Enhanced thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of polymeric composites through formation of covalent bonds between boron nitride and rubber chains

Hexagonal boron nitride (BN) platelets, also known as white graphite, are often used to improve the thermal conductivities of polymeric matrices. Due to the poor interfacial compatibility between BN platelets and polymeric matrices, in this study, polyrhodanine (PRd) was used to modify BN platelets and prepared functionalized BN-PRd platelets, thereby enhancing the interfacial interaction between the thermal conductive filler and polymeric matrix. Then, BN-PRd platelets were dispersed into the nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) matrix to yield high thermally conductive composites. The presence of N? C═S groups in PRd allowed the combination of PRd and NBR chains containing stable covalent bonds via vulcanization reaction. The thermal conductivity of the as-prepared 30 vol% BN-PRd/NBR composite reached 0.40 W/mK, representing an increment of 135% over pure NBR (0.17 W/mK). In addition, the largest tensile strength of NBR composite containing 30 vol% BN-PRd platelets was 880% times of pure NBR. The 30 vol% BN-PRd/NBR composite also displayed a relatively high dielectric constant (9.35 at 100 Hz) and a low dielectric loss tangent value (0.07 at 100 Hz), indicating their usefulness as dielectric flexible materials of microelectronics. In sum, the simplicity and good efficiency of formation of covalent bonds between boron nitride and rubber chains look very promising for large-scale industrial production of high thermally conductive composites.     

Biocatalytic Feedback-Controlled Non-Newtonian Fluids

Non-Newtonian fluids are ubiquitous in daily life and industrial applications. Herein, we report an intelligent fluidic system integrating two distinct non-Newtonian rheological properties mediated by an autocatalytic enzyme reaction. Associative polyelectrolytes bearing a small amount of ionic and alkyl groups are engineered: by carefully balancing the charge density and the hydrophobic effect, the polymer solutions demonstrate a unique shear thickening property at low pH while shear thinning at high pH. The urea-urease clock reaction is utilized to program a feedback-induced pH change, leading to a strong upturn of the nonlinear viscoelastic properties. As long as the chemical fuel is supplied, two distinct non-Newtonian states can be achieved with a tunable lifetime span. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate how the physical energy-driven nonequilibrium properties can be manipulated by a chemical-fueled process.     

Redox-Active Two-Dimensional Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) for Selective Reductive Separation of Valence-Variable,Redox-Sensitive and Long-Lived Radionuclides

We report the first example of 2D covalent organic framework nanosheets (Redox-COF1) for the selective reduction and in situ loading of valence-variable, redox-sensitive and long-lived radionuclides (abbreviated as VRL nuclides). Compared with sorbents based on chemical adsorption and physical adsorption, the redox adsorption mechanism of Redox-COF1 can effectively reduce the impact of functional group protonation under the usual high-acidity conditions in chemisorption, and raise the adsorption efficiency from the monotonous capture by pores in physisorption. The adsorption selectivity for UO₂²⁺ reaches up to unprecedented ca. 97 % at pH 3, more than for any analogous adsorbing material.     

Iridium-Catalyzed Enantioselective Hydrogenation of Oxocarbenium Ions: A Case of Ionic Hydrogenation

Ionic hydrogenation has not been extensively explored, but is advantageous for challenging substrates such as unsaturated intermediates. Reported here is an iridium-catalyzed hydrogenation of oxocarbenium ions to afford chiral isochromans with high enantioselectivities. A variety of functionalities are compatible with this catalytic system. In the presence of a catalytic amount of the Brønsted acid HCl, an α-chloroether is generated in situ and subsequentially reduced. Kinetic studies suggest first-order kinetics in the substrate and half-order kinetics in the catalyst. A positive nonlinear effect, together with the half kinetic order, revealed a dimerization of the catalyst. Possible reaction pathways based on the monomeric iridium catalyst were proposed and DFT computational studies revealed an ionic hydrogenation pathway. Chloride abstraction and the cleavage of dihydrogen occur in the same step.     

Origins of Boosted Charge Storage on Heteroatom-Doped Carbons

Although tremendous efforts have been devoted to understanding the origin of boosted charge storage on heteroatom-doped carbons, none of the present studies has shown a whole landscape. Herein, by both experimental evidence and theoretical simulation, it is demonstrated that heteroatom doping not only results in a broadened operating voltage, but also successfully promotes the specific capacitance in aqueous supercapacitors. In particular, the electrolyte cations adsorbed on heteroatom-doped carbon can effectively inhibit hydrogen evolution reaction, a key step of water decomposition during the charging process, which broadens the voltage window of aqueous electrolytes even beyond the thermodynamic limit of water (1.23 V). Furthermore, the reduced adsorption energy of heteroatom-doped carbon consequently leads to more stored cations on the heteroatom-doped carbon surface, thus yielding a boosted charge storage performance.     

Noise-induced phenomena in a versatile class of prototype dynamical system with time delay

Nonlinear Dynamics - This work presents a general class of prototype birhythmic dynamical systems, which can be extensively used to study the generation of complex bifurcation of limit cycles....     

Promotion of a quality standard for Porana sinensis Hemsl. based on the efficacy-oriented Effect-Constituent Index

Multicompound determination for the quality control of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) may often be inadequate, since these compounds may not be associated with, or fully represent, the clinical effects of TCM. Moreover, the individual contributions of each constituent to the pharmacological effect are often not considered. In China, Porana sinensis is widely used as a substitute for Erycibe sources to treat joint pain and rheumatoid arthritis. The existing quality control methods for P. sinensis neither consider the individual contributions of various compounds nor control the actual quality associated with different clinical efficacies. In the present study, a novel efficacy-oriented approach, named the effect-constituent index (ECI), was established for P. sinensis. Analyses of the spectrum–effect relationship and components in rat plasma were conducted to systematically and scientifically select quality markers. Quantitative analysis of multicomponents via a single marker method was introduced to enhance the practical application value of the established ECI. The established ECI shows a good ability to distinguish and predict the bioeffect-based quality of P. sinensis. The present study also provides a reference for the establishment and application of ECI as a quality control method for TCMs.     

Controllable soliton transition and interaction in nonlocal nonlinear media

Nonlinear Dynamics - Two kinds of controllable evolutions of optical solitons are predicted in nonlocal nonlinear media by gradually tuning the characteristic length of response function. On the...     

One-step method for preparing the experimental pure state in nuclear magnetic resonance

Quantum computing is an emerging and promising research field in modern quantum physics and is committed to accelerating traditional calculation processes using the principle of quantum mechanics[1,2].Several computation models have been proposed,including the circuit model[3],topologic quantum computation[4],adiabatic quantum computing[5],and duality quantum computing[6-8].Universal quantum computation generally includes a system initialization,evolutionary control,and a final-state readout[9],where the preparation of the initial state is a key step in the entire process.     

On-chip multiphoton Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state based on integrated frequency combs

One of the most important multipartite entangled states, Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state (GHZ), serves as a fundamental resource for quantum foundation test, quantum communication and quantum computation. To increase the number of entangled particles, significant experimental efforts should been invested due to the complexity of optical setup and the difficulty in maintaining the coherence condition for high-fidelity GHZ state. Here, we propose an ultra-integrated scalable on-chip GHZ state generation scheme based on frequency combs. By designing several microrings pumped by different lasers, multiple partially overlapped quantum frequency combs are generated to supply as the basis for on-chip polarization-encoded GHZ state with each qubit occupying a certain spectral mode. Both even and odd numbers of GHZ states can be engineered with constant small number of integrated components and easily scaled up on the same chip by only adjusting one of the pump wavelengths. In addition, we give the on-chip design of projection measurement for characterizing GHZ states and show the reconfigurability of the state. Our proposal is rather simple and feasible within the existing fabrication technologies and we believe it will boost the development of multiphoton technologies.