Fundamental studies on the intermediate layer of a bipolar membrane: Part III. Effect of starburst dendrimer PAMAM on water dissociation at the interface of a bipolar membrane

Starburst dendrimer polyamidoamine (PAMAM) with ellipsoidal or spheroidal shape is structure-regular and has much more amino groups than conventional polymers. This paper investigates the possibility of these amino groups on water dissociation in a bipolar membrane interface. To do this, a bipolar membrane is prepared by casting the solution of sulfonated poly(phenylene oxide) (SPPO) in dimethyl formamide (DMF) on a commercial anion exchange membrane that is immersed in PAMAM aqueous solution in advance. The existence of PAMAM adsorbed on the membrane is proved by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and the adsorption amount is evaluated by weighting method. The junction thickness of the prepared bipolar membrane is determined by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and the performance is evaluated by current–voltage curves. The experiments show that both the generation and concentration of PAMAM would strongly affect the characteristics of the bipolar membranes. There exists a transitional concentration for various generations PAMAMs to catalyze effectively the water dissociation, and above or below the transitional concentration the performance of bipolar membranes is decreasing. The higher the generation, the lower the concentration. Moreover, at a fixed solution concentration, there is not the simple relation of monotone decreasing or increasing between the performance of bipolar membranes and the generations of PAMAMs. All these can be explained according to the characteristics of PAMAMs combined with available water dissociation theory.     

功能性超薄有序分子沉积膜的制备及其结构研究

1991年G.Decher等首次探讨了阴阳离子与聚电解质交替沉积制备有机超薄膜的方法。我们在完善成膜技术和发展成膜基质的基础上,详细研究了其成膜过程与膜的结构,并定义这种新的自组装超薄有序膜为分子沉积膜——MD膜。MD膜是利用阴阳离子的静电吸附反应特性,通过相反离子体系的交替分子沉积制备的层状有序自组装多层超薄膜。需要指出的是,分子沉积既是有机超薄膜的制备技术,本身又是一种自组装超薄有序膜。MD膜制备工艺简单,热稳定性和长期稳定性好,不受基体形状与面积限制。     

Rational design of donor–π–acceptor n-butyl-1,8-naphthalimide-cored branched molecules as charge transport and luminescent materials for organic light-emitting diodes

Four D–π–A bipolar molecules with n-butyl-1,8-naphthalimide (BNI) fragments as acceptors, acetylenes as π-spacers, and different aromatic groups as donors have been designed to explore their optical, electronic, and charge transport properties as charge transport and luminescent materials for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The frontier molecular orbitals (FMOs) and local density of states analysis have turned out that the vertical electronic transitions of absorption and emission are characterized as intramolecular charge transfer (ICT). The calculated results show that their optical and electronic properties are affected by the different donors of the bipolar molecules. Our results suggest that D–π–A 1,8-naphthalimide derivatives with donors triphenylamine (1), 1-nitrobenzene (2), anisole (3), and 4-phenylbenzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (4) fragments are expected to be promising luminescent materials. Furthermore, 2–4 are expected to be promising candidates for both electron and hole transport materials as well as potential ambipolar charge transport material, whereas BNI and 1 can serve as hole transfer materials only. We have also predicted the mobility of 4 with better performance in three different space groups. On the basis of investigated results, we proposed a rational way for the design of charge transport and/or luminescent materials simultaneously.     

Recent progress in bipolar electropolymerization methods toward one-dimensional conducting polymer structures

Recent studies on electropolymerization methods toward one-dimensional conducting polymer structures are summarized in this review. In particular, advanced techniques for templated electropolymerization of aromatic monomers, in which migration of monomers into nanopores of the template is highly enhanced by using electrophoretic effect, are described. For templateless approach, electric field–driven bipolar electropolymerization of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene monomer is introduced as a strong tool to fabricate the corresponding conducting polymer fibers and films grown in the direction of an applied electric field.     

Existence and uniqueness of stationary solutions to a one-dimensional bipolar hydrodynamic model of semiconductors

We consider a one-dimensional bipolar hydrodynamic model of semiconductors. Although some results exist for the bipolar case, almost their conditions (the boundary condition, the doping profile, etc.) are far from practical application. In the present paper, under a condition appropriate for engineering, we shall prove the existence and the uniqueness of classical solutions for the stationary problem. The most difficult point is to obtain the bounded estimate and the energy estimate.     

Bipolarization of posets and natural interpolation

The Choquet integral w.r.t. a capacity can be seen in the finite case as a parsimonious linear interpolator between vertices of n[0,1]. We take this basic fact as a starting point to define the Choquet integral in a very general way, using the geometric realization of lattices and their natural triangulation, as in the work of Koshevoy.A second aim of the paper is to define a general mechanism for the bipolarization of ordered structures. Bisets (or signed sets), as well as bisubmodular functions, bicapacities, bicooperative games, as well as the Choquet integral defined for them can be seen as particular instances of this scheme.Lastly, an application to multicriteria aggregation with multiple reference levels illustrates all the results presented in the paper.     

Oxygen deficiency effect on resistive switching characteristics of copper oxide thin films

In this Letter, bilayered Cu₂O/CuO thin films were grown on Nb doped SrTiO₃ (Nb:STO) substrates by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The current-voltage characteristics of Pt/Cu₂O/CuO/Nb:STO devices show reproducible and pronounced current-voltage hysteresis which was induced by the CuO/Nb:STO junctions. By comparing the current-voltage curves of the bilayered and single-layered CuO thin films, we attribute the prominent switching behavior to the oxygen-vacancies-mediated-carriers-trapped-detrapped process with the aid of the applied forward (reversed) bias voltage.     

Thin-Film Zinc/Manganese Dioxide Electrodes

Summary.  Thin-film electrodes allow the manufacturing of flat batteries of variable design. Their electric performance is better than that of customary cells because of a larger contact area between anode and cathode and better utilization of the electrochemically active materials. Bipolar thin-film electrodes for the rechargeable alkaline zinc/manganese dioxide system were assembled using graphite-filled plastics (high-density polyethylene and polyisobutylene). In a different approach, extremely thin electrodes were obtained using 25 μm thick foils made of non-conductive micro-porous polypropylene. The electroactive materials were electrolytically deposited into the pores of the previously metallized foil, providing the required conductive connection through the plastic matrix by themselves. Cycle behavior, cumulated capacities, and energies of batteries with up to two bipolar units were measured. At this early stage of development, batteries based on graphite-filled polymer foils showed better results with regard to storage capacity per unit area and to cycle life. Prototypes based on micro-porous polypropylene suffered from the relatively small fraction of pore volume available for the deposition of active material (about 38%) and from current collector corrosion. Received May 30, 2000. Accepted December 18, 2000     

A nanoscale field effect data storage of bipolar endo-fullerenes shuttle device

We investigated the internal dynamics of an electro-fluid shuttle memory element, consisting of K⁺@C₆₀ and F⁻@C₆₀ encapsulated in a C₆₄₀ nanocapsule. Energetics and operating responses of bipolar endo-fullerenes shuttle memory device, (K⁺@C₆₀–F⁻@C₆₀)@C₆₄₀, were examined by classical molecular dynamics simulations under the external force fields.