Inherent thermal-responsive strategies for safe lithium batteries

Safe batteries are the basis for next-generation application scenarios such as portable energy storage devices and electric vehicles,which are crucial to achieving carbon neutralization.Electrolytes,separators,and electrodes as main components of lithium batteries strongly affect the occurrence of safety accidents.Responsive materials,which can respond to external stimuli or environmental change,have triggered extensive attentions recently,holding great promise in facilitating safe and smart batteries.This review thoroughly discusses recent advances regarding the construction of high-safety lithium batteries based on internal thermal-responsive strategies,together with the corresponding changes in electrochemical performance under external stimulus.Furthermore,the existing challenges and outlook for the design of safe batteries are presented,creating valuable insights and proposing directions for the practical implementation of safe lithium batteries.

Thermal-responsive Photonic Crystals based on Physically Cross-linked Inverse Opal Nanocomposite Hydrogels

A thermal-responsive photonic crystal material was fabricated by forming an inverse opal nanocomposite hydrogel of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)(IONHPNIPAm)within the interstitial space of a polystyrene photonic crystal template.In IONHPNIPAm,PNIPAm were physically cross-linked with two kinds of nanoparticles(carbon dots and laponite clays).The integration of carbon dots and laponite clays for physical crosslinking endowed IONHPNIPAm sufficient strength and self-healing property.IONHPNIPAm films can be completely peeled from the substrates to be utilized as an independent photonic crystal material.The structural color and optical diffraction of the IONHPNIPAm exhibits a rapid reversible change in response to external thermal stimuli due to its physical cross-linking feature.Moreover,the IONHPNIPAm shows clear fluorescence due to the introduction of carbon dots,which enables a convenient way for chemical detection(such as the detection of silver ions).This stimuli-responsive photonic crystal materials based on physically cross-linked inverse opal nanocomposite hydrogels with fast response and good mechanical stability are promising for applications in the fields of smart optical detectors,thermal-responsive sensors and chemical detectors.

Preparation of Thermal-responsive Chitosan-graft-N-isopropyl- acrylamide Membranes via γ-Ray Irradiation

A novel thermo-sensitive switching membrane has been prepared by radiation-induced simultaneous grafting N-isopropylacrylamide （NIPAAm） onto chitosan membrane. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy （FTIR） was used to identify the structure of the grafted membranes. The surface morphology of the grafted membrane was observed from scanning electron microscopy （SEM）. Pure water flux measurements showed that water flux of the grafted membrane decreased with the increase of temperature, while that of chitosan membrane was constant. It was proved that grafted membrane was sensitive to temperature.

NIR-triggered thermo-responsive biodegradable hydrogel with combination of photothermal and thermodynamic therapy for hypoxic tumor

Hypoxia is a typical feature of solid tumors,which highly limits the application of the oxygen-dependent therapy.Also,the dense and hyperbaric tumor tissues impede the penetration of nanoparticles into the deep tumor.Thereby,we designed a novel localized injectable hydrogel combining the photothermal therapy(PTT)and the thermodynamic therapy(TDT),which is based on the generation of free radicals even in the absence of oxygen for hypoxic tumor therapy.In our study,gold nanorods(Au NRs)and 2,2-Azobis[2-(2-imidazalin-2-yl)propane]dihydrochlaride(AIPH)were incorporated into the hydrogel networks,which were formed by the copolymerization of hydrophobic N-isopropyl acrylamide(NIPAM)and hydrophilic glycidyl methacrylate modified hyaluronic acid(HAGMA)to fabricate an injectable and near-infrared(NIR)responsive hydrogel.The crosslinked in situ forming hydrogel could not only realize PTT upon the NIR laser irradiation,but also generate free radicals even in hypoxic condition.Meanwhile the shrink of hydrogels upon thermal could accelerate the generation of free radicals to further damage the tumors,achieving the controlled drug release on demand.The designed hydrogel with a sufficient loading capacity,excellent biocompatibility and negligible systemic toxicity could serve as a long-acting implant for NIR-triggered thermo-responsive free radical generation.The in vitro cytotoxicity result and the in vivo antitumor activity illustrated the excellent therapeutic effect of hydrogels even in the absence of oxygen.Therefore,this innovative oxygen-independent platform combining the antitumor effects of PTT and TDT would bring a new insight into hypoxic tumor therapy by the application of alkyl free radical.

Transient thermo-mechanical analysis for bimorph soft robot based on thermally responsive liquid crystal elastomers

Thermally responsive liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) hold great promise in applications of soft robots and actuators because of the induced size and shape change with temperature. Experiments have successfully demonstrated that the LCE based bimorphs can be effective soft robots once integrated with soft sensors and thermal actuators. Here, we present an analytical transient thermo-mechanical model for a bimorph structure based soft robot, which consists of a strip of LCE and a thermal inert polymer actuated by an ultra-thin stretchable open-mesh shaped heater to mimic the unique locomotion behaviors of an inchworm. The coupled mechanical and thermal analysis based on the thermo-mechanical theory is carried out to underpin the transient bending behavior, and a systematic understanding is therefore achieved. The key analytical results reveal that the thickness and the modulus ratio of the LCE and the inert polymer layer dominate the transient bending deformation. The analytical results will not only render fundamental understanding of the actuation of bimorph structures, but also facilitate the rational design of soft robotics.