Preparation and Properties of Organically Modified Sepiolite/High-performance Epoxy Nanocomposites

Fibrous organic sepiolites （OSEP） and novel epoxy/OSEP nanocomposites were prepared, and different methods were investigated to produce an intercalated/exfoliated structure of OSEP. Experimental results show that the modifier molecules can be easily adsorbed by the sepiolite, but the layer space （d001 of the sepiolite, linked by means of covalent bond, remains unchanged. A proper method to solve this problem appears to exert large shearing force on the original sepiolite followed by its organic modification （OSEP2）. The morphology observation shows that there are formed an even dispersion of nano-sized OSEP2 fibers in epoxy resin and a structure intercalated by epoxy molecules, which lead to significantly improved mechanical properties. Impact strength of the epoxy/OSEP2 nanocomposite increases from 32.1 kJ/m^2 to 44.4 kJ/m^2, 38.3% higher than that of pristine matrix with 3 wt% OSEP2 content. It is also noted that the flexural strength of the OSEP/epoxy composites has risen by about 3% higher than that of the pure epoxy resin.

Enhancing electrolyte ion diffusion via direct ink writing pillar array structure of graphene electrodes for high-performance microsupercapacitors

The graphene-based microsupercapacitors(MSCs)suffer from graphene aggregation issue in electrodes.It reduces the electrolyte ions transportation in the electrodes to degrade the charge storage ability of MSCs,hampering their practical application.Increasing the electrolyte ions transportation in the electrodes can boost the charge storage ability of MSCs.Herein,we design and experimentally realize pillar array structure of graphene electrodes for MSCs by direct ink writing technology.The graphene electrodes with pillar array structure increase the contact area with electrolyte and short the electrolyte ions transport path,facilitating electrolyte ions transport in electrodes.The MSCs exhibit high areal capacitance of 25.67 mF·cm^(−2),high areal energy density of 20.54μWh·cm^(−2),and high power density of 1.45 mW·cm^(−2).One single MSCs can power timer for 10 min and pressure sensor more than 160 min,showing high practical application possibility.This work provides a new avenue for developing high performance MSCs.

Liquid metal-assisted hydrothermal preparation of cobalt disulfide on the polymer tape surface for flexible sensor

Nowadays,two-dimensional transition metal chalcogenides have become attractive materials for flexible wearable devices because of their intriguing chemistry characteristics and sensitivity to external stimuli.However,the growth of two-dimensional materials on polymer surfaces is generally carried out by the time-consuming and costly chemical vapor deposition method.Reducing the manufacturing and integration costs while improving the device performance remains to be challenging.Herein,we report a simple liquid metal-assisted hydrothermal method for the growth of two-dimensional nanomaterials on the polymer surface.Specifically,a layer of liquid metal was coated on commercial tape,while layered cobalt sulfide was grown on its surface by a simple one-step hydrothermal method.Different kinds of flexible sensors can be prepared,such as bending sensor,pressure sensor,humidity sensor,which can be used to detect motion,writing,breathing,other signals.This strategy can also be assigned to sensing signals on different objects,which may further expand and enrich the application of twodimensional materials in sensing.

CuS nanoplatelets arrays grown on graphene nanosheets as advanced electrode materials for supercapacitor applications

CuS nanoplatelets arrays grown on graphene nanosheets are successfully synthesized via a facile lowtemperature solvothermal reaction with graphene oxide（GO）, CH;CSNH;and Cu（CH;COO）;·H;O as the reactants. CH;CSNH;plays an important role in being the reducing agent for GO and the sulfur source of CuS. Supercapacitive performance of the graphene/CuS nanocomposite as active electrode materials has been evaluated by cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. The results indicate that graphene/CuS electrode delivers a high capacitance of 497.8 F g;at a current density of 0.2 A g;, which outperforms bare CuS electrode. This excellent performance is ascribed to the short diffusion path and large surface area of the unique hierarchical nanostructure with nanoflakes building blocks for bulk accessibility of faradaic reaction.

Highly Soluble Phenylethynyl-terminated Imide Oligomers and Thermosetting Polyimides Based on 2,2′3,3′-Biphenyltetracarboxylic Dianhydride

The properties of a series of imide oligomers were characterized according to their molecular weights, solubility, and thermal and rheological properties. This series of imide oligomers was synthesized via a two-step method using 2,2′,3,3′-biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride(3,3′-BPDA) and aromatic diamines as the monomers, and 4-phenylethynyl phtlialic anhydride(PEPA) as the end-capping agent. The imide oligomers based on 3,3′-BPDA showed excellent solubility in low boiling point solvents and low melt viscosity, which were attributed to their unique bent architectures. High-performance thermosetting polyimides were produced from these oligomers via thermal crosslinking of the phenylethynyl groups. The mechanical and thermal properties of the thermosets were studied using tensile testing, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis(DMTA), and thermogravimetric analysis(TGA). The 3,3′EPDA-based thermosets exhibited excellent thermal properties, with glass transition temperatures of up to 455℃, and 5% mass loss temperatures of up to 569℃ in air. The thermosets based on 3,3-BPDA showed superior thermal properties compared to those derived from TriA-X series oligomers.