Liao, Tao; Zhao, Xintong; Yang, Xiao; Coates, Phil; Whiteside, Ben; Jiang, Zhiyong; Men, Yongfeng
Structural evolution of flow-oriented high density polyethylene upon heating: In situ SAXS and WAXD studies
The structural evolution of micro-injection molded high density polyethylene (HDPE) at the molecular and lamellar levels was investigated as a function of temperature during heating process using wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) techniques. The molded sample exhibits a peculiar multilayer structure of skin and…
Effect of Oleic Acid Coating of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles on Properties of Magnetic Polyamide-6 Nanocomposite
Gupta, Ranjeetkumar; Pancholi, Ketan; De Sa, Rulston; Murray, Duncan; Huo, Dehong; Droubi, Ghazi; White, Maggie; Njuguna, James
This work reports the development and testing of a magnetic polymer (Polyamide 6, PA6) nanocomposite capable of melting when exposed to an external magnetic field. Addition of high concentrations of iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) can induce quick melting but is detrimental to the mechanical properties of the polymer. To reduce…
Correlation between mechanical properties and microscopic structures of an optimized silica fraction in silicone rubber
Liu, Dong; Song, Lixian; Song, Hongtao; Chen, Jie; Tian, Qiang; Chen, Liang; Sun, Liangwei; Lu, Ai; Huang, Chaoqiang; Sun, Guangai
The mechanical properties and the hierarchical filler structures were characterized on a series silica-filled silicone rubber with a filler fraction (?Si) varied from 0.05?phr to 80?phr (parts per hundred rubber). Uniaxial elongation measurement suggests that there is a percolation threshold between 10 and 30?phr. Moreover, an optimum ?Si range from…
A Near-Infrared Photoactuator Based on Shape Memory Semicrystalline Polymers toward Light-Fueled Crane, Grasper, and Walker
Yang, Qi; Peng, Chuang; Ren, Juntao; Zhao, Wenpeng; Zheng, Wenjie; Zhang, Chunyu; Hu, Yanming; Zhang, Xuequan
Light-driven soft actuators with adaptive shape changes, diverse geometric morphing, and reversible macroscopic movements have gained ever-increasing interest owing to their diverse applications ranging from biomedical to aerospace devices. Herein, presented is a near-infrared (NIR) light-stimulated actuator based on cis-1,4 polybutadiene-polyethylene semicrystalline copolymer. In the system, a
High-Performance Lignin-Containing Polyurethane Elastomers with Dynamic Covalent Polymer Networks
Liu, Weifeng; Fang, Chang; Wang, Shengyu; Huang, Jinhao; Qiu, Xueqing
High-performance lignin-containing polyurethane elastomers (LPUes) were successfully synthesized via partially substituting petroleum-derived polyols with depolymerized enzymatic hydrolysis lignin (DEL). The influences of DEL on the structure, thermostability, mechanical performance, and thermal reprocessability of LPUes were systematically studied. The tensile strength and toughness of PUes were
Ion Transport in Pendant and Backbone Polymerized Ionic Liquids
Kuray, Preeya; Noda, Takeru; Matsumoto, Atsushi; Iacob, Ciprian; Inoue, Tadashi; Hickner, Michael A.; Runt, James
Polymerized ionic liquids (PILs) are single-ion conductors in which one of the ionic species is tethered to the polymer chain while the other is free to be transported. The ionic species can either be directly incorporated into the polymeric backbone (backbone PILs) or placed as pendant groups to the chain…
Direct modification of polyketone resin for anion exchange membrane of alkaline fuel cells
Zhou, Yi-Cun; Zhou, Ling; Feng, Chang-Ping; Wu, Xiao-Tian; Bao, Rui-Ying; Liu, Zheng-Ying; Yang, Ming-Bo; Yang, Wei
A kind of side-chain type anion exchange membranes (AEMs) with high ionic conductivity and good comprehensive stability was prepared via direct modification of commercial engineering plastic polyketone with diamines through Paal-Knorr reaction and quaternization reaction. It was found that the amount of diamine can effectively tune the microphase morphology and…
Solvent-non-solvent rapid-injection for preparing nanostructured materials from micelles to hydrogels
Lang, Chao; LaNasa, Jacob A.; Utomo, Nyalaliska; Xu, Yifan; Nelson, Melissa J.; Song, Woochul; Hickner, Michael A.; Colby, Ralph H.; Kumar, Manish; Hickey, Robert J.
Due to their distinctive molecular architecture, ABA triblock copolymers will undergo specific self-assembly processes into various nanostructures upon introduction into a B-block selective solvent. Although much of the focus in ABA triblock copolymer self-assembly has been on equilibrium nanostructures, little attention has been paid to the guiding principles of nanostructure…
A top-down strategy identifying molecular phase stabilizers to overcome microstructure instabilities in organic solar cells
Zhang, Chaohong; Heumueller, Thomas; Leon, Salvador; Gruber, Wolfgang; Burlafinger, Klaus; Tang, Xiaofeng; Perea, Jose D.; Wabra, Isabell; Hirsch, Andreas; Unruh, Tobias; Li, Ning; Brabec, Christoph J.
The operational stability of organic solar cells (OSCs) is the essential barrier to commercialization. Compared to thermally-induced degradation, photo-stability of OSCs is far away from being resolved. Here, we demonstrate that the thermal- and photo-degradation of metastable bulk-heterojunction OSCs are governed by the same mechanism. Understanding the fundamental principles behind…
High-Performance Organic Electrochemical Transistors Based on Conjugated Polyelectrolyte Copolymers
Schmode, Philip; Ohayon, David; Reichstein, Paul M.; Savva, Achilleas; Inal, Sahika; Thelakkat, Mukundan
A new generation of polythiophene-based polyelectrolytes is reported to address fundamental issues in organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs). In such devices, the semiconductor must be able to transport and store ions and possess simultaneously a very high electronic mobility. For this, the ion-conducting 6-(thiophen-3-yl) hexane-1-sulfonate tetramethylammonium monomer (THSTMA+) is