High-Performance Aluminum Fuels Induced by Monolayer Self-Assembly of Nano-Sized Energetic Fluoride Vesicles on the Surface.

Surface modification is frequently used to solve the problems of low combustion properties and agglomeration for aluminum-based fuels. However, due to the intrinsic incompatibility between the aluminum powder and the organic modifiers, the surface coating is usually uneven and disordered, which significantly deteriorates the uniformity and performances of the Al-based fuels. Herein, a new approach of monolayer nano-vesicular self-assembly is proposed to prepare high-performance Al fuels. Triblock copolymer G-F-G is produced by glycidyl azide polymer (GAP) and 2,2'-(2,2,3,3,4,5,5-Octafluorohexane-1,6-diyl) bis (oxirane) (fluoride) ring-open addition reaction. By utilizing G-F-G vesicular self-assembly in a special solvent, the nano-sized vesicles are firmly adhered to the surface of Al powder through the long-range attraction between the fluorine segments and Al. Meanwhile, the electrostatic repulsion between vesicles ensures an extremely thin coating thickness (≈15 nm), maintaining the monolayer coating structure. Nice ignition, combustion, anti-agglomeration, and water-proof properties of Al@G-F-G(DMF) are achieved, which are superior among the existing Al-based fuels. The derived Al-based fuel has excellent comprehensive properties, which can not only inspire the development of new-generation energetic materials but also provide facile but exquisite strategies for exquisite surface nanostructure construction via ordered self-assembly for many other applications.

Transcriptome analysis for identifying possible causes of post-reproductive death of Sepia esculenta based on brain tissue.

BACKGROUND: The subpeduncle lobe/olfactory lobe-optic gland axis is called the endocrine regulation center of cephalopods. However, little is known about the mechanism of the subpeduncle lobe/olfactory lobe-optic gland axis regulate the sexual maturation and post-reproductive death of Sepia esculenta Hoyle. OBJECTIVES: The primary objective of this study was to provide basic information for revealing the mechanism of the subpeduncle lobe/olfactory lobe-optic axis regulating the rapid post-reproductive death of S. esculenta. METHODS: In this paper, Illumina sequencing based transcriptome analysis was performed on the brain tissue of female S. esculenta in the three key developmental stages: growth stage (BG), spawning stage (BS), and post-reproductive death stage (BA). RESULTS: A total of 66.19 Gb Illumina sequencing data were obtained. A comparative analysis of the three stages showed 2609, 3333, and 170 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in BG-vs-BA, BG-vs-BA, and BS-vs-BA, respectively. The Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis of DEGs revealed that the regulation of cyclin-dependent protein serine/threonine kinase activity, oxidative phosphorylation, and respiratory chain were significantly enriched. The significant enrichment analysis of the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway identified pathways associated with the regulation of death, such as the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway, AMPK signaling pathway, oxidative phosphorylation, and cell cycle. CONCLUSION: The post-reproductive death of S. esculenta was found to be a complex energy steady-state regulation network system. The mTOR acted as an energy receptor and had a key role in regulating energy homeostasis.

Healability Demonstrates Enhanced Shape-Recovery of Graphene-Oxide-Reinforced Shape-Memory Polymeric Films.

The fabrication of shape-memory polymers or films that can simultaneously heal the mechanical damage and the fatigued shape-memory function remains challenging. In this study, mechanically robust healable shape-memory polymeric films that can heal the mechanical damage and the fatigued shape-memory function in the presence of water are fabricated by layer-by-layer assembly of branched poly(ethylenimine) (bPEI)-graphene oxide (GO) complexes with poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), followed by the release of the (PAA/bPEI-GO)*n films from the underlying substrates. The free-standing (PAA/bPEI-GO0.02)*35 films made of bPEI-GO complexes with a mass ratio of 0.02 between GO nanosheets and bPEI are mechanically robust with a Young's modulus of 19.8 ± 2.1 GPa and a hardness of 0.92 ± 0.15 GPa and exhibit excellent humidity-induced healing and shape-memory functions. Benefiting from the highly efficient healing function, the (PAA/bPEI-GO0.02)*35 films can heal cuts penetrating thorough the entire film and achieve an ∼100% shape-recovery ratio for a long-term shape-memory application. Meanwhile, the shape-memory function of the mechanically damaged (PAA/bPEI-GO0.02)*35 films can be finely restored after being healed in water. The shape-memory functions of the (PAA/bPEI-GO0.02)*35 films and their healing capacity originate from the reversibility of electrostatic and hydrogen-bonding interactions induced by water between PAA and bPEI-GO complexes.

Reduced Graphene Oxide-Reinforced Polymeric Films with Excellent Mechanical Robustness and Rapid and Highly Efficient Healing Properties.

The fabrication of nanofiller-reinforced intrinsic healable polymer composite films with both excellent mechanical robustness and highly efficient healability is challenging because the mobility of the polymer chains is suppressed by the incorporated nanofillers. In this study, we exploit the reversible host-guest interactions between nanofillers and the matrix polymer films and report the fabrication of intrinsically healable, reduced graphene oxide (RGO)-reinforced polymer composite films capable of conveniently and repeatedly healing cuts of several tens of micrometers wide. The healable films can be prepared via layer-by-layer assembly of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) with complexes of branched poly(ethylenimine) grafted with ferrocene (bPEI-Fc) and RGO nanosheets modified with ß-cyclodextrin (RGO-CD) (denoted as bPEI-Fc&RGO-CD). The as-prepared PAA/bPEI-Fc&RGO-CD films are mechanically robust with a Young's modulus of 17.2 ± 1.9 GPa and a hardness of 1.00 ± 0.30 GPa. The healing process involves two steps: (i) healing of cuts in an oxidation condition in which the host-guest interactions between bPEI-Fc and RGO-CD nanosheets are broken and the cuts on the films are healed; and (ii) reconstruction of host-guest interactions between bPEI-Fc and RGO-CD nanosheets via reduction to restore the original mechanical robustness of the films.