RESUMEN
Due to the poor heat-resistance and intrinsic weakness of the bridging moieties in aerogel matrixes, it remains greatly challenging to fabricate highly thermostable and toughened silsesquioxane aerogels. By utilizing bismaleimide as the bridging part and optimizing the solvent polarity, lightweight (ρ < 0.09 g cm-3), compressible (80% strain) and superhydrophobic (CA ≈ 150°) bismaleimide bridged silsesquioxane aerogels (BMIT-BSAs) are constructed. The microstructure and compressive modulus of BMIT-BSAs can be tuned by the sol-gel solvents with different polarities. Moreover, stable low-temperature wettability at -196 °C and a significantly increased initial deposition temperature of 336 °C for both N2 and O2 atmospheres were measured, demonstrating the wide temperature tolerance of BMIT-BSAs.
RESUMEN
This study employs the energy-dissipation method to analyze the tribological behaviors of diamond-like carbon (DLC) films through molecular dynamics simulation. It is found that at small load and sliding velocity, the variation trend of average friction force is only dependent on the number of interface bonds (or contact area). However, at large load and sliding velocity, the friction mechanism is not only related to the number of interface bonds but also related to the presence of the transfer layer. The elastic-plastic deformation mainly occurs in the early sliding stage, and a part of the stored elastic potential energy is dissipated by plastic potential energy or internal frictional heat. After the sliding stabilization, over 95% of the total frictional energy is dissipated by thermal conduction, and the rest is mostly dissipated by wear. The increase in load, velocity, and temperature cause more frictional energy dissipated by elastic-plastic deformation, atomic motion, and elastic deformation instead of thermal conduction, respectively. Finally, the wear rate obtained in this work is the same order of magnitude as the experiment. Generally, this work provides an effective atomic-scale method to comprehensively analyze the microscopic wear mechanism of materials.
RESUMEN
In this study, we design a novel thermo- and photo-responsive nanocomposite film prepared by depositing indium tin oxide nanocrystals via the coating of amphiphilic copolymer on polycaprolactone substrates (INCP). The INCP film shows reversible surface morphology change properties by changing temperature as well as turning ON/OFF NIR laser. Especially, as the temperature changes from 25 to 75 °C, the film could regulate light transmittance from 75 to 90% across the visible and near-infrared region (500-1,750 nm). In addition, the film also exhibits excellent recycle and thermal stability at different temperature. Our results reveal that reversible surface morphology change properties are caused by curvature adjustment of film, which is owing to the coupling effect between copolymer and PCL with different thermal expansion strains. Our results suggest a possible strategy for the preparation of smart responsive materials in the future, which provides a reference for the development of new energy-saving materials.
RESUMEN
Structural analysis showed that cyclosiloxane hybrid polymer (CHP) is a collection of nano-sized nacre-like structures in random orientations. Inspired by the reinforcement of nacre-like materials, basal-functionalized graphene (GO-AA) was inserted between CHP layers, acting as 'double-sided tape' to improve the mechanical properties. The resulting GO-AA/CHP nanocomposites showed a 156% improvement in toughness with only a 0.08 wt% loading of GO-AA, and a 25% improvement in thermal conductivity with a 0.10 wt% loading of GO-AA. The proposed 'double-sided tape' effect was also used to explain the highly efficient enhancement in thermal conductivity. This research promotes the application of CHP in harsher environments, demonstrates its prospects in thermal management areas, and contributes to nature-inspired materials design.
RESUMEN
3D graphene foam was recently demonstrated to exhibit excellent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance. In this work, we prepared 3D graphene foams by incorporating a surface modification process of graphene via self-polymerization of dopamine with a subsequent foaming process. The multiple roles played by polydopamine (PDA), including as nitrogen doping source and as an enhancement tool to achieve higher extent of reduction of the graphene through providing wider pathways and larger accessible surface areas were discussed in detail. Despite the presence of the PDA which acted as barriers among the graphene layers that hindered the electrons movement, the enhanced reduction of graphene sheets and the polarization effects introduced by PDA decoration compensated the negative effect of the barrier on EMI shielding effectiveness (SE). As a result, the PDA decorated 3D graphene foams showed improved EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) compared to PDA-free graphene foam (from 23.1 to 26.5dB). More significantly, the EMI shielding performance of the PDA decorated graphene foam was much superior to all existing carbon-based porous materials when the thickness of the specimen was considered.
RESUMEN
Electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance of chemically and thermally reduced graphene aerogels (GAs) was systematically studied. The EMI shielding mechanisms were extensively analyzed in terms of the distinct surface characteristics resulted from the different reduction methods for the first time. EMI shielding effectiveness (SE) of chemically and thermally reduced GAs reached 27.6 (GAC) and 40.2dB (GAT) at the thickness of 2.5mm, respectively. It was found that the introduction of nitrogen atoms through chemical reduction induced localized charges on the carbon backbone leading to strong polarization effects of GAC. The relatively incomplete reduction caused a large number of side polar groups which prevented the graphene sheets from π-π stacking. In contrast, the higher extent of reduction of graphene sheets in GAT left a smaller amount of side polar groups and formed more sp2 graphitic lattice, both factors favored π-π stacking between the adjacent graphene sheets, resulting in higher electrical conductivity and enhanced EMI SE. The EMI shielding performance of the GAs prepared outperformed the recent reported porous carbon materials with respect to the absolute SE value at the similar thickness and/or density.
RESUMEN
This work reports a unique in-grown structure of a NiFe-MMO/CNT hybrid catalyst. This structure creates larger interfacial area and strong interaction between the NiFe-MMO catalyst and the CNT, which could promote charge transfer at the interface, and hence improve conductivity. This leads to outstanding electrochemical performance for oxygen evolution reaction.