Flame Retardancy Properties and Rheological Behavior of PP/DiDOPO Conjugated Flame Retardant Composites.

A bridged 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide derivative (DiDOPO) with conjugated structure was utilized as a novel conjugated flame retardant, Polypropylene(PP)/DiDOPO conjugated flame retardant composites were papered by being melt-extruding with a twin-screw extruder. The flame retardant efficiency of PP/DiDOPO conjugated flame retardant composites were investigated by cone calorimetry, limiting oxygen index (LOI), vertical burning test (UL-94). Besides, the rheological behavior of PP/DiDOPO conjugated flame retardant composites are measured by ARES rheometer. The results showed that when the content of DiDOPO with conjugated structure was 16 wt%, the LOI values of PP/DiDOPO conjugated flame retardant composites was 24%, and PP/DiDOPO conjugated flame retardant composites reaches V-0 grade. The heat release rate (HRR), total heat release rate (THR) and CO2 of PP/DiDOPO conjugated flame retardant composites decreased, so PP/DiDOPO conjugated flame retardant composites had excellent flame retardant effect. Rheological analysis results indicated that DiDOPO with conjugated structure suppressed the melt dripping of PP/DiDOPO conjugated flame retardant composites by enhancing the melt stability. The results showed that the DiDOPO with conjugated structure can significantly enhance the flame retardancy effect of PP/DiDOPO conjugated flame retardant composites. In addition, the materials PP/DiDOPO might be with low conductivity and charge transport mobility.

Supramolecular Motors on Graphite Surface Stabilized by Charge States and Hydrogen Bonds.

Molecular motors are nanoscale machines that convert external energies into controlled mechanical movements. In supramolecular motors, the rotator and stator are held together mechanically, and thus the rotation can be essentially barrier free when molecular conformation is negligible. However, nearly all the supramolecular motors appeared in solutions or host-guest complexes. Surface-mounted supramolecular motors have rarely been addressed, even though they are easily manipulated by external fields. Here we report a surface-mounted supramolecular motor assembled by charge states and hydrogen bonds. On a graphite surface, individual ethanol clusters can be charged with a scanning tunneling microscopy tip and then trap the ethanol chains with a permanent dipole moment. Serving as a rotator, the trapped ethanol chains rotate around a charged cluster driven by the inelastic tunneling electrons. Random rotation in clockwise or anticlockwise direction occurs in the chiral molecular chains through chiral flipping. Directional rotation with clockwise chirality can be realized by introducing a chiral branch to the near end of ethanol chains to suppress the chiral flipping with steric hindrance.

Direct observation of molecular orbitals in an individual single-molecule magnet Mn12 on Bi(111).

Single-molecule nanomagnets have unique quantum properties, and their potential applications require characterization and accessibility of individual single-molecule magnets on various substrates. We develop a gentle tip-deposition method to bring individual prototype single-molecule magnets, manganese-12-acetate (Mn12) molecules, onto the semimetallic Bi(111) surface without linker molecules, using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. We are able to identify both the almost flat-lying and side-lying orientations of Mn12 molecules at 4.5 K. Energy-resolved spectroscopic mapping enables the first observation of several molecular orbitals of individual Mn12 molecules in real space, which is consistent with density functional theory calculations. Both experimental and theoretical results suggest that an energy gap between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the almost flat-lying Mn12 is only 40% of such a gap for an isolated (free) Mn12 molecule, which is caused by charge transfer from the metallic surface states of Bi to the Mn12. Despite the reduction of this gap, STM images show that the local lattices of Bi(111) covered with Mn12 remain essentially intact, indicating that Mn12-Bi interactions are not strong. Our findings open an avenue to address directly the local structural and electronic properties of individual single-molecule magnets on solid substrates.