Wang, Zefan; Dong, Xia; Cavallo, Dario; Müller, Alejandro J.; Wang, Dujin
Promotion of Self-Nucleation with Latent Form I Nuclei in Polybutene-1 and Its Copolymer
The formation of form I nuclei of polybutene-1 (PB-1) and its copolymer with polyethylene (PB1-ran-PE) has been studied by means of modified self-nucleation protocols. Even when the self-nucleation temperature was high enough and all form II crystals melt, recrystallization can be accelerated if the melt-crystallized sample was annealed at low…
Influence of adding a commercial phytosterol ester mixture on the ‘equilibrium’ crystallization behavior of palm oil
Daels, Eva; Goderis, Bart; Steen, Liselot; Foubert, Imogen
The objective of this study was to in depth investigate the ‘equilibrium’ state morphology and properties of crystals obtained after long-term isothermal crystallization and annealing of palm oil (PO) in the presence of different concentrations of phytosterol esters (PEs). A commercially available mixture of PEs was added to PO (0–100%…
Morphological metamorphosis of magnetic nanoparticles due to the presence of rare earth atoms in the spinel structure: From spheres to cubes
Parekh, Kinnari; Espinosa, Daniel H. G.; Reis, Dennys; de Oliveira, Cristiano L. P.; Wlysses, Wagner; Figueiredo Neto, Antônio Martins
We report the effect of replacement of 5% of the Fe atoms by Ho during the synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in the original colloidal system composed of Mn, Zn, Fe, O. Without the presence of Ho the MNPs are spherical and, when the Ho is included in the synthesis…
Influence of γ-Lactones on Monolinolein/Water Bulk and Emulsified Mesophases
Tidu, Aurélien; Méducin, Fabienne; Faugère, Anne-Marie; Guillot, Samuel
The emulsification of two flavor compounds of the γ-lactone type with monolinolein liquid crystalline submicron particles is reported. The stabilization is ensured by the copolymer F127. γ-Nonalactone can be loaded in bicontinuous cubic monolinolein particles at a larger level (up to 20 wt %) than γ-decalactone (less than 15 wt…
Confinement Effects on the Crystallization of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)
Dai, Xiying; Li, Huihui; Ren, Zhongjie; Russell, Thomas P.; Yan, Shouke; Sun, Xiaoli
Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) is taken as an example to explore (i) whether the confined crystallization occurring in anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) nanopores is the same as that in ultrathin films, and (ii) whether the interfacial effect of curve surface is the same as flat surface. The crystallization behavior of PHB in AAO…
High sensitivity organic inorganic hybrid X-ray detectors with direct transduction and broadband response
Thirimanne, H. M.; Jayawardena, K. D. G. I.; Parnell, A. J.; Bandara, R. M. I.; Karalasingam, A.; Pani, S.; Huerdler, J. E.; Lidzey, D. G.; Tedde, S. F.; Nisbet, A.; Mills, C. A.; Silva, S. R. P.
X-ray detectors based on low-cost organic semiconductors have inherently low detector sensitivity due to poor X-ray to charge conversion and charge collection. Here, the authors demonstrate a flexible, high-sensitivity X-ray detector based on an organic bulk heterojunction-nanoparticle…
Facile, environmentally benign and scalable approach to produce pristine few layers graphene suitable for preparing biocompatible polymer nanocomposites
George, Gejo; Sisupal, Suja Bhargavan; Tomy, Teenu; Kumaran, Alaganandam; Vadivelu, Prabha; Suvekbala, Vemparthan; Sivaram, Swaminathan; Ragupathy, Lakshminarayanan
The success of developing graphene based biomaterials depends on its ease of synthesis, use of environmentally benign methods and low toxicity of the chemicals involved as well as biocompatibility of the final products/devices. We report, herein, a simple, scalable and safe method to produce defect free few layers graphene using…
Unexpected Synthesis of Segmented Poly(hydroxyurea–urethane)s from Dicyclic Carbonates and Diamines by Organocatalysis
Bossion, Amaury; Aguirresarobe, Roberto H.; Irusta, Lourdes; Taton, Daniel; Cramail, Henri; Grau, Etienne; Mecerreyes, David; Su, Cui; Liu, Guoming; Müller, Alejandro J.; Sardon, Haritz
A complete study of the effect of different organocatalysts on the step-growth polyaddition of a five-membered dicyclic carbonate, namely diglycerol dicarbonate, with a poly(ethylene glycol)-based diamine in bulk at 120 °C was first carried out. The reaction was found to be dramatically catalyst-dependent, higher rates being observed in the presence…
High efficiency non-fullerene organic solar cells without electron transporting layers enabled by Lewis base anion doping
Wang, Rong; Zhang, Dongyang; Xie, Shenkun; Wang, Jianqiu; Zheng, Zhong; Wei, Donghui; Sun, Xiaobo; Zhou, Huiqiong; Zhang, Yuan
Interfacial charge extraction and recombination play a critical role in photovoltaic characteristics of organic bulk heterojunction solar cells. Here we propose a methodology based on Lewis base n-doping with tetrabutylammonium acetate (TBAA) salts to boost charge extraction and resultant power conversion efficiencies (PCE) in OPVs with non-fullerene acceptors (NFA). Based…
Liquid Crystals of Self-Assembled DNA Bottlebrushes
Storm, Ingeborg M.; Kornreich, Micha; Hernandez-Garcia, Armando; Voets, Ilja K.; Beck, Roy; Cohen Stuart, Martien A.; Leermakers, Frans A. M.; de Vries, Renko
Early theories for bottlebrush polymers have suggested that the so-called main-chain stiffening effect caused by the presence of a dense corona of side chains along a central main chain should lead to an increased ratio of effective persistence length (lp,eff) over the effective thickness (Deff) and, hence, ultimately to lyotropic…