Zhang, Chaohong; Heumueller, Thomas; Gruber, Wolfgang; Almora, Osbel; Du, Xiaoyan; Ying, Lei; Chen, Junwu; Unruh, Tobias; Cao, Yong; Li, Ning; Brabec, Christoph J.
Comprehensive Investigation and Analysis of Bulk-Heterojunction Microstructure of High-Performance PCE11:PCBM Solar Cells
Worldwide research efforts have been devoted to organic photovoltaics in the hope of a large-scale commercial application in the near future. To meet the industrial production requirements, organic photovoltaics that can reach power conversion efficiency (PCE) of over 10% along with promising operational device stability are of utmost interest. In…
Effect of processing conditions on the mechanical properties of bio-inspired mechanical gradient nanocomposites
Zhang, Yefei; Edelbrock, Alexandra N.; Rowan, Stuart J.
Photo-induced thiol-ene crosslinking of allyl-functionalized cellulose nanocrystal (CNC)/polymer nanocomposites allows access to films that mimic the water-enhanced mechanical gradient characteristics of the squid beak. These films are prepared by mixing the functionalized CNCs and polymer in a solvent before solution casting and drying. The photocrosslinking agents are then imbibed into…
Transparent, Lightweight, and High Strength Polyethylene Films by a Scalable Continuous Extrusion and Solid-State Drawing Process
Lin, Yunyin; Tu, Wei; Verpaalen, Rob C. P.; Zhang, Han; Bastiaansen, Cees W. M.; Peijs, Ton
The continuous production of transparent high strength ultra-drawn high-density polyethylene films or tapes is explored using a cast film extrusion and solid-state drawing line. Two methodologies are explored to achieve such high strength transparent polyethylene films; i) the use of suitable additives like 2-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-4,6-ditertpentylphenol (BZT) and ii) solid-state drawing at…
A designer fast Li-ion conductor Li6.25PS5.25Cl0.75 and its contribution to the polyethylene oxide based electrolyte
Li, Dabing; Cao, Liuyang; Liu, Chaodeng; Cao, Guoqin; Hu, Junhua; Chen, Jingbo; Shao, Guosheng
The composite polymer electrolytes, consisting of a flexible matrix and superb fast ion conductor are promising for large-scale practical application in safer lithium metal batteries. The quantification of polymer structure evolution induced by the inorganic filler was rarely reported. Here, a designer cubic argyrodite Li6PS5X sulfide electrolyte was fabricated by…
Structure and self-reinforcing mechanism of biaxially oriented polyethylene pipes produced by solid phase die drawing
Kong, Chen; Wang, Yujie; Ye, Lin; Zhao, Xiaowen
Biaxially oriented polyethylene (PE) pipes were prepared through solid phase die drawing technology. Drawing speed presented a prominent effect on the hoop draw ratio (DRhoop) and axial draw ratio (DRaxial) of the pipes. For pipe with DRhoop/DRaxial of 2.465/1.182, the tensile strength was improved significantly along hoop direction as well…
Structure Evolution of Polyethylene in Sequential Biaxial Stretching along the First Tensile Direction
Chen, Qiang; Chen, Dandan; Kang, Jian; Cao, Ya; Chen, Jinyao
Two linear low-density polyethylene samples (PE-A and PE-B), with similar melt index and molecular weight but different molecular structures, were used to explore the structural evolution during sequential biaxial stretching. Only PE-A could be successfully stretched into a film with the biaxial draw ratio of 6 × 6. The interlamellae…
Construction of Dual Orientation Crystalline Structure in Poly(vinyl alcohol)/Graphene Oxide Nano-Composite Hydrogels and Reinforcing Mechanism
Meng, Yeqiao; Zhao, Xiaowen; Ye, Lin
Oriented poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposite hydrogels with different draw ratios were prepared by stretching during a freezing/thawing process. The PVA/GO samples with a draw ratio of 200% had significantly enhanced mechanical properties by formation of a microfibrillar structure, while the tensile strength and compressive modulus respectively reached as…
Phase transitions of the rapid-compression-induced mesomorphic isotactic polypropylene under high-pressure annealing
Fu, Xiaobo; Jia, Wenxia; Li, Xiaoting; Wang, Yaming; Wang, Zhen; Liu, Chuntai; Shen, Changyu; Shao, Chunguang
The mesomorphic isotactic polypropylene was prepared by rapid compression instead of the common method of temperature quenching, and their phase transition under high pressure was investigated in depth by combining wide-angle X-ray diffraction, small-angle X-ray scattering, and differential scanning calorimetry techniques. It was found that annealing under pressure can promote…
A high-performance BaTiO 3 -grafted-GO-laden poly(ethylene oxide)-based membrane as an electrolyte for all-solid lithium-batteries
Angulakshmi, N.; Prasanna Kar, Goutam; Bose, Suryasarathi; Bhoje Gowd, E.; Thomas, Sabu; Manuel Stephan, A.
Nanocomposite polymer electrolytes (NCPEs) comprising poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), barium titanate-grafted-graphene oxide (BaTiO3-g-GO) and lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl imide) (LiTFSI) were prepared by a simple hot-press technique. An increase of two orders of magnitude in the ionic conductivity was achieved upon incorporation of BaTiO3-g-GO in the polymeric matrix even at 0 °C. The
Simultaneous SAXS-WAXS Experiments on Semi-Crystalline Polymers: Example of PA11 and Its Brill Transition
Tencé-Girault, Sylvie; Lebreton, Sylvie; Bunau, Oana; Dang, Patrick; Bargain, François
This manuscript of the special issue “Microstructural Evolution and Mechanical Behavior of Semi-Crystalline Polymers” aims to show that Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) and Wide Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS) experiments performed simultaneously constitute a unique tool to obtain valuable information on the hierarchical structure of semi-crystalline polymers. These structural quantitative…