Effect of temperature on the interactions between cellulose and lignin via molecular dynamics simulations

Cellulose - Heating is essential in various biomass pre-treatments and thermal conversion processes. It is of practical significance to study the characteristics of cellulose-lignin and...     

Effect of Irradiation Absorbed Dose and Organic Solvent on the Grafting Rate of PVDF-g-PHEMA through Gamma-ray Irradiation in a Homogenous Solution

High Energy Chemistry - Modification of Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) by radiation grafting is a research hotspot in recent years. In this study, the monomer 2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) was...     

Functional Groups Assisted Tunable Dielectric Permittivity of Guest-Free Zn-Based Coordination Polymers for Gate Dielectrics

The dielectric properties of coordination polymers has been a topic of recent interest, but the role of different functional groups on the dielectric properties of these polymers has not yet been fully addressed. Herein, the effects of electron-donating (R=NH₂) and electron-withdrawing (R=NO₂) groups on the dielectric behavior of such materials were investigated for two thermally stable and guest-free Zn-based coordination polymers, [Zn(L₁)(L₂)]_n ( 1 ) and [Zn(L₁)(L₃)]_n ( 2 ) [L₁=2-(2-pyridyl) benzimidazole (Pbim), L₂=5-aminoisophthalate (Aip), and L₃=5-nitroisophthalate (Nip)]. The results of dielectric studies of 1 revealed that it possesses a high dielectric constant (κ=65.5 at 1 kHz), while compound 2 displayed an even higher dielectric constant (κ=110.3 at 1 kHz). The electron donating and withdrawing effects of the NH₂ and NO₂ substituents induce changes in the polarity of the polymers, which is due to the inductive effect from the aryl ring for both NO₂ and NH₂. Theoretical results from density functional theory (DFT) calculations, which also support the experimental findings, show that both compounds have a distinct electronic behavior with diverse wide bandgaps. The significance of the current work is to provide information about the structure-dielectric property relationships. So, this study promises to pave the way for further research on the effects of different functional groups on coordination polymers on their dielectric properties.     

High-performance nonfused ring electron acceptor with a steric hindrance induced planar molecular backbone

Three nonfused ring electron acceptors (NFREAs) TTC6,TT-C8T and TT-TC8 were purposefully designed and synthesized.The molecular geometry can be adjusted by the steric hindrance of lateral substituents.According to the DFT calculations,from TTC6 to TT-C8T and TT-TC8,planarity of the molecular backbone is gradually improved,accompanying with the enhancing of intramolecular charge transfer effect.As for TT-TC8,the two phenyl substituents are almost perpendicular to the molecular backbone,which endues the acceptor with good solubility and suppresses it to form over-aggregation.Multidirectional regular molecular orientation and closer molecular stacking are formed in TT-TC8 film.As a result,TT-TC8 based devices afford the highest PCE of 13.13%,which is much higher than that of TTC6 (4.41%) and TT-C8T (10.42%) and among the highest PCE values based on NFREAs.     

Developing Flexible Quinacridone-Derivatives-Based Photothermal Evaporaters for Solar Steam and Thermoelectric Power Generation

Solar-driven interfacial vaporization by localizing solar-thermal energy conversion to the air−water interface has attracted tremendous attention. In the process of converting solar energy into heat energy, photothermal materials play an essential role. Herein, a flexible solar-thermal material di-cyan substituted 5,12-dibutylquinacridone (DCN−4CQA)@Paper was developed by coating photothermal quinacridone derivatives on the cellulose paper. The DCN−4CQA@Paper combines desired chemical and physical properties, broadband light-absorbing, and shape-conforming abilities that render efficient photothermic vaporization. Notably, synergetic coupling of solar-steam and solar-electricity technologies by integrating DCN−4CQA@Paper and the thermoelectric devices is realized without trade-offs, highlighting the practical consideration toward more impactful solar heat exploitation. Such solar distillation and low-grade heat-to-electricity generation functions can provide potential opportunities for fresh water and electricity supply in off-grid or remote areas.     

疏水缔合悬浮稳定剂的合成及其对固井水泥浆稠度和悬浮稳定性的影响

针对大温差条件下固井水泥浆在固井过程中可能存在的悬浮失稳问题，本研究采用水溶液自由基聚合法来合成具有疏水缔合结构的聚合物作为悬浮稳定剂(PAAN)。通过红外光谱仪、凝胶渗透色谱仪、热重分析仪、高温流变仪、SEM、紫外分光光度计等表征PAAN的结构，发现PAAN随温度升高，形成分子间疏水缔合网状结构，保证了体系的粘度，从而起到有效的悬浮稳定作用。研究发现在40~110 ℃下，0.6%加量的PAAN可以保证固化后的水泥石柱顶部和底部密度差<0.01 g/cm³，且水泥浆稠化时间基本不变，表明PAAN可以保证水泥浆体系具有良好的悬浮稳定效果，且对水泥浆的其他性能无不良影响。     

Preface: Mechanics of soft materials and flexible structures

Acta Mechanica Sinica -     

Using principal eigenvectors of adjacency matrices with added diagonal weights to compose centrality measures and identify bowtie structures for a digraph

Principal eigenvectors of adjacency matrices are often adopted as measures of centrality for a graph or digraph. However, previous principal-eigenvector-like measures for a digraph usually consider only the strongly connected component whose adjacency submatrix has the largest eigenvalue. In this paper, for each and every strongly connected component in a digraph, we add weights to diagonal elements of its member nodes in the adjacency matrix such that the modified matrix will have the new unique largest eigenvalue and corresponding principal eigenvectors. Consequently, we use the new principal eigenvectors of the modified matrices, based on different strongly connected components, not only to compose centrality measures but also to identify bowtie structures for a digraph.