Amorphous High-Entropy Hydroxides of Tunable Wide Solar Absorption for Solar Water Evaporation

The high-entropy materials have raised much attention in recent years due to their extraordinary performances in mechanical, catalysis, energy storage fields. Herein, a new type of high-entropy hydroxides (e.g., NiFeCoMnAl(OH)_x) that are amorphous and capable of broad solar absorption is reported. A facile one-pot co-precipitation method is employed to synthesize these amorphous high-entropy hydroxides (a-HEHOs) under ambient conditions. The a-HEHOs thus obtained display widely tunable bandgap (e.g., from 2.6 to 1.1 eV) due to their high-entropy and amorphous characteristics, enabling efficient light absorbance and photothermal conversion in the solar regime. Further solar water evaporation measurements show that the a-HEHOs delivered a considerable energy conversion efficiency of 55%, comparable to black titanium oxides that are synthesized using more complex and expensive methods.     

Aromatic amine‐terminated polysulfide oligomer: Synthesis and application in self‐healable polyurea

The dynamic chemistry of disulfide bonds has emerged as one of the most powerful tools used for the fabrication of organic compounds and self‐healing materials. In this article, a novel aromatic amine‐terminated polysulfide oligomer is first synthesized from thiol‐terminated polysulfide oligomer and bis(4‐aminophenyl) disulfide via disulfide metathesis mechanism. The resulting oligomer is confirmed by FTIR and ¹H NMR spectra and then successfully applied in constructing self‐healable polyurea material (A‐LP23‐I), which combines the advantages of higher strength of polyureas and excellent self‐healing ability of polysulfide‐based materials. After subjecting to a temperature of 75 °C for 48 h, both the tensile strength and ultimate elongation of A‐LP23‐I restore to more than 90% of the original values (3.32 MPa and 396%). This study demonstrates a novel strategy for synthesizing aromatic amine‐terminated oligomer. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019, 57, 1460–1466     

Funding and investment decisions in a stochastic defined benefit pension plan with regime switching*

In this paper, we consider a continuous-time Markov regime-switching model for a pension plan with a collective defined benefit character. In particular, we focus on optimal funding and asset allocation problem for a fund manager who wants to maximize the expected utility of the difference ratio between the benefit and contribution rates to the total salary until ruin. Using the techniques and methods of stochastic control, we present a system of Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equations for this optimization problem and establish a verification theorem. In the special cases of logarithmic and power utility, we solve the problem explicitly and present some numerical examples to illustrate our results.     

The enhanced biological activities of three Zn (II) complexes based on different 1,2,4‐triazole fungicides

In order to screen effective fungicides, three Zn (II) complexes, [Zn L ¹ ₄ (NO₃)₂]·2H₂O·2EtOH ( 1 ), [Zn L ² ₄ (NO₃)₂] ( 2 ), and [Zn L ³ ₄ (DMF)₂](NO₃)₂ ( 3 ), ( L ¹  = paclobutrazol, L ²  = diniconazole, and L ³  = hexaconazole), were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, FT‐IR spectroscopy, and single‐crystal XRD. The antifungal activities of these complexes were then evaluated against four selected fungi using the mycelial growth rate method. The resulting data indicate that all the complexes show the enhanced antifungal activities than the corresponding ligand and mixtures. And, the interactions between the metal salt and ligands in the three complexes seem to be synergistic. According to the study of the influence of the structures on the activity, complex 2 with C=C linkage and 2,4‐dichlorophenyl moieties enhances the bioactivity significantly, especially against Wheat gibberellic ( II ). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to help explain the enhanced bioactivity of the Zn (II) complexes. Meanwhile, all complexes are excellent grow‐regulators, especially complex 3 . The resulting data show that the complexes based on triazole fungicides have the potential applications in agriculture.     

Catalyst‐Free Protocol for the Synthesis of Quinoxalines and Pyrazines in PEG

A facile and simple catalyst‐free protocol has been developed for the condensation of 1,2‐diketones with aromatic 1,2‐diamines in polyethylene glycol (PEG), providing quinoxaline derivatives in good yields. The important features of the methodology are broad substrates scope, simple workup, catalyst free, environmentally benign, and no requirement for metal catalysts. It is noteworthy that the cyclization reaction of 1,2‐diketones with aliphatic 1,2‐diamines is also conducted smoothly to afford pyrazines in good yields under the standard conditions. In addition, PEG could be recovered easily and was reused without evident loss in activity     

Interpenetrating Network Hydrogels based on Nanostructured Conductive Polymers for Flexible Supercapacitor

Flexible conductive polymer hydrogels are unique material that synergize the features of conductive polymers and hydrogels. They are excellent candidates for the flexible supercapacitor electrodes. In this paper, flexible conductive polymer hydrogels were prepared with poly(vinyl alcohol) as soft skeleton through cyclic freezing-thawing method. Firstly, phytic acid-doped polyaniline with crosslinked network was prepared using phytic acid as the dopant and crosslinking agents. Hydrogels with interpenetrating binary network nanostructure were then formed by freezing-thawing method. The interpenetrating binary network structure endowed the hydrogel reliable mechanical properties with decent flexibility and compressive strength of 3.64 MPa. More importantly, this unique structure enable them to maintain highly specific capacitance (314 F/g at the current density of 0.5 A/g).