Volume 9 Issue 8, August 2017

New intrinsic self-healing polymers with outstanding mechanical performance are presented. For this purpose, sterically hindered amines were utilized to crosslink isocyanate containing poly(methacrylates) resulting in urea crosslinked networks. The reversibility of the urea bond during thermal treatment could be utilized to induce self-healing ability and could be proven using various techniques.

The nano-bio interactions of 1D and 2D carbon nanomaterials (COOH-functionalized carbon nanotube (CNT-COOH), graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) and porous graphene oxide (PGO)) with blood plasma proteins (albumin, globulin and fibrinogen) are evaluated in this work. It is demonstrated that these associations may be significantly influenced by the density of the oxygenated functionalities of the nanomaterials and to a certain extent, their dimensionality and surface area. This work offers a broad insight into the carbon nanomaterial–plasma protein interactions and provides a strong basis for the design and use of low-dimensional carbon nanomaterials for a wide variety of biological and biomedical applications.

A universal dual-electrochromic platform that could operate various advanced logic devices whose outputs visualized by the naked eye was constructed for the first time by introducing the electrochemical oxidation of 2, 2′ -azinobis (3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) and electrodeposition of Prussian blue into one closed bipolar electrode system.

A new hygromorphic actuator made by hydrophilic metal oxide film was developed, which is moved by the fluid spread on film and the imbibition within a nano-capillary forest. This system possesses a great stability and repeatability for long time and has a very high energy density of ~1250 kJ m^–3. The research results suggest that the actuating nano-capillary forest film could be applicable to humidity-responsive actuators, high-efficiency energy converters and others.

A single-pass self-assembly approach was developed to demonstrate enhanced antitumor activities from drug-loaded fully lateral nanodimensional graphene oxide flakes under near-infrared irradiation.

Here, we present a pressure-modulated heterojunction photodiode composed of n-type multilayer MoS₂ and p-type GaN film by piezo-phototronic effect. Under the illumination of 365 nm incident light, strong photo-response is observed with a response time and recovery time of ~66 and 74 ms, respectively. Upon the pressure of 258 MPa, the photoresponsivity of this photodiode can be enhanced for about 3.5 times by piezo-phototronic effect arising from the GaN film. Due to the lowered junction barrier upon applying an external pressure (strain), more photo-generated carriers can successfully pass through the junction area without recombination, resulting in the enhancement effect.

SEM image of FeCo₂O₄ nanowire arrays on a stainless steel mesh with the schematic of MnO₂//FeCo₂O₄ asymmetric cell and its CV curves.

SnSe has a layered-like crystal structure and shows high thermoelectric performance along the b-crystal axis. Due to low textured degree, polycrystalline SnSe process poor electrical properties and overall thermoelectric performance. Here, we show that by increasing the textured degree, enhanced thermoelectric performance with a peak ZT of 1.3 at 793 K is achieved in Ag-doped SnSe polycrystals.

Electronic and geometric controlling the magnetization orientation of a material in nanoscale is key in developing spintronics, which correlates with tuning its magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (MCAE). Although the MCAE of a Fe thin film is measured to oscillate with the film thickness and to vary with the amount of injected charges, switching the magnetization orientation electrically is desired. In this work, we provide a microscopic picture based on Fe quantum-well states and spin orbital coupling to explain experimental results (a), and thus predict that the magnetization orientation of a 5-ML Fe film can be switched electrically (b).

The optical and plasmonic properties of (Bi,Sb)₂(Te,Se)₃ trichalcogenide topological insulator crystals are studied systematically by first-principles density functional theory. These materials exhibit bulk plasmonic properties, dominated by interband transitions, which are better than gold and silver at blue and UV wavelengths. Moreover, topologically protected surface states are also capable of supporting propagating plasmon polariton modes over an extremely broad spectral range, due to a combination of interband and intraband transitions.

Learning from the antimalarial mechanism of artemisinin in nature, we explored the methemoglobin as a smart nanocarrier of artemisinin. While the methemoglobin reacts very slow with artemisinin, the upregulated reducing capacity of tumor tissue can work as an excellent biogenic trigger to reduce ferric iron in methemoglobin to ferrous state, hence turn on the free radical generation ability and cytotoxicity of artemisinin in situ. The bioinspired nanocarrier may pave a new way to achieve targeted toxicity to cancer cells with extremely low side effects.

Optically and spatially templated polymer architectures were formed by photopolymerizing reactive mesogens (RMs) in periodically deformed liquid crystals (LCs). Without using lithographic or holographic implements, various polymer patterns could be produced by employing nematic LCs as reaction solvents and spatially nonuniform electric fields with patterned electrodes. The mechanism underlying the observed elastic energy-driven templated phase separation was determined by performing numerical computations of the director field and associated elastic energy. The spatial patterns coincided precisely with the profiles of highly deformed regions, and optical patterns were templated by the local director of the reaction medium. The proposed method provides versatility in forming organized polymer architectures for functional materials requiring both positional and orientational order for their application.

We propose and experimentally demonstrate spoof plasmonic metasurfaces with a hyperbolic dispersion, where the spoof SPPs propagate on complementary H-shaped perfectly conducting surfaces at low frequencies. In this way, non-divergent diffractions, negative refraction, and dispersion-dependent spin-momentum locking are observed as the spoof SPPs travel over the hyperbolic spoof plasmonic metasurfaces. They show great capabilities to design advanced surface wave devices such as spatial multiplexers, focusing and imaging devices, planar hyperlenses, and dispersion-dependent directional couplers, at both microwave and terahertz frequencies.

Graphene nanomaterials hold great promise for the development of advanced water purification membranes, especially for water desalination. Their atomic thickness, extraordinary mechanical stability and potential for size-selective transport are ideal features, encouraging the membrane scientist across the world to investigate their applicability for water desalination. Graphene can potentially desalinate water either as monolayer or as multilayer membranes. In this review, we discuss these different classes of graphene membranes and highlight their merits and shortcomings. In addition, the theory behind their performance is presented in detail.