One of the greatest challenges of robust self-healing materials is the confliction between high chain mobility for self-healing and a stable structure for mechanical strength. Herein, dangling 2-ureido-4-pyrimidione (UPy)-functionalized side groups were introduced into the hard segments of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) elastomers, where embedded the dynamic disulfide bonds in the…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
Self-healing polyurethane with disulfide bonds was synthesized using polycarbonate diol as a soft segment, and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate and 2-hydroxyethyl disulfide as a hard segment. Well-developed phase separation as the hard segments increased was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectra. The X-ray diffraction data showed that the crystallinity of the…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
A series of polyethylene-like ionomers with periodic sulfonate groups were synthesized by polyesterification of octatetracontane-1,48-diol and tetrabutylammonium dimethyl sulfosuccinate. Optional cation exchange in aqueous dispersions replaced the NBu4+ counterions for Na+ or Cs+. The defined periodic microstructure of the polymers leads to the formation of layered structures in bulk and…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
Lipid cochleates are gaining increasing interest as drug-carriers. However, their preparation relies on conventional batch processes that are complex, time consuming and lack batch-to-batch reproducibility; presenting a bottleneck for clinical translation. We report an efficient continuous preparation process for artemisinin-loaded cochleates (ART-cochleates) using inexpensive off-the-shelf flow
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
The reaction of 8 with the 5f tetravalent thorium cation in presence of an acetate buffer and KCl at pH = 4.7 gives rise to the formation of an octahedral polyoxoarsenotungstate nanocluster 38. This molecule is constructed around four unprecedented Th3As2On (n = 25 or 26) fragments stabilized by the…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
Ellipsometry porosimetry provides full adsorption/desorption isotherms and is among the most accurate techniques to probe porosity in thin films. Here we address a novel technique based on desorption scanning for a precise assessment of the porosity features revealing the size distribution of interconnections between the various populations of pores in…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
Metallic zinc is an ideal anode material for rechargeable zinc-ion batteries (ZIBs), taking us beyond the lithium-ion era. In-depth understanding of the Zn metal surface is currently required owing to diverse but uncorrelated data about the Zn surface in mild environments. Herein, the surface chemistry of Zn is elucidated and…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
The Moebius topology (twisted, single-sided strip) is intriguing because of its structural elegance and distinct properties. Here we report the generation of block copolymer Moebius strips via a fast self-assembly of chiral block copolymer polystyrene-block-poly(D-lactide acid) (PS-b-PDLA) in tetrahydrofuran/water mixed solvents. The Moebius strip is formed by morphological evolution from…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
A mesoporous silica with MCM-41 type pore array was synthesized by hydrothermal method and then was functionalized with known amounts of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) in order to study the selective adsorption towards several species/pollutants. Antibiotics doxycycline hydrochloride (DC) and norfloxacin (NFX), the dye methyl orange(MO) and the pesticide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020
A series of triethylenetetrammonium nitrate protic ionic liquid (TNPIL) functionalized, highly ordered mesoporous SBA-15 molecular sieves with different loadings have been synthesized via impregnation. The CO2 capture performance of the hybrid sorbents was evaluated under conditions mimicking a combustion flue gas (15% CO2) over the temperature range of 298348 K.…
sergio.rodrigues@xenocs.com27 January 2020