling the standards for industrialization.
A novel catalyst based on crosslinked cyanometalate/chitosan nanosheet-assembled aerogel boosts adsorption and conversion of polysulfides for high-performance Li–S batteries.
The solubility behaviour of polysulfides in electrolyte solutions is a major bottleneck prior to the practical application of the lithium–sulfur battery. To address this issue, we fabricate a tannic acid/FeIII complex-coated polypropylene (PP) separator (TA/FeIII-PP separator) via a simple, fast, and green method. Benefiting from dual-confinement effects based on Lewis acid–base interactions between FeIII and polysulfides as well as the dipole–dipole interactions between rich phenol groups and polysulfides, the migration of polysulfides is effectively suppressed. Meanwhile, the porous structure of the PP separator is not destroyed by an additional coating layer. Thus, the TA/FeIII-PP separator can retain rapid lithium ion transport, eventually leading to a significant improvement in both the discharge capacity and rate performance of the corresponding lithium–sulfur cells. The cell with the TA/FeIII-PP separator presents a low capacity fade of 0.06% per cycle over 1000 cycles at 2.0 C, along with a high Coulombic efficiency of >97% over 300 cycles at 0.5 C. With respect to the one with the bare PP separator, the cell with the TA/FeIII-PP separator exhibits a 1.7-fold increase in the discharge capacity at 3.0 C. The proposed simple and economical approach shows great potential in constructing advanced separators to retard the shuttle effect of polysulfides for lithium–sulfur batteries.
Monochiral single-walled carbon nanotubes have many potential uses, especially in the field of electronics and medical applications. Here we demonstrate a method to activate three types of Co/SiO2catalystsvia sulfur-doping for the synthesis of tubes with a narrow chiral distribution around (9,8) chirality.
Fe2+ cations in FeCl2 or FeSO4 were oxidized by graphene oxide, leading to an in situ deposition of Fe3O4 nanoparticles onto the self-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets. The resultant Fe3O4/rGO sheets were demonstrated to possess interesting magnetic and electrochemical properties attractive for a large variety of potential applications.
Herein, we produced a series of ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene/polypropylene (UHMWPE/PP) blends by elongational-flow-field dominated eccentric rotor extruder (ERE) and shear-flow-field dominated twin screw extruder (TSE) respectively and presented a detailed comparative study on microstructures and tribological properties of UHMWPE/PP by different processing modes. Compared with the shear flow field in TSE, the elongational flow field in ERE facilitates the dispersion of PP in the UHMWPE matrix and promotes the interdiffusion of UHMWPE and PP molecular chains. For the first time, we discovered the presence of the interlayer phase in blends with different processing modes by using Raman mapping inspection. The elongational flow field introduces strong interaction to enable excellent compatibility of UHMWPE and PP and induces more pronounced interlayer phase with respect to the shear flow field, eventually endowing UHMWPE/PP with improved wear resistance. The optimized UHMWPE/PP (85/15) blend processed by ERE displayed higher tensile strength (25.3 MPa), higher elongation at break (341.77%) and lower wear loss of ERE-85/15 (1.5 mg) compared to the blend created by TSE. By systematically investigating the microstructures and mechanical properties of blends, we found that with increased content of PP, the wear mechanism of blends varies from abrasive wear, fatigue wear, to adhesion wear as the dominant mechanism for two processing modes.
A simple lithiation reaction was developed to covalently attach monosubstituted C60 onto graphene nanosheets. Detailed spectroscopic (e.g., Fourier transform infrared, Raman) analyses indicated that C60 molecules were covalently attached onto the graphene surface through monosubstitution. Transmission electron microscopic (TEM) observation revealed that these monosubstituted C60 moieties acted as nucleation centers to promote the formation of C60 aggregates of ∼5 nm in diameter on the graphene surface. The resultant C60-grafted graphene nanosheets were used as electron acceptors in poly(3-hexylthiophene)-based bulk heterojunction solar cells to significantly improve the electron transport, and hence the overall device performance, yielding a power conversion efficiency of ∼1.22%.
The continuous development of plasticizing conveying methods and devices has been carried out to meet the needs of the polymer processing industry. As compared to the conventional shear-flow-dominated plasticizing and conveying techniques, a new method for processing polymers based on elongational flow was proposed. This new method and the related devices such as vane extruders, eccentric rotor extruders and so on, exhibited multiple advantages including shorter processing time, higher mixing effectiveness, improved product performance and better adaptability to various material systems. The development of new techniques in the field of polymer material processing has opened up a broad space for the development of new plastic products, improved product performance and reduced processing costs. In this review, recent advances concerning the processing techniques based on elongational flow are summarized, and the broad applications in polymer processing as well as some future opportunities and challenges in this vibrant area are elucidated in detail.
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