Cross‐linked Multilayer Polymer‐Clay Nanocomposites and Permeability Properties

Abstract

Electrostatically layered aluminosilicate nanocomposites have been prepared by the sequential deposition of poly(allylamine hydrochloride)/poly(acrylic acid)/poly(allylamine hydrochloride)/saponite (PAH/PAA/PAH/saponite)₁₀ on poly(ethylene terephtalate) (PET) film. Exfoliated saponite nanoplatelets were obtained by extensive shaking, sonication, and centrifugation of a water suspension. To minimize permeability and improve the mechanical integrity, cross‐linking of composite films was carried out at different temperatures. The formation of amide linkage induced through heating was observed by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT‐IR) and x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The cross‐linking of nanocomposites (PAH/PAA/PAH/saponite)₁₀ showed 60% decrease in permeability of oxygen when compared with the pristine PET substrate film. In contrast, water permeability of the nanocomposite membrane was not affected by heating temperature and deposition cycles.     

Fiber optical parametric amplifiers in optical communication systems

The prospects for using fiber optical parametric amplifiers (OPAs) in optical communication systems are reviewed. Phase‐insensitive amplifiers (PIAs) and phase‐sensitive amplifiers (PSAs) are considered. Low‐penalty amplification at/or near 1 Tb/s has been achieved, for both wavelength‐ and time‐division multiplexed formats. High‐quality mid‐span spectral inversion has been demonstrated at 0.64 Tb/s, avoiding electronic dispersion compensation. All‐optical amplitude regeneration of amplitude‐modulated signals has been performed, while PSAs have been used to demonstrate phase regeneration of phase‐modulated signals. A PSA with 1.1‐dB noise figure has been demonstrated, and preliminary wavelength‐division multiplexing experiments have been performed with PSAs. 512 Gb/s have been transmitted over 6,000 km by periodic phase conjugation. Simulations indicate that PIAs could reach data rate x reach products in excess of 14,000 Tb/s × km in realistic wavelength‐division multiplexed long‐haul networks. Technical challenges remaining to be addressed in order for fiber OPAs to become useful for long‐haul communication networks are discussed.

     

Atomic layer deposition on Pd nanocrystals for forming Pd-TiO2 interface toward enhanced CO oxidation

Pd typically exhibits relatively low catalytic activity in CO oxidation, as CO is apt to be adsorbed on Pd to poison the surface for O2 activation. In this Letter, we report that this limitation can be overcome by integrating Pd with TiO2. The TiO2 was coated on Pd nanocubes with a controllable thickness using atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. Given the different work functions of TiO2 and Pd, the electrons in TiO2 semiconductor will flow toward Pd. With the electron density increased on Pd, the adsorption of CO to Pd will be weakened while the oxygen activation can be facilitated. Meanwhile, the interface-confined sites at Pd-TiO2 may further enhance the oxygen activation. As the species adsorption and activation are strongly correlated with electron density, the performance of Pd-TiO2 in CO oxidation turns out to depend on the TiO2 thickness, which determines the number of transferred electrons, within a certain range (<1.8 nm). This work provides a new strategy for enhancing catalytic performance through tailoring charge densities in hybrid catalysts.     

Roles of blocking layer and anode bias in processes of impurity-band transition and transport for GaAs-based blocked-impurity-band detectors

Recently, GaAs-based BIB detector has attracted a lot of attention in the area of THz photovoltaic detection due to potential application values in security check and drug inspection. However, the physical mechanisms involving in carrier transition and transport are still unclear due to the poor material quality and immature processing technique. In this paper, the dark current and THz response characteristics have thus been numerically studied for GaAs-based blocked-impurity-band (BIB) detectors. The key parameters and physical models are constructed by simultaneously considering carrier freeze-out and impurity-band broadening effects. Roles of blocking layer and anode bias in processes of impurity-band transition and transport are intensively investigated, and the results can be well explained by numerical models. It is demonstrated that the effective electric field for the detector is only located in the absorbing layer, and can determine to a large extent the magnitude of the dark current and THz response. While the blocking layer not only can suppress dark current but also can attenuate responsivity due to its electric-field modulation effect.     

Bound to continuum intersubband transition optical properties in the strain reducing layer-assisted InAs quantum dot structure

In this paper, the impact of wetting layer, strain reducing layer and dot height on the electronic, linear and nonlinear optical properties of bound to continuum states transitions are investigated in a system of InAs truncated conical shaped quantum dot covered with the In_xGa_1−x As strain reducing layer. The electronic structure, containing two main states of S and wetting layer states (WL), was calculated by solving one electronic band Hamiltonian with effective-mass approximation. The results reveal that the presence of the strain reducing layer in the structure extends the quantum dot emission to longer wavelength which is reported as a red-shift of the photoluminescence (PL) peak in the experimental measurement. This study also highlights the possibility of improving the intersubband optical properties based on the significant size-dependence of the three layer dot matrix by employing the strain reducing and wetting layers. According to this simulation, relatively tall dots on the thick wetting layer introduce the optimized structure size for practical applications to meet the SRL assisted enhanced dot structure.     

Highly flexible,transparent, conductive and antibacterial films made of spin-coated silver nanowires and a protective ZnO layer

We prepared highly flexible, transparent, conductive and antibacterial film by spin coating a silver nanowire suspension on a poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) substrate. The ZnO layer covered the conductive silver nanowire (AgNW) network to protect the metal nanowires from oxidization and enhance both wire-to-wire adhesion and wire-to-substrate adhesion. It is found that the number of AgNW coatings correlates with both the sheet resistance (R_s) and the transmittance of the AgNW/ZnO composite films. An excellent 92% optical transmittance in the visible range and a surface sheet resistance of only 9 Ω sq⁻¹ has been achieved, respectively. Even after bending 1000 times (5 mm bending radius), we found no significant change in the sheet resistance or optical transmittance. The real-time sheet resistance measured as a function of bending radius also remains stable even at the smallest measured bending radius (1 mm). The AgNW/ZnO composite films also show antibacterial effects which could be useful for the fabrication of wearable electronic devices.     

Spectral editing in solid-state MAS NMR of quadrupolar nuclei using selective satellite inversion

A sensitivity enhancement method based on selective adiabatic inversion of a satellite transition has been employed in a (pi/2)CT-(pi)ST1-(pi/2)CT spectral editing sequence to both enhance and resolve multisite NMR spectra of quadrupolar nuclei. In addition to a total enhancement of 2.5 times for spin 3/2 nuclei, enhancements up to 2.0 times is reported for the edited sites in a mixture of rubidium salts.     

层状粘弹性介质参数反演的同伦方法

以介质的动态时域位移响应作为参数反演的依据,利用大范围收敛的同伦方法对层状粘弹性介质的材料参数进行了反分析研究.动态时域位移响应比拟静态和频域位移响应含有更丰富的信息,而且在实际工程中所测得的信息也多为动态时域信号,因此将时间全过程的位移信息用于层状粘弹性介质参数反分析,将使反演的结果更合理,更接近实际.为保证迭代稳定性、削弱观测噪声的影响,同伦参数的修正采用了连续化修正方法.以三维层状粘弹性半空间介质为例进行了数值模拟,结果表明,反演结果不依赖于初始值的选取,反算过程稳定收敛,说明对反演参数连续修正的同伦反演方法对于层状粘弹性介质的动态参数反演是适用、有效的.     

Synergic Enhancement of High-density Polyethylene through Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene and Multi-flow Vibration Injection Molding: A Facile Fabrication with Potential Industrial Prospects

General-purpose plastics with high strength and toughness have been in great demand for structural engineering applications. To achieve the reinforcement and broaden the application scope of high-density polyethylene(HDPE), multi-flow vibration injection molding(MFVIM) and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene(UHMWPE) are synergistically employed in this work. Herein, the MFVIM has better shear layer control ability and higher fabrication advantage for complex parts than other analogous novel injection molding technologies reported.The reinforcing effect of various filling times and UHMWPE contents as well as the corresponding microstructure evolution are investigated.When 5 wt% UHMWPE is added, MFVIM process with six flow times thickens the shear layer to the whole thickness. The tensile strength and modulus increase to 2.14 and 1.39 times, respectively, compared to neat HDPE on the premise of remaining 70% impact strength. Structural characterizations indicate that the enhancement is attributed to the improvement of shish-kebab content and lamellae compactness, as well as related to the corresponding size distributions of undissolved UHMWPE particles. This novel injection molding technology with great industrial prospects provides a facile and effective strategy to broaden the engineering applications of HDPE materials. Besides, excessive UHMWPE may impair the synergistic enhancement effect, which is also reasonably explained.