Preparation of hydrophilic poly(vinylidene fluoride) membrane by in-situ grafting of N-vinyl pyrrolidone via a reactive vapor induced phase separation procedure

Increasing hydrophilicity of hydrophobic membrane is one of the strategies to improve its antifouling performance. Herein we report a procedure of reactive-vapor induced phase separation to prepare an N-vinyl pyrrolidone (NVP) modified poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) membrane to improve its hydrophilicity. PVDF solution containing NVP monomer was cast in ammonia water vapor atmosphere to prepare the modified membrane. During the process, PVDF was dehydrofluorinated by the reactive vapor of ammonia water to generate double bond of FC═CH, and then NVP was grafted. The degree of grafting modification and the microstructure evolution of the membrane were studied by adjusting the amount of NVP addition. A possible mechanism of membrane formation from crystallization gelling to non-crystallization gelling has been proposed to understand the morphology change from nodular sphere to bi-continuous microstructure with fibril matrix. It has been found that rising the degree of modification has changed the polymorph of PVDF from β to α crystalline phase, as well as turned the hydrophobic PVDF membrane into hydrophilic. Moreover, the modified membrane displayed obvious reduction in bovine serum albumin adsorption, suggesting improvement in anti-fouling performance. Therefore, our work provides an easy strategy to prepare hydrophilic PVDF membrane, which may have promising potential applications.     

Impedance Response of a Thin Film on an Electrode: Deciphering the Influence of the Double Layer Capacitance

The different contributions of the interfacial capacitance are identified in the case of passive materials or thin protective coatings deposited on the electrode surface. The method is based on a graphical analysis of the EIS results to determine both the passive-film capacitance in the high-frequency domain and the double-layer capacitance in the low-frequency domain. The proposed analysis is shown to be independent of the physicochemical origins of the frequency dispersion of the interfacial capacitances which results, from an analysis point of view of the experimental results, in the use of a constant-phase element However, for a correct evaluation of the thin-film properties such as its thickness, the high-frequency data must be corrected for the double-layer contribution. In particular, it is shown that if the double-layer capacitance gives a frequency-dispersed response, it is necessary to correct the high-frequency part for the double-layer constant-phase elements. This is first demonstrated on synthetic data and then used for the determination of the thickness of thin oxide film formed on Al in neutral pH solution.     

Tuning of Photonic band gap via combined effect of electric and optical fields in a blue phase liquid crystal composite

ABSTRACT

Blue phase liquid crystals are soft 3D photonic crystals in which the liquid crystal molecules self-assemble to form a cubic structure with lattice spacing of a few hundred nanometers resulting in selective reflection of colours in the visible spectrum. The corresponding wavelength or the ‘photonic band gap’ can be tuned using various external stimuli such as thermal, electric, magnetic and optical fields. Here, we report efficient tuning of photonic band gap by utilising the combination of electric and optical fields in a blue phase liquid crystalline system. The studies indicate that the chirality of the medium has a direct bearing on the direction of the wavelength shift and the extent of the photonic band gap tunability. More importantly, the synergistic effect of the two fields helps in reversible tuning of the band gap.     

Reflection of plane waves in generalized thermoelasticity of type III with nonlocal effect

The generalized thermoelasticity theory based upon the Green and Naghdi model III of thermoelasticity as well as the Eringen's nonlocal elasticity model is used to study the propagation of harmonic plane waves in a nonlocal thermoelastic medium. We found two sets of coupled longitudinal waves, which are dispersive in nature and experience attenuation. In addition to the coupled waves, there also exists one independent vertically shear-type wave, which is dispersive but experiences no attenuation. All these waves are found to be influenced by the elastic nonlocality parameter. Furthermore, the shear-type wave is found to face a critical frequency, while the coupled longitudinal waves may face critical frequencies conditionally. The problem of reflection of the thermoelastic waves at the stress-free insulated and isothermal boundary of a homogeneous, isotropic nonlocal thermoelastic half-space has also been investigated. The formulae for various reflection coefficients and their respective energy ratios are determined in various cases. For a particular material, the effects of the angular frequency and the elastic nonlocal parameter have been shown on phase speeds and the attenuation coefficients of the propagating waves. The effect of the elastic nonlocality on the reflection coefficients and the energy ratios has been observed and depicted graphically. Finally, analysis of the various results has been interpreted.     

Optimizing the monomer structure of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane for ion transport in hybrid organic–inorganic block copolymers

Poly(ethylene oxide)-b-polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (PEO–POSS) mixed with lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide salt is a nanostructured hybrid organic–inorganic block copolymer electrolyte that may enable lithium metal batteries. The synthesis and characteristics of three PEO–POSS block copolymer electrolytes which only differ by their POSS silica cage substituents (ethyl, isobutyl, and isooctyl) is reported. Changing the POSS monomer structure results in differences in both thermodynamics and ion transport. All three neat polymers exhibit lamellar morphologies. Adding salt results in the formation of a disordered window which closes and gives way to lamellae at higher salt concentrations. The width of disordered window decreases with increasing length of the POSS alkyl chain substituent from ethyl to isobutyl and is absent in the isooctyl sample. Rheological measurements demonstrate good mechanical rigidity when compared with similar all-organic block copolymers. While salt diffusion coefficient and current ratio are unaffected by substituent length, ionic conductivity increases as the length of the alkyl chain substituent decreases: the ethyl substituent is optimal for ion transport. This is surprising because conventional wisdom suggests that ion transport occurs primarily in the PEO-rich domains, that is, ion transport should be unaffected by substituent length after accounting for the minor change in conducting phase volume fraction. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2020 © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 58, 363–371     

Reduced magnetic disorder at low temperature in Ca3Co2O6 via zinc substitution

ABSTRACT

The compound Ca₃Co₂O₆ undergoes a transition into a spin-density wave (SDW) state near 24?K. Below ～10?K, this unstable SDW state coexists with a nearly- degenerate commensurate antiferromagnetic state as well as short-range magnetic order. Clear signatures of this strong magnetic disorder have been observed in the response of entropy to changing magnetic field and temperature. We performed a calorimetry study of Ca₃Co₂O₆ and Ca₃Co_1.9Zn_0.1O₆ in order to compare their entropic responses at low temperature. Our results for Ca₃Co₂O₆ reveal that ΔS(T, H)?≡?S(T, H)?S(T, H?=?0) increases as either temperature or magnetic field increase. In contrast, ΔS data for Ca₃Co_1.9Zn_0.1O₆ were relatively unresponsive to changes in temperature or field, suggesting that Zn substitution may reduce the low-temperature magnetic disorder observed in Ca₃Co₂O₆. These results are discussed within the context of two cases (Ca₃Co₂O₆ under applied pressure and Ca_2.75R_0.25Co₂O₆ (R?=?Dy, Lu)) in which a single magnetic ground state is stabilised.     

通过宽线固体核磁共振氢谱研究半晶高分子的相结构

宽线固体核磁共振氢谱（¹H NMR）是一种研究半晶高分子相结构的经典方法.本文以半晶聚乙烯的宽线固体¹H NMR谱为例，探讨了通过Gaussian/Sinc、Gaussian和Lorentzian函数组合对宽线固体¹H NMR谱图进行拟合的方案，并根据半晶聚乙烯的相结构成分对拟合得到的各信号成分进行归属.并在此基础上探讨了各个相结构中分子链运动与信号线型的相关性，以及利用宽线固体¹H NMR谱测量半晶高分子结晶度存在的困难.     

Critical Assessment of the DFT + U Approach for the Prediction of Vanadium Dioxide Properties

In a previous study (Stahl and Bredow, Chem. Phys. Lett. 2018, 695, 28–33), we have studied structural, energetic, and electronic properties of two vanadium dioxide VO₂ polymorphs with modified global and range-separated hybrid functionals. Since hybrid methods are computationally demanding, we evaluate the computationally more efficient DFT + U method in the present study. We assessed the widely used Dudarev PBE + U approach with a literature value of the effective Hubbard parameter U_eff = 3.4 eV. We compared the PBE + U results for the two VO₂ polymorphs with our previous results, a self-consistent hybrid functional sc-PBE0, and the meta-GGA functional SCAN. It was found that the PBE + U method yields a strongly distorted monoclinic phase and does not reproduce the metal-to-insulator transition of VO₂ correctly, even with modified values of U_eff. On the other hand, sc-PBE0 and SCAN describe the relative stability and the electronic structure of both polymorphs correctly and also provide reasonable lattice parameters. The functional SCAN yields the optimal balance between computational efficiency and accuracy. © 2019 The Authors. Journal of Computational Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Entropic effect implication for change in polymer coils swelling state in the demixing enthalpy recovery of aqueous poly(vinyl methyl ether) solutions

Time‐dependent demixing enthalpy recovery behavior of aqueous poly(vinyl methyl ether) (PVME) solutions exhibits distinct recovery characteristics in three concentration regions. The absence of recovery behavior below a water concentration of 38.3 wt % indicates that the PVME coil is in a globular state. The typically sigmoidal recovery behavior of demixing enthalpy above 38.3 wt % is ascribed to the reswelling of the collapsed polymer coils induced by the entropic effect. The increase in difference between the upper and lower limits indicates the continued swelling of the PVME coils. Above 65 wt %, a dominant diluting effect can be observed, and a much longer phase separation time is needed to reach the expected lower limit. In contrast, the recovery of demixing enthalpy in a wide range of water concentration (from 38.3 to 90 wt %) exhibits the same feature. The infrared spectroscopy results are in agreement with the above macroscopic differential scanning calorimetry results. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019 , 57, 142–151     

High-energy x-ray diffraction study on phase transition asymmetry of plastic crystal neopentylglycol

As a prototype material of colossal barocaloric effects, neopentylglycol is investigated by combining high-precision differential scanning calorimetric measurement and high-energy x-ray diffraction measurement. The diffraction data at constant temperatures indicate a first-order phase transition with thermal hysteresis as well as the phase transition asymmetry, specifically, the phase transition is completed faster at cooling than at heating. The analysis of resulting pair distribution function confirms the intermolecular disorder in the high-temperature phase. The phase transition asymmetry is quantitatively characterized by time-resolved x-ray diffraction, which is in agreement with the thermal measurement. Also, such an asymmetry is observed to be suppressed at high pressures.