Soft matter lithium salt electrolytes: ion conduction and application to rechargeable batteries

Abstract  Soft matter provides diverse opportunities for the development of electrolytes for all solid state lithium batteries. Here we review soft matter solid electrolytes for lithium batteriesthat are primarily obtained starting from liquid electrolytic systems. This concept of solid electrolyte synthesis from liquid is significantly different from prevalent approaches. The novelty of our approach is discussed in the light of various fundamental issues and in relation to its application to rechargeable lithium batteries. Graphical abstract   M. Patel and S. K. Das have contributed equally to the work.     

Effect of water absorption on the plastic deformation behavior of nylon 6

The tensile behavior of nylon 6 films has been investigated in relation to water content. Modification of chain mobility in the amorphous phase via water plasticization appears to have a determining impact on the stress-strain response. More specifically, both yield stress value and hardening behavior over a large strain domain are strikingly equivalent for samples drawn at same ΔT between draw temperature T_d and main amorphous relaxation temperature T_α. This apparent lack of thermal activation of crystal plasticity in the fibrillar transformation suggests that crystal block fragmentation proceeds via H-bond unzipping through water penetration at defective crystal interfaces.     

Influence of chain architecture on phase behaviour of styrene-(styrene/butadiene)-styrene triblock copolymers and their binary blends

The phase behaviour of symmetric (LN4) and asymmetric (LN3) triblock copolymers based on styrene-b-(styrene-co-butadiene)-b-styrene (S-SB-S) and their blends have been studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and were correlated with rheological properties. A direct control over the final morphology and segregation strength for the block copolymer blends was achieved by blending of LN3 and LN4. The interaction parameter (χ) for LN4 is extracted by fitting the SAXS patterns at temperatures well above the ODT in consistency with Leibler mean-field structure-function for ABA triblock copolymers. A weak temperature dependency of χ has been observed which revealed that the phase behaviour in LN4 is mainly controlled by the entropic term. In the low frequency regime a non-terminal flow behaviour was observed in LN3 revealing the persistence of ordered structure within the experimental temperature range whereas a terminal flow behaviour with composition fluctuation was observed in LN4. G′ vs. G″ plots indicated a solid-like elastic melt behaviour for LN3 whereas presence of ODT over a broad temperature range was observed for LN4. ODT is observed to increase non-linearly with increase in LN3 content in the blends. ODT behaviour of the blends further reveals that the blends shift from weak-segregation to intermediate-segregation strength with the increase in LN3 content. The improvement in the state of ordering along with the change in morphology with the increase of LN3 content is attributed to co-surfactant effect between the PS end-blocks of LN3 and LN4 inside PS-rich phase.     

Temperature-induced inversion of elution order in the chromatographic enantioseparation of 1,1′-bi-2-naphthol on an immobilized polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phase

In this work, the enantioseparations of 1,1′-bi-2-naphthol (BINOL) and its three derivatives were performed on an immobilized polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phase, Chiralpak IA, under normal-phase mode. The effects of the content of polar modifier in the mobile phase and the column temperature on the retention and enantioseparation were investigated in detail. Temperature-induced inversion of elution order for BINOL was observed directly when n-hexane/2-propanol (92/8, v/v) was used as mobile phase. The isoenantioselective temperature (T_iso) was calculated to be 31.4 °C. When n-hexane/2-propanol/THF (93/2/5, v/v/v) was used as mobile phase, the T_iso value decreased to −8.2 °C. Entropically driven enantioseparation which had practical application was obtained successfully (separation factor being 1.189 and 1.332 at 25 °C and 50 °C, respectively). The corresponding thermodynamic parameters for other three binaphthyl compounds were compared with that for BINOL. Some inferences about chiral recognition mechanism were stressed.     

Decomposition in HTPB bonded HMX followed by heat generation rate and chemiluminescence

The decomposition in HTPB bonded HMX was characterized with two highly sensitive methods: heat flow microcalorimetry (HFMC) and Chemiluminescence (CL). The material is stabilized with a phenolic antioxidant. The heat generation (HFMC) rate was determined from 120 to 150 °C using a TAM™ microcalorimeter and the oxidation of the substance was followed by the CL emission between 100 and 140 °C directly from the solid state sample. The end of antioxidant activity results in both measurements sets in characteristic changes in the curves. Kinetic parameters were calculated applying Arrhenius parameterization for the times to the end of antioxidant activity and by applying modelling with an autocatalytic model extended by a side reaction, which is assigned to the antioxidant consumption. The evaluation with the characteristic times gives good agreement between the two methods; the modelling represents the different but supplementing probing of the two measurement methods. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

On energy conservation and P-stability

When applied to the classical dynamical equations, generally, conventional time-stepping methods cannot conserve the total energy exactly, but up to their algebraic order. To obtain an energy-conserving method, we add an energy calibrated parameter to some conventional ones. The periodic stability and phase-lag property of this type of energy-conserving methods are investigated in this note. Some numerical results are reported to illustrate our conclusions.     

Optimization of the parameterized Uzawa preconditioners for saddle point matrices

The parameterized Uzawa preconditioners for saddle point problems are studied in this paper. The eigenvalues of the preconditioned matrix are located in (0, 2) by choosing the suitable parameters. Furthermore, we give two strategies to optimize the rate of convergence by finding the suitable values of parameters. Numerical computations show that the parameterized Uzawa preconditioners can lead to practical and effective preconditioned GMRES methods for solving the saddle point problems.     

On the ratios between packing and domination parameters of a graph

The relationship ρ_L(G)≤ρ(G)≤γ(G) between the lower packing number ρ_L(G), the packing number ρ(G) and the domination number γ(G) of a graph G is well known. In this paper we establish best possible bounds on the ratios of the packing numbers of any (connected) graph to its six domination-related parameters (the lower and upper irredundance numbers ir and IR, the lower and upper independence numbers i and β, and the lower and upper domination numbers γ and Γ). In particular, best possible constants a_θ, b_θ, c_θ and d_θ are found for which the inequalities and hold for any connected graph G and all θ∈{ir,γ,i,β,Γ,IR}. From our work it follows, for example, that and for any connected graph G, and that these inequalities are best possible.     

Dual bases for Wang-Bézier basis and their applications

This paper presents the dual bases for Wang-Bézier curves with a position parameter L, which include Bézier curve, Wang-Ball curve and some intermediate curves. The Marsden identity and the transformation formulas from Bézier curve to Wang-Bézier curve are also given. These results are useful for the application of Wang-Bézier curve and their popularization in Computer Aided Geometric Design.     

含估计参数的加权经验过程

在讨论(广义)非参数似然比拟合优度检验时,加权经验过程理论是一个非常重要的基础.但对含估计参数的加权经验过程理论,目前文献中很少讨论.对含估计参数的加权经验过程的上界型和积分型两种统计量的近似分布进行了讨论,给出了较一般的结果.所得结论叮以为进一步讨论复合零假设下(广义)非参似然比拟合优度检验提供理论基础.