Polypyrrole/Helical Carbon Nanotube Composite with Marvelous Photothermoelectric Performance for Longevous and Intelligent Internet of Things Application.

Helical carbon nanotube (HCNT) is a vital member of carbon nanomaterials, but little effort was devoted to explore its unique characteristics and applications during the past few decades. Here, we report an organic thermoelectric composite with an excellent photothermoelectric (PTE) effect by conformally wrapping polypyrrole (PPy) on the intricate surface of HCNTs, which have been confirmed to have remarkable near-infrared (NIR) photothermal conversion capability and ultralow heat transportation characteristics. The results indicate that with the increasing HCNT content, PPy shell thickness reduces and exhibits denser as well as partial orientation, while the inter-ring angle slowly decreases and the bipolaron becomes dominant in carrier composition gradually. Consequently, the Seebeck coefficient increases monotonically, whereas the electrical conductivity remains nearly invariant. The final composite combines the benign thermoelectric properties, excellent photothermal response performance, and the lowest thermal conductivity of the carbon-based thermoelectric composite yet reported (0.064 W m-1 K-1). A single strip NIR light-stimulated adjustable delay switch was designed and fabricated, with the open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current under a 400 mW cm-2 NIR-stimulated approach to 720 µV and 62 nA with the discrepancy of consecutive periodic output signals less than 4.2%, exhibiting incredible stability and reliability and demonstrating the highest output voltage of a single strip among the reported organic PTE composite at room temperature. Our work fills in a gap of HCNT research, which hitherto existed in the PTE and thermoelectric field.

Constructing cellulose nanocrystal/graphene nanoplatelet networks in phase change materials toward intelligent thermal management.

The hybrid networks of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) were constructed in polyethylene glycol (PEG) through the common solution compounding processing, in which GNPs provided the thermally conductive path while CNCs restricted the leakage of PEG during the phase transition. The results showed that CNCs greatly enhanced the shape stability of the composite phase change materials (PCMs) while thermal conductivity was still maintained at high level. At the contents of 8 wt% (CNCs) and 4 wt% (GNPs), the enthalpy of the composite PCM was 145.5 J/g, which was 88 % of pure PEG, and the thermal conductivity was 2.018±0.067 W/m K about 563.7 % higher than that of pure PEG. Furthermore, the composite PCMs exhibited outstanding light-thermal and electro-thermal conversion capabilities. Furthermore, the composite PCMs could be designed as the temperature stabilizing component exhibiting intelligent adaptive thermal management role, providing stable temperature condition for electronic devices in extreme environment.

Electrospun Fibrous Membranes with Dual-Scaled Porous Structure: Super Hydrophobicity, Super Lipophilicity, Excellent Water Adhesion, and Anti-Icing for Highly Efficient Oil Adsorption/Separation.

Developing highly efficient and multifunctional membranes toward oil adsorption and oil/water separation is of significance in oily wastewater treatment. Herein, a novel electrospun composite membrane with dual-scaled porous structure and nanoraised structure on each fiber was fabricated through electrospinning using biodegradable polylactide (PLA) and magnetic γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles. The PLA/γ-Fe2O3 composite membranes show high porosity (>90%), superhydrophobic and superlipophilic performances with CH2I2 contact angle of 0°, good water adhesion ability like water droplets on a petal surface, excellent anti-icing performance, and good mechanical properties with a tensile strength of 1.31 MPa and a tensile modulus of 11.65 MPa. The superlipophilicity and dual-scaled porous structure endow the composite membranes with ultrahigh oil adsorption capacity up to 268.6 g/g toward motor oil. Furthermore, the composite membranes also show high oil permeation flux up to 2925 L/m2 h under the force of gravity. Even for oil/water emulsion, the composite membranes have high separation efficiency. We expect that the PLA/γ-Fe2O3 composite membranes can be used in oily wastewater treatment under various conditions through one-off adsorption or continuous oil/water separation, especially under low environmental temperature condition.

Bio-inspired functionalization of microcrystalline cellulose aerogel with high adsorption performance toward dyes.

As one of the materials from natural resources, the functionalization and application of cellulose attract increasing concerns. In this work, we reported a facile method to prepare the bio-inspired functionalization of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) aerogel through polydopamine (PDA) coating, which was realized via the self-polymerization of dopamine in the MCC/LiBr solution followed by the freeze-drying technology. The morphological characterization showed that the pore morphologies of the compounded aerogel were influenced by the content of PDA. Adsorption measurements toward methylene blue (MB) showed that the compounded aerogel had high adsorption ability. Moreover, the compounded MCC/PDA aerogel exhibited excellent adsorption selectivity and it exhibited high efficiency to remove MB from different solutions, such as the mixed solution with anionic dyestuffs, the mixed solution with cationic dyestuffs and the mixed solution with common salt (NaCl). The high adsorption ability and excellent adsorption selectivity endows the compounded MCC/PDA aerogel with great potential applications in wastewater treatment.

Green synthesis of hybrid graphene oxide/microcrystalline cellulose aerogels and their use as superabsorbents.

In this work, we developed a green synthesis method to prepare the hybrid aerogels containing graphene oxide (GO) and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) using lithium bromide (LiBr) aqueous solution as the solvent, which insured the complete dissolution of MCC. The interaction between GO and MCC was investigated through different methods The results demonstrate that there is a strong interaction between GO and MCC molecules, which promotes the exfoliation of GO in the hybrid aerogels. The hybrid GO/MCC aerogels exhibit typical three dimensional porous structure and the pore morphology can be well adjusted by changing the content of GO. The adsorption ability of the hybrid aerogels was measured using methylene blue (MB) as an adsorbate. The results show that the adsorption ability of GO per unit mass is greatly enhanced compared with the pure GO aerogel, especially at relatively low GO content the adsorption amount of GO per unit mass is enhanced up to 2630mg/g. Further results demonstrate that the hybrid GO/MCC aerogels still obey the pseudo-second-order adsorption model, which is similar to that of the pure GO aerogel. The mechanism for the amplified adsorption ability of GO in the hybrid GO/MCC aerogels is then analyzed.