Thermally insulating and fire-retardant bio-mimic structural composites with a negative Poisson's ratio for battery protection

Battery safety has attracted considerable attention worldwide due to the rapid development of wearable electronics and the steady increase in the production and use of electric vehicles.As battery failures are often associated with mechanical-thermal coupled behaviors,protective shielding materials with excellent mechanical robustness and flame-retardant properties are highly desired to mitigate thermal runaway.However,most of the thermal insulating materials are not strong enough to protect batteries from mechanical abuse,which is one of the most critical scenarios with catastrophic consequences.Here,inspired by wood,we have developed an effective approach to engineer a hierarchical nanocomposite via self-assembly of calcium silicate hydrate and polyvinyl alcohol polymer chains(referred as CSH wood).The versatile protective material CSH wood demonstrates an unprecedented combination of light weight(0.018 g cm-3),high stiffness(204 MPa in the axial direction),negative Poisson's ratio(-0.15),remarkable toughness(6.67×105 J m-3),superior thermal insulation(0.0204 W m-1 K-1 in the radial direction),and excellent fire retardancy(UL94-V0).When applied as a protective cover or a protective layer within battery packages,the tough CSH wood can resist high-impact load and block heat diffusion to block or delay the spread of fire,therefore significantly reducing the risk of property damage or bodily injuries caused by battery explosions.This work provides new pathways for fabricating advanced thermal insulating materials with large scalability and demonstrates great potential for the protection of electronic devices.

Effects of Shale and CaO Incorporation on Mechanical Properties and Autogenous Deformation of Early-age Concrete

The pre-soaked shale employed as an internal curing agent and CaO employed as expansion agent were incorporated into concrete to investigate their effects on the mechanical properties and autogenous deformation of early-age concrete.We have conducted the relevant tests for setting time,mechanical properties,internal relative humidity and autogenous deformation of early-age concrete with shale or/and CaO incorporation.The results indicate that the set behavior is delayed by shale addition but is accelerated with CaO.The shale addition firstly enhances and subsequently decreases the strength,but CEA addition has a weakening effect.Additionally,shale or/and CaO incorporation deteriorates the elastic modulus.The shale and CaO incorporation significantly improve the internal relative humidity of concrete.The internal curing efficacy of shale could synergistically mitigate the autogenous shrinkage,that is,could enhance the expansion of CaO and then greatly reduce the contraction,which is significantly beneficial to impede the shrinkage-introduced cracks of early-age concrete.

The Influential Factors of Semi-Flexible Pavement Cracking Performance

The cracking performance of semi-flexible pavement(SFP) was investigated by using the semi-circular bending(SCB) test in this paper. Thirteen grouting slurries were prepared. The compressive strength of these materials ranges from 3 to 100 MPa. The relationship between the compressive strength of the grouting slurry and the cracking property of SFP was obtained at different loading rates and different temperatures. The peak load, fracture energy(E), flexible index(FI), and cracking resistance index(CRI) were calculated to determine the material performance. The results show that the compressive strength of the grout influences the cracking behavior. With a higher comprehensive strength grouting slurry, the FI value of SFP decreased initially and then increased slightly at 25 ℃ in 50 mm/min. The CRI value decreased at the same time. E values changed just according to the test temperature and loading rate. The damage paths of SFP are different. The damage path of the SFP sample appears as diffuse damage at 1 mm/min at 60 ℃ or clean damage at 50 mm/min at 25 ℃. These findings indicate that there is a correlation between the compressive strength of grouting slurry and SFP cracking behavior. The cracking form is influenced by loading rate and temperature.

掺水化温升抑制剂水泥浆体的孔结构演变及水化特性

混凝土结构在早龄期易产生温度裂缝,严重影响其耐久性。水化温升抑制剂(TRI)通过调控水泥水化过程,进而调控混凝土内部温度历程,减小温升温降幅度和内外温差,从而降低温度裂缝开裂风险。本文采用低场核磁共振技术研究了掺TRI水泥浆体的水化特性和孔结构演变特征。试验结果表明,不掺TRI水泥浆体横向驰豫时间T_(2)的分布峰均从7.32 ms左移到0.23 ms,但掺TRI水泥浆体的水化和孔结构形成模式明显改变,孔结构形成被抑制,呈双分布峰左移。TRI明显延长了凝胶孔形成时间,大幅度降低了凝胶孔水的增长速率,表明TRI抑制了C-S-H的生长,从而降低了水化速率。此外,TRI在40℃养护下快速溶解并扩散,大大延缓了水泥水化。TRI还影响C-S-H成核和浆体中离子分布均匀性,减少了C-S-H片原位卷曲的发生,降低了凝胶孔水与毛细孔水的T_(2)信号强度。

Conformational Properties of Comb-shaped Polyelectrolytes with Negatively Charged Backbone and Neutral Side Chains Studied by a Generic Coarse-grained Bead-and-Spring Model

A generic coarse-grained bead-and-spring model,mapped onto comb-shaped polycarboxylate-based(PCE)superplasticizers,is developed and studied by Langevin molecular dynamics simulations with implicit solvent and explicit counterions.The agreement on the radius of gyration of the PCEs with experiments shows that our model can be useful in studying the equilibrium sizes of PCEs in solution.The effects of ionic strength,side-chain number,and side-chain length on the conformational behavior of PCEs in solution are explored.Single-chain equilibrium properties,including the radius of gyration,end-to-end distance and persistenee length of the polymer backbone,shape-asphericity parameter,and the mean span dimension,are determined.It is found that with the increase of ionic strength,the equilibrium sizes of the polymers decrease only slightly,and a linear dependenew of the persistence length of backbone on the Debye screening length is found,in good agreement with the theory developed by Dobrynin.Increasing side-chain numbers and/or side-chain lengths increases not only the equilibrium sizes(radius of gyration and mean span)of the polymer as a whole,but also the persistence length of the backbone due to excluded volume interactions.

The Doubly Thermo-responsive Triblock Copolymer Nanoparticles Prepared through Seeded RAFT Polymerization

The doubly thermo-responsive triblock copolymer nanoparticles of polystyrene-block-poly（N- isopropylacrylamide）-block-poly[N,N-（dimethylamino） ethyl methacrylate] （PS-b-PNIPAM-b-PDMAEMA） are successfully prepared through the seeded RAFT polymerization in situ by using the PS-b-PNIPAM-TTC diblock copolymer nanoparticles as the seed. The seeded RAFT polymerization undergoes a pseudo-first-order kinetics procedure, and the molecular weight increases with the monomer conversion linearly. The hydrodynamic diameter （Dh） of the triblock copolymer nanoparticles increases with the extension of the PDMAEMA block. In addition, the double thermo-response behavior of the PS-b-PNIPAM-b-PDMAEMA nanoparticles is detected by turbidity analysis, temperature-dependent 1H-NMR analysis, and DLS analysis. The seeded RAFT polymerization is believed as a valid method to prepare triblock copolymer nanoparticles containing two thermo-responsive blocks.