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).     

Convenient and Efficient Preparation of Ethyl 6-n-Decyloxy-7-ethoxy-4-hydroxyquinoline-3-carboxylate

Ethyl 6-N-decyloxy-7-ethoxy-4-hydroxyquinoline-3-carboxylate has been synthesized from pyrocatechol in six steps and in 39.3% overall yield.     

A BGK‐penalization‐based asymptotic‐preserving scheme for the multispecies Boltzmann equation

An asymptotic‐preserving (AP) scheme is efficient in solving multiscale problems where kinetic and hydrodynamic regimes coexist. In this article, we extend the BGK‐penalization‐based AP scheme, originally introduced by Filbet and Jin for the single species Boltzmann equation (Filbet and Jin, J Comput Phys 229 (2010) 7625–7648), to its multispecies counterpart. For the multispecies Boltzmann equation, the new difficulties arise due to: (1) the breaking down of the conservation laws for each species and (2) different convergence rates to equilibria for different species in disparate masses systems. To resolve these issues, we find a suitable penalty function—the local Maxwellian that is based on the mean velocity and mean temperature and justify various asymptotic properties of this method. This AP scheme does not contain any nonlinear nonlocal implicit solver, yet it can capture the fluid dynamic limit with time step and mesh size independent of the Knudsen number. Numerical examples demonstrate the correct asymptotic‐behavior of the scheme. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 2013     

Switchable Q-switched and laser operating mode-locked erbium-doped fiber in the L-band region

We demonstrate a switchable Q-switched and mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser （EDFL） operating in the L-band region using the nonlinear polarization rotation effect. The switching operation is achieved by controlling intensity-dependent loss using a polarization controller. In Q-switching mode, the EDFL produces a pulse train with a repetition rate of 21.1 kHz, pulse width of 7.7 #s, and pulse energy of 13.6 nJ. The EDFL also generates a multi-wavelength comb with a very narrow and constant wavelength spacing of 0.045 nm and optical signal-to-noise ratio of at least l0 dB. During mode locking, the EDFL produces stretched pulses with 3-dB bandwidth of 26.2 nm, pulse width of 350 fs, repetition rate of 2.38 MHz, and pulse energy of 48.56 pJ.     

Montmorillonite Clay Catalysis I: An Efficient and Convenient Procedure for Preparation of 5(6)/5′(6′)-Unsaturated 3β-Disteryl Ethers

In the presence of montmorillonite K 10, 5(6)-unsaturated sterols (1) were heated at refluxing temperature in dichloromethane to provide 5(6)/5′(6′)-unsaturated 3β,3′β-disteryl ethers (4) in 69–73% yield. The mechanism of the reaction was discussed.