Yang, Cao-ying; Zhu, Guo-dong; Yi, Zhuan; Qiu, Ya-yu; Liu, Li-fen; Gao, Cong-jie
Tailoring the pore size and permeability of isoporous membranes through blending with poly(ethylene glycol): Toward the balance of macro- and microphase separation
Isoporous membranes prepared from the combination of self-assembly and non-solvent induced phase inversion (SNIPS) were known for their asymmetric structures that were characterized with an isoporous top layer and porous/interconnected sublayer. This unique feature provides an opportunity to tailor the structure on toplayer and sublayer separately or synchronously by adjusting…
Photo-degradation of polyethylene under stress: A successive self-nucleation and annealing (SSA) study
Liu, Qiang; Liu, Shixiang; Lv, Yadong; Huang, Yajiang; Kong, Miqiu; Yang, Qi; Li, Guangxian
Successive self-nucleation and annealing (SSA) technique based on calorimetry is utilized to reveal the effect of uniaxial tensile stress on the photo-oxidation of high density polyethylene (HDPE). Stress-induced acceleratory and inhibitory effects on HDPE are confirmed by analyzing the newly formed melting peaks at low temperatures and the gradually disappeared…
Morphological Evolution of Tetrachlorinated Perylene Bisimides with Lengthy Alkyl Substituent Polycrystalline Thin Films during Reversible Phase Transitions
Xin, Rui; Wang, Shaojuan; Zeng, Cheng; Ji, Andong; Zhang, Jie; Ren, Zhongjie; Jiang, Wei; Wang, Zhaohui; Yan, Shouke
The phase behavior and related morphological evolution of thin films of lengthy alkyl substituted core-tetrachlorinated perylene bisimide (C18-4ClPBI), a large ?-conjugated molecule, have been studied. It is found that the C18-4ClPBI can exist in two different crystalline phases depending on temperature, which transform reversibly in heating and cooling processes. The…
Transformation from form II to form I accelerated by oriented lamellae in Polybutene-1
Chen, Jinlong; Wang, Binghua; Sun, Taicheng; Xu, Jianwei; Chen, Jingbo; Zhang, Bin
Promoting the transformation from Form II to Form I in polybutene-1 (PB-1) is deemed to be crucial and demanded for commercial applications. The mechanism of phase transition is previously described in terms of thermal or mechanical stress applied between the crystalline and amorphous regions. Here, we find that the structural…
Microstructure Induced Rigidity of Polysiloxane Yielding Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Alkyl Side Chains
Sarkar, Alok; Negi, Lalit Mohan Singh; Lewis, Kenrick M.; Vasimalai, Nagamalai; Gowd, E. Bhoje; Dasgupta, Debarshi
The influence of a backbone microstructure on the side chain crystallization of a comb-like polymer is analyzed systematically using a tailor-made random versus block siloxane copolymer system. While the side alkyl chains of the random siloxane undergo a stepwise orderdisorder (OD) transition to form well-ordered orthorhombic structure at low temperature,…
Gradient crystallinity and its influence on the poly(vinylidene fluoride)/poly(methyl methacrylate) membrane-derived by immersion precipitation method
Remanan, Sanjay; Ghosh, Sabyasachi; Das, Tushar Kanti; Sharma, Maya; Bose, Madhuparna; Bose, Suryasarathi; Das, Amit Kumar; Das, Narayan Chandra
Herein, phase inversion poly(vinylidene fluoride)/poly(methyl methacrylate) (PVDF/PMMA) microporous membranes were prepared at various PMMA concentration by immersion precipitation method. Increment in the PMMA concentration has a significant influence in the PVDF membrane crystallinity, which is studied by differential scanning calorimeter, X-ray diffractometer, and small-angle X-ray scattering
Polyfluorene Copolymers as High-Performance Hole-Transport Materials for Inverted Perovskite Solar Cells
Hu, Jinlong; You, Jiang; Peng, Chang; Qiu, Shudi; He, Wenxin; Li, Chaohui; Liu, Xianhu; Mai, Yaohua; Guo, Fei
Inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs) that can be entirely processed at low temperatures have attracted growing attention due to their cost-effective production. Hole-transport materials (HTMs) play an essential role in achieving efficient inverted PSCs, as they determine the effectiveness of charge extraction and recombination at interfaces. Herein, three polyfluorene copolymers…
Crystallization-driven microstructure changes during microphase separation for environment-friendly thermoplastic triblock copolymer elastomers
Ding, Shuangshuang; Fang, Chu; Wang, Xuehui; Wang, Zhigang
A study on the crystallization-driven microstructure changes during microphase separation for a series of high transparent semicrystalline thermoplastic triblock copolymer elastomers (TBCPEs), polylactide-b-polyisoprene-b-polylactide (PLA-b-PI-b-PLA) was conducted in this work. A series of PLA-b-PI-b-PLA TBCPEs with different molecular masses of PI midblock and same molecular mass of PLA end
Disentangling the role of solvent polarity and protein solvation in folding and self-assembly of ?-lactalbumin
Bucciarelli, Saskia; Sayedi, Edres Sayed; Osella, Silvio; Trzaskowski, Bartosz; Vissing, Karina Juul; Vestergaard, Bente; Foderà, Vito
Protein (mis)folding, stability and aggregation are of interest in numerous fields, such as food sciences, biotechnology, and health sciences, and efforts are directed towards the elucidation of the underlying molecular mechanisms. Through an integrative approach, we show that a subtle balance between hydrogen bond formation and hydrophobic interactions defines protein…
Effects of charge contrast and composition on microgel formation and interactions with bacteria-mimicking liposomes
Borro, Bruno C.; Toussaint, Marie S.; Bucciarelli, Saskia; Malmsten, Martin
Microgels offer opportunities for improved delivery of antimicrobial peptides (AMP). To contribute to a foundation for rational design of such systems, we here study the effects of electrostatics on the generation of peptide-carrying microgels. For this, alginate microgels loaded with polymyxin B and cross-linked by Ca2+, were formed by electrostatic…