Renewable CO₂ conversion to useful products presents a sustainable, carbon-neutral method to limit climate change, yet few materials can perform this complex chemistry. Here, authors prepare a polymer-TiO₂-graphene composite that can take up CO₂ and convert it to CH₄ using light and water.

A soluble polysilsesquioxane containing macrocyclic structure (PSQ-MC) is successfully prepared by the hydrolytic condensation of a dual site-type silane coupling agent, i.e., bis{3-[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propylthio]propyl}phthalate (BTPP). PSQ-MC is assumed to be a polymer in which an 8-membered cyclic siloxane having two 23-membered rings is linked by a single siloxane bond. In addition, PSQ-MC could capture palladium ions.

The dispersion state and aggregate structure of carbon black in polystyrene composites prepared by solvent casting suspensions in different dispersion media with different particle contents and their effects on the bulk rheological properties of the composites were investigated by transmission electron microscopy, ultrasmall-angle and small-angle X-ray scattering, and dynamic viscoelasticity measurements. The viscoelastic moduli of the melt polymer composites below and above the percolation limit varied with the dispersion medium, reflecting the difference in the macroscopic dispersion state and aggregate structure of carbon black in polystyrene.

Garlic has a mild antibacterial activity due to its organosulfur content. Here, the authors develop an approach to convert natural organosulfur into iron-sulfur nanosheets, with significantly higher antibacterial activity that can be used against infections as well as biofilms.

Nanocomposites containing mesoporous silica (MPS) materials with various pore structures (SBA-15 and MCM-41 types) melt mixed into polypropylene (PP) or PP functionalized with hydroxyl groups (PPOH) were characterized by analytical pyrolysis techniques, such as evolved gas analysis (EGA)-mass spectrometry (MS) and heart-cut EGA-gas chromatography (GC)/MS, to evaluate the interactions between the polymer matrix and MPS and the pore filling of the MPS in the nanocomposite. The EGA-MS measurements revealed that nanocomposites with MPSs evolve specific degradation products, which can be attributed to strong interactions between the polymer molecules and the internal pores. The amount of these specific products increased upon increasing the pore size of the MPS and the hydroxyl content in the polymer matrix. Sufficiently large pores of MPS and high hydroxyl contents in the matrix appear to provide strong interactions because the MPS pores are well-filled with polymer molecules, which contributes to the improved physical properties of the nanocomposites.