Zhu, Rui; Luo, Xinjie; Feng, Yujun; Billon, Laurent
CO2-Triggered and temperature-switchable crystallization-driven self-assembly of a semicrystalline block copolymer in aqueous medium
The synthesis of a semicrystalline block copolymer comprising a hydrophilic poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) pure block and an amphiphilic poly(acrylic acid)-r-poly(octadecyl acrylate) (PAA-r-PODA) random block by nitroxide-mediated polymerization (NMP) is reported. The aggregation behavior of the copolymer in aqueous medium was studied by using a MicroCal VP differential scanning calorimeter (VP-DSC)
Grafting and stabilization of ordered mesoporous silica COK-12 with graphene oxide for enhanced removal of methylene blue
M. Henning, Laura; Simon, Ulla; Gurlo, Aleksander; J. Smales, Glen; F. Bekheet, Maged
Large-pore ordered mesoporous silica (OMS) COK-12, analogous to the well-known SBA-15, but synthesized in a more environmentally friendly way and exhibiting a shorter plate-like structure, was grafted with different amounts of graphene oxide (GO) for the first time in an inexpensive and rapid process, that was successfully upscaled. Samples were…
Active site isolation in bismuth-poisoned Pd/SiO2 catalysts for selective hydrogenation of furfural
Cherkasov, Nikolay; Expósito, Antonio José; Aw, Moom Sinn; Fernández-García, Javier; Huband, Steven; Sloan, Jeremy; Paniwnyk, Larysa; Rebrov, Evgeny V.
Active site isolation in furfural (FA) hydrogenation was studied by poisoning a Pd catalyst with bismuth. A solution of FA in water was hydrogenated over a 5?wt% Pd/SiO2 catalyst in a batch reactor at various reaction temperatures and pressures. Furfuryl alcohol (FAL) was an intermediate product which was further hydrogenated…
Tunable circularly polarized luminescence from molecular assemblies of chiral AIEgens
Song, Fengyan; Cheng, Yanhua; Liu, Qiuming; Qiu, Zijie; Lam, Jacky W. Y.; Lin, Liangbin; Yang, Fafu; Tang, Ben Zhong
Circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) is important to chiral photonic technologies. In molecular systems, besides their intrinsic chemical structures, architectures of molecular assemblies at the mesoscopic scale also account for the final macroscopic CPL properties. Herein, tunable CPL responses can be induced through architectural regulation of these molecular assemblies in suspension…
Enhanced gas barrier property of stacking-controlled reduced graphene oxide films for encapsulation of polymer solar cells
Sung, Sae Jin; Park, Jisoo; Cho, Young Shik; Gihm, Se Hoon; Yang, Seung Jae; Park, Chong Rae
Compact stacking of building blocks is essential in order to utilize the impermeable nature of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) for encapsulating barriers in organic electronics. To obtain the desired accumulation characteristic, rGO films were fabricated via spraying process using phase-controlled graphene oxide (GO) dispersion. The rGO laminate prepared from the…
Determination of the Critical Size of Secondary Nuclei on the Lateral Growth Front of Lamellar Polymer Crystals
Zhang, Shujing; Han, Jiarui; Gao, Yang; Guo, Baohua; Reiter, Günter; Xu, Jun
Nucleation is the rate-limiting first step of crystallization. The energy barrier related to form the critical nucleus predominantly affects the nucleation rate. Determination of the size of the critical nucleus is a key for understanding the mechanism of nucleation and allows testing theories. However, it has been a great challenge…
Revisiting the Role of Graphene Quantum Dots in Ternary Organic Solar Cells: Insights into the Nanostructure Reconstruction and Effective Förster Resonance Energy Transfer
Sung, Sae Jin; Kim, Jae Ho; Gihm, Se Hoon; Park, Jisoo; Cho, Young Shik; Yang, Seung Jae; Park, Chong Rae
Recent studies have introduced the graphene quantum dot (GQD) as a third material for the bulk-heterojunction polymer:fullerene solar cell (PSC) to improve light conversion efficiency. Although exciton generation/dissociation and carrier transport in the GQD-incorporated light-absorbing layer are strongly influenced by the ternary component, detailed analysis on the role of GQD…
Mechanical Properties and Failure Behavior of Physically Assembled Triblock Copolymer Gels with Varying Midblock Length
Mishra, Satish; Prado, Rosa M. Badani; Zhang, Song; Lacy, Thomas E.; Gu, Xiaodan; Kundu, Santanu
Mechanical properties including the failure behavior of physically assembled gels or physical gels are governed by their network structure. To investigate such behavior, we consider a physical gel system consisting of poly(styrene)-poly(isoprene)-poly(styrene) in mineral oil. In these gels, the endblock (PS) molecular weights are not significantly different, whereas, the midblock…
Polymer-Induced Modification of Cellulose Nanocrystal Assemblies in Aqueous Suspensions
Cohen, Neta; Ochbaum, Guy; Levi-Kalisman, Yael; Bitton, Ronit; Yerushalmi-Rozen, Rachel
The effect of adsorbing, nonionic polymers on the phase behavior of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) is of interest for design and preparation of functional hybrids. CNC assembly into a chiral nematic phase (N*) was investigated in the presence of highly hydrated poly(vinyl alcohol) (HPVA), low hydrated PVA (LPVA), and poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP).…
Fibril Charge Affects α-Synuclein Hydrogel Rheological Properties
Pogostin, Brett H.; Linse, Sara; Olsson, Ulf
In this paper, we have investigated the interactions between ?-synuclein fibrils at different pH values and how this relates to hydrogel formation and gel properties. Using a combination of rheology, small-angle X-ray scattering, Raman spectroscopy, and cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) experiments, we have been able to investigate the relationship between…