M. Henning, Laura; Simon, Ulla; Gurlo, Aleksander; J. Smales, Glen; F. Bekheet, Maged
Grafting and stabilization of ordered mesoporous silica COK-12 with graphene oxide for enhanced removal of methylene blue
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…
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…
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…
Pore formation and evolution mechanism during biaxial stretching of β-iPP used for lithium-ion batteries separator
Ding, Lei; Xu, Ruizhang; Pu, Lian; Yang, Feng; Wu, Tong; Xiang, Ming
The morphological evolution and pore formation mechanism of different kinds of ?-iPP spherulites during biaxial stretching were analyzed. The smaller radial-growth spherulite deforms heterogeneous, causing a faster reduction in ?-crystal content and higher orientation degree during longitudinal stretching, while the bigger spherulite derived from the hedrites deformed more homogeneous due…
Anisotropic polymer nanoparticles with controlled dimensions from the morphological transformation of isotropic seeds
Hua, Zan; Jones, Joseph R.; Thomas, Marjolaine; Arno, Maria C.; Souslov, Anton; Wilks, Thomas R.; OReilly, Rachel K.
Understanding and controlling self-assembly processes at multiple length scales is vital if we are to design and create advanced materials. In particular, our ability to organise matter on the nanoscale has advanced considerably, but still lags far behind our skill in manipulating individual molecules. New tools allowing controlled nanoscale assembly…
A solvent-free porous liquid comprising hollow nanorodpolymer surfactant conjugates
Kumar, Raj; Dhasaiyan, Prabhu; Naveenkumar, Parinamipura M.; Sharma, Kamendra P.
Liquids having permanent porosity can offer significant processing advantages over their solid counterparts. This has recently led to tremendous activity towards the design and development of intrinsic pores in the liquid phase, predominantly for studies involving gas sequestration. We show here the development of a solvent-free mesoporous liquid material based…