Preparation of photothermal alginate/chitosan derivative/CuS@polydopamine composite fibers and application in desalination.

A polyelectrolyte system consisting of sodium alginate (SA) and quaternary ammonium chitosan (QAC) blended with polydopamine-coated copper sulfide particles (CuS@PDA) was chosen to investigate the function of CuS@PDA in the uniform binary blending of anionic and cationic polyelectrolytes in detail. A smart composite fiber SA/QAC/CuS@PDA was prepared via a dry-wet spinning technique. With the addition of CuS@PDA (about 4.3 % in fiber), the as-prepared SA/QAC/CuS@PDA-0.50 fibers (SQCuS@P-0.50 SCFs) showed notably enhanced intensity 359.2 MPa, excellent moisture response, and photothermal conversion performance, with the temperature increasing from 25.9 to 80.7 °C as irradiated under a 980 nm infrared lamp at distance 20 cm away for 120 s. The photothermal performance was maintained after 6 lighting on-and-off cycles. The tensile strength decreased ~23.8 % after 4 cycles, then remained fixed. The diameter increases to ~480 % in wet state but decreases to the original size in dry state for 10 cycles. When the fabric with 90 wt% SQCuS@P-0.50 SCFs was used as a water evaporator, the water evaporation rate and efficiency were 1.68 kg·m-2·h-1 and 102 % under 1 sun irradiation. This work provides a simple and ecofriendly strategy for fabricating photothermal fabrics by designing and preparing composite fibers.

Development of polyvinyl alcohol/carrageenan hydrogels and fibers via KOH treatment for Morse code information transmission.

To solve the inherent problems of conductive hydrogels, such as relatively low mechanical properties and fatigue resistance, inability to work after water loss, and difficulty weaving. In this study, the borax-crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol/k-carrageenan (kC) conducting hydrogels (BPKKOH) were prepared by a simple one-pot method, and KOH treatment was used instead of the cumbersome and time-consuming freeze-thaw cycle to improve the comprehensive properties. The KOH treatment increased the hydrogel hydrogen bonding content by 7.72 % and synergized with the induction of kC by K+ to enhance the tensile and compressive strengths by 8.12 and 34.6 times, respectively. Meanwhile, the BPKKOH hydrogel's fatigue resistance and shape recovery after water loss were improved. Additionally, the BPKKOH hydrogels can be monitored for finger bending, showing clear and stable differences in electrical signals. BPKKOH hydrogels combined with Morse code realize applications in information transmission and encryption/decryption. Notably, introducing KOH ensures the molding and preparation of BPKKOH hydrogel fibers while having good signal responsiveness and monitoring ability. More importantly, it can be woven into fabrics that can be loaded with heavy weights, which has the potential to be directly applied in smart wearables. This work provides new ideas for applying flexible sensors and wearable smart textiles.

Efficient and rapid adsorption of methylene blue dyes by novel metal-organic frameworks and organic/inorganic hybrid alginate-based dual network gel composites.

To address the limitations of gel-based adsorbents, such as inadequate mechanical strength, low adsorption capacity, and limited reusability, this study presents an innovative approach employing a dual network gel. The dual network consists of calcium alginate (CA) ionic crosslinked organic networks, and vinyl silica-based nanoparticles (VSNP) as crosslinking agents in acrylic acid (AA) free radical polymerization networks (denoted as P (AA-co-VSNP), abbreviated as PAV). After freeze-drying, ultimately yielding an organic/inorganic hybrid dual network gel (referred to as CA/P(AA-co-VSNP), abbreviated as CPAV), enriched with abundant functional groups, thereby enhancing material reusability. To further enhance the adsorption capacity, CPAV undergoes hydrothermal reactions to obtain metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) composite dual network gel adsorbent (UiO-66@CPAV). UiO-66@CPAV exhibited a density of 0.165 g/cm3 and showcased a unique pore structure with nested macropores and mesopores, featuring a uniform distribution of pore holes. Notably, the specific surface area was measured at 96.3 m2/g, and an average pore diameter was 17.9 nm. Most impressively, the actual maximum adsorption capacity reached 841.7 mg/g, and even after 10 cycles of use, the adsorption capacity remained 91.9 % of its initial value. Overall, this research introduced a novel methodology for the development of dual network MOFs@gel adsorbents, showcasing promising advancements in the field.

In-situ compatibilized starch/polyacylonitrile composite fiber fabricated via dry-wet spinning technique.

An in-situ compatibilized starch (St) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) composite spinning solution was designed by preparing starch-graft-polyacrylonitrile (St-g-PAN) through graft copolymerizing acrylonitrile from soluble starch and using ammonium cerium nitrate (CAN) as initiator. As dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was used as the solvent, St/St-g-PAN/PAN/DMSO spinning solution was prepared and St/St-g-PAN/PAN composite fibers were obtained by dry-wet spinning technique. The effects of air gap, coagulation bath, hot drawing and stretching, and thermal-setting process were studied in detail. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (13C NMR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the structure and morphology of the copolymer and the fibers. Single fiber strength tester and sonic orientation instrument were performed to measure the fiber mechanical properties and orientation degrees. The results showed that as the grafting ratio ~150.0% and the reacting mixture containing St ~9.8%, St-g-PAN ~81.6%, and homo-PAN ~8.6% in DMSO solution with 6.0 wt% in concentration were used, the spinning parameters such as air gap ~35 mm, coagulation bath concentration ~70%, temperature ~25 °C, and positive stretching ~48%, hot drawing and stretching 6 times at 80 °C, thermal-setting at 90 °C for 3 h under constant length mode were met, composite fibers with breaking strength 3.41 cN·dtex-1, breaking elongation 14.41%, sonic orientation factor 0.625, moisture recovery ratio 10.53% under standard condition (1 atm, 22 °C, and relative humidity 65%), and boiling water shrinkage ratio 9.60% were obtained. The as prepared composite fiber was better than common viscose fiber 2.11 cN·dtex-1 and cotton fiber ~3.24 cN·dtex-1 and expected to be used in the fields of medical gauze, bandage, protective clothing, et al. besides of common textiles. The in-situ compatibilization method can be applied in preparation of other composite polymer materials.

Scalable Nano Building Blocks of Waterborne Polyurethane and Nanocellulose for Tough and Strong Bioinspired Nanocomposites by a Self-Healing and Shape-Retaining Strategy.

Nature has given us significant inspiration to reproduce bioinspired materials with high strength and toughness. The fabrication of well-defined three-dimensional (3D) hierarchically structured nanocomposite materials from nano- to the macroscale using simple, green, and scalable methods is still a big challenge. Here, we report a successful attempt at the fabrication of multidimensional bioinspired nanocomposites (fiber, films, plates, hollow tubes, chair models, etc.) with high strength and toughness through self-healing and shape-retaining methods using waterborne polyurethane (WPU) and nanocellulose. In our method, the prepared TEMPO oxide cellulose nanofiber (TOCNF)-WPU hybrid films show excellent moisture-induced self-healing and shape-retaining abilities, which can be used to fabricate all sorts of 3D bioinspired nanocomposites with internal aligned and hierarchical architectures just using water as media. The tensile and flexural strength of the self-assembled plate can reach 186.8 and 193.2 MPa, respectively, and it also has a high toughness of 11.6 MJ m-3. Because of this bottom-up self-assembly strategy, every multidimensional structure we processed has high strength and toughness. This achievement would provide a promising future to realize a large-scale and reliable production of various sorts of bioinspired multidimensional materials with high strength and toughness in a sustainable manner.