Structure and properties of layered inorganic materials

Inorganic layered materials are a class of advanced functional materials that have attracted considerable attention by virtue of their practical applications in a wide variety of fields. Sys-tematic studies of structure, design, synthesis, and fabrication processing may extend the range of practical utility of inor-ganic layered functional materials, in areas such as food industry,chemical industry, energy engineering, environmental engineer-ing, drug and gene delivery, electronics technology, and materials protection.     

Synthesis of Mg–Al–carbonate layered double hydroxide by an atom-economic reaction

A clean method for preparing layered double hydroxides (LDHs) has been developed, featured by using the hydroxides of two different metals as starting materials by atom-economic reaction. The reactions were carried out under hydrothermal conditions in either a high pressure autoclave or a microwave digester. The compositions, structural parameters and thermal behavior of the resulting LDHs are very similar to those of materials produced by using the separate nucleation and aging steps (SNAS) method. The major advantage of the new method is that no by-product is produced, so that filtration and washing processes are unnecessary. The consequent reduction in water consumption is beneficial to the environment.     

Reduced field-of-view diffusion-weighted imaging of the brain at 7 T

Ventral and rostral regions of the brain are of emerging importance for the MRI characterization of early dementia, traumatic brain injury and epilepsy. Unfortunately, standard single-shot echo planar diffusion-weighted imaging of these regions at high fields is contaminated by severe imaging artifacts in the vicinity of air–tissue interfaces. To mitigate these artifacts and improve visualization of the temporal and frontal lobes at 7 T, we applied a reduced field-of-view strategy, enabled by outer volume suppression (OVS) with novel quadratic phase radiofrequency (RF) pulses, combined with partial Fourier and parallel imaging methods. The new acquisition greatly reduced the level of artifacts in six human subjects (including four patients with early symptoms of dementia).     

Stimulus‐responsive polymers based on 2‐hydroxypropyl acrylate prepared by RAFT polymerization

Homopolymerization and diblock copolymerization of 2‐hydroxypropyl acrylate (HPA) has been conducted using reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) chemistry in tert‐butanol at 80 °C. PHPA homopolymers were obtained with high conversions and narrow molecular weight distributions over a wide range of target degrees of polymerization. Like its poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate) isomer, PHPA homopolymer exhibits inverse temperature solubility in dilute aqueous solution, with cloud points increasing systematically on lowering the mean chain length. The nature of the end groups is shown to significantly affect the cloud point, whereas no effect of concentration was observed over the PHPA concentration range investigated. Various thermoresponsive PHPA‐based diblock copolymers were prepared via one‐pot syntheses in which the second block was either permanently hydrophilic or pH‐responsive. Preliminary studies confirmed that poly(ethylene oxide)‐poly(2‐hydroxypropyl acrylate) (PEO₄₅‐PHPA₄₈) and poly(2‐hydroxypropyl acrylate)‐ poly(2‐hydroxyethyl acrylate) (PHPA₄₉‐PHEA₆₈)diblock copolymers formed well‐defined PHPA‐core micelles in 10 mM sodium nitrate solution at 40 °C and 70 °C with mean hydrodynamic diameters of 20 nm and 35 nm, respectively. In contrast, most other PHPA‐based diblock copolymers investigated formed larger colloidal aggregates in 10 mM NaNO₃ solution at elevated temperatures. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 2032–2043, 2010     

An integrated simultaneous distillation–extraction apparatus for the extraction of essential oils from herb materials and its application in Flos Magnoliae

A large number of herb materials contain essential oils with extensive bioactivities. In this work, an integrated simultaneous distillation–extraction (ISDE) apparatus was developed. To demonstrate its feasibility, the performance of ISDE was evaluated for the extraction of essential oil from Flos Magnoliae and compared with conventional techniques including steam distillation (SD) and simultaneous distillation–extraction (SDE). According to the product yield, the time consumed and the composition of oil, the essential oils isolated by ISDE were better than that obtained by SD and similar to those obtained by SDE. ISDE was also better than SDE due to its simple operation and lower consumption of energy and organic solvent. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High Performance of PVA Nanocomposite Reinforced by Janus-like Asymmetrically Oxidized Graphene: Synergetic Effect of H-bonding Interaction and Interfacial Crystallization

Chinese Journal of Polymer Science - Macromolecule nanocrystal network and strong interfacial interaction are always beneficial to enhance the mechanical property of polymer-based nanocomposites....     

Thermotolerant and fireproof gel polymer electrolyte toward high-performance and safe lithium-ion battery

Poly(ethylene oxide)(PEO)and its derivatives based gel polymer electrolytes(GPEs)are severely limited in advanced and safe lithium-ion batteries(LIBs)owing to the intrinsically high flammability of liquid electrolytes and PEO.Directly adding flame retardants to the GPEs can suppress their flammability and thus improve the safety of LIBs,but results in deteriorative electrochemical performance.Herein,a novel GPE with chemically bonded flame retardant(i.e.diethyl vinylphosphonate)in cross-linked polyethylene glycol diacrylate matrix,featuring both high-safety and high-performance,is designed.This as-prepared GPE storing the commercial 1 mol L^-1 LiPF6 electrolyte resists high temperature of 200℃and cannot be ignited as well as possesses a high ionic conductivity(0.60 m S cm^-1)and good compatibility with lithium.Notably,the LiFePO₄/Li battery with this GPE delivers a satisfactory capacity of 142.2 m A h g^-1 and a superior cycling performance with a capacity retention of 96.3%and a coulombic efficiency of close to 100%for 350 cycles at 0.2 C under ambient temperature.Furthermore,the battery can achieve steady charge–discharge for 100 cycles with a coulombic efficiency of 99.5%at 1 C under 80℃and run normally even at a high temperature of 150℃or under the exposure to butane flame.Differential scanning calorimetry manifests significantly improved battery safety compared to commercial battery systems.This work provides a new pathway for developing next-generation advanced LIBs with enhanced performance and high safety.     

LiF and LiNO3 as synergistic additives for PEO-PVDF/LLZTO-based composite electrolyte towards high-voltage lithium batteries with dual-interfaces stability

Solid electrolytes with desirable properties such as high ionic conductivity,wide electrochemical stable window,and suitable mechanical strength,and stable electrode-electrolyte interfaces on both cathode and anode side are essential for high-voltage all-solid-state lithium batteries(ASSLBs)to achieve excellent cycle stability.In this work,a novel strategy of using LiF and LiNO₃ as synergistic additives to boost the performance of PEO-PVDF/LLZTO-based composite solid electrolytes(CSEs)is developed,which also promotes the assembled high-voltage ASSLBs with dual-interfaces stability characteristic.Specifically,LiF as an inactive additive can increase the electrochemical stability of the CSE under high cut-off voltage,and improve the high-voltage compatibility between cathode and CSE,thus leading to a stable cathode/CSE interface.LiNO₃ as an active additive can lead to an enhanced ionic conductivity of CSE due to the increased free-mobile Li+and ensure a stable CSE/Li interface by forming stable solid electrolyte interphase(SEI)on Li anode surface.Benefiting from the improved performance of CSE and stable dualinterfaces,the assembled NCM622/9[PEO₁₅-LiTFSI]-PVDF-15 LLZTO-2 LiF-3 LiNO₃/Li cell delivers a high rate capacity of 102.1 mAh g^-1 at 1.0 C and a high capacity retention of 77.4%after 200 cycles at 0.5 C,which are much higher than those of the ASSLB assembled with additive-free CSE,with only 60.0 mAh g^-1 and 52.0%,respectively.Furthermore,novel cycle test modes of resting for 5 h at different charge states after every 5 cycles are designed to investigate the high-voltage compatibility between cathode and CSE,and the results suggest that LiF additive can actually improve the high-voltage compatibility of cathode and CSE.All the obtained results confirm that the strategy of using synergistic additives in CSE is an effective way to achieve high-voltage ASSLBs with dual-interfaces stability.     

Ti3C2Tx/MnO2正极在水系锌电池中的电化学性能

二氧化锰(MnO₂)材料具有比容量大、电极电位高、储量丰富以及价格低廉等优势,成为水系锌电池正极最受关注的一类材料,然而其仍然存在着结构稳定性差和电化学储存机理复杂的问题。因此,我们通过两步合成法制备了一种花苞状结构的MnO₂负载在Ti₃C₂T_x表面形成Ti₃C₂T_x/MnO₂复合材料,通过X射线粉末衍射(XRD)、X射线光电子能谱(XPS)、透射电子显微镜(TEM)和高分辨透射电子显微镜(HRTEM)对复合样品的结构、成分和形貌进行表征。通过将Ti₃C₂T_x/MnO₂复合材料作为正极,与锌负极匹配组装成水系锌电池,研究了其分别在2 mol·L^-1 ZnSO₄、2 mol·L^-1 ZnSO₄+0.1 mol·L^-1 MnSO₄、30 mol·L^-1三氟甲基磺酸四乙基铵(TEAOTf)+1 mol·L^-1三氟甲烷磺酸锌(ZnOTf)和3 mol·L^-1 ZnOTf四种电解液中的电化学性能。结果表明,Ti₃C₂T_x/MnO₂在2 mol·L^-1 ZnSO₄中的比容量较高,但循环稳定性很差。将TEAOTf盐和ZnOTf盐共溶于水中,设计了一种新型的含惰性阳离子的超高浓度盐包水电解液(30 mol·L^-1 TEAOTf+1 mol·L^-1 ZnOTf),不仅提高了Ti₃C₂T_x/MnO₂材料的可逆性,而且有效抑制了电极材料在循环过程中的溶解。