Aramid fibers reinforced silica aerogel composites with low thermal conductivity and improved mechanical performance

Aramid fibers reinforced silica aerogel composites (AF/aerogels) for thermal insulation were prepared successfully under ambient pressure drying. The microstructure showed that the aramid fibers were inlaid in the aerogel matrix, acting as the supporting skeletons, to strengthen the aerogel matrix. FTIR revealed AF/aerogels was physical combination between aramid fibers and aerogel matrix without chemical bonds. The as prepared AF/aerogels possessed extremely low thermal conductivity of 0.0227 ± 0.0007 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ with the fiber content ranging from 1.5% to 6.6%. Due to the softness, low density and remarkable mechanical strength of aramid fibers and the layered structure of the fiber distribution, the AF/aerogels presented nice elasticity and flexibility. TG–DSC indicated the thermal stability reaching approximately 290 °C, can meet the general usage conditions, which was mainly depended on the pure silica aerogels. From mentioned above, AF/aerogels present huge application prospects in heat preservation field, especially in piping insulation.     

The influence of a thermoplastic toughening interlayer and hydrothermal conditioning on the Mode-II interlaminar fracture toughness of Carbon/Benzoxazine composites

Carbon fibre/Benzoxazine laminates with and without non-woven polyamide (PA) fibre veils at the interlaminar regions were manufactured using vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding (VARTM). The effect of the interlaminar thermoplastic veils on the Mode-II critical strain energy release rate (G_IIC), under both wet and dry conditions, was determined using two commercially available Benzoxazine resins: a toughened system and an untoughened system. In all samples the toughened system outperformed the untoughened system. The overall resistance to Mode-II crack growth was significantly improved by the inclusion of the interlaminar veils due to an increase in the thickness of the matrix-rich interlaminar region, plastic deformation of the PA fibres and a crack-pinning mechanism. Moisture caused an increase in matrix ductility, which improved the resistance to crack initiation; however, this was counteracted by a reduction in fibre/matrix interfacial strength causing a reduction in resistance to crack growth.     

Thermal conductivity of aligned CNT/polymer composites using mesoscopic simulation

Thermal conductivity of CNT/polymer composites depends on alignment, dispersion, volume fraction and size of CNTs as well as polymer size. By coupling smoothed particle hydrodynamics and dissipative particle dynamics, thermal conductivities of random and aligned composites along with their meso morphologies are studied in detail. Thermal conductivity along the alignment of CNT can be significantly enhanced to 16 times that of polymer by increasing volume fraction, dispersion degree and length of CNT, meanwhile thermal conductivity perpendicular to the alignment of CNT is affected modestly by these factors. Enhancement of thermal conductivity of random composites could only be efficiently achieved by increasing the volume fraction of CNT. Particularly, thermal conductivity $\kappa$ is proportional to the square of volume fraction of CNT v in well dispersed random and aligned composites, i.e. $\kappa \propto v^2$.     

Silole‐Based Red Fluorescent Organic Dots for Bright Two‐Photon Fluorescence In vitro Cell and In vivo Blood Vessel Imaging

Robust luminescent dyes with efficient two‐photon fluorescence are highly desirable for biological imaging applications, but those suitable for organic dots fabrication are still rare because of aggregation‐caused quenching. In this work, a red fluorescent silole, 2,5‐bis[5‐(dimesitylboranyl)thiophen‐2‐yl]‐1‐methyl‐1,3,4‐triphenylsilole ((MesB)₂DTTPS), is synthesized and characterized. (MesB)₂DTTPS exhibits enhanced fluorescence efficiency in nanoaggregates, indicative of aggregation‐enhanced emission (AEE). The organic dots fabricated by encapsulating (MesB)₂DTTPS within lipid‐PEG show red fluorescence peaking at 598 nm and a high fluorescence quantum yield of 32%. Upon excitation at 820 nm, the dots show a large two‐photon absorption cross section of 3.43 × 10⁵ GM, which yields a two‐photon action cross section of 1.09 × 10⁵ GM. These (MesB)₂DTTPS dots show good biocompatibility and are successfully applied to one‐photon and two‐photon fluorescence imaging of MCF‐7 cells and two‐photon in vivo visualization of the blood vascular of mouse muscle in a high‐contrast and noninvasive manner. Moreover, the 3D blood vasculature located at the mouse ear skin with a depth of over 100 μm can also be visualized clearly, providing the spatiotemporal information about the whole blood vascular network.     

High Volumetric Energy Density Asymmetric Supercapacitors Based on Well‐Balanced Graphene and Graphene‐MnO2 Electrodes with Densely Stacked Architectures

The well‐matched electrochemical parameters of positive and negative electrodes, such as specific capacitance, rate performance, and cycling stability, are important for obtaining high‐performance asymmetric supercapacitors. Herein, a facile and cost‐effective strategy is demonstrated for the fabrication of 3D densely stacked graphene (DSG) and graphene‐MnO₂ (G‐MnO₂) architectures as the electrode materials for asymmetric supercapacitors (ASCs) by using MnO₂‐intercalated graphite oxide (GO‐MnO₂) as the precursor. DSG has a stacked graphene structure with continuous ion transport network in‐between the sheets, resulting in a high volumetric capacitance of 366 F cm^–3, almost 2.5 times than that of reduced graphene oxide, as well as long cycle life (93% capacitance retention after 10 000 cycles). More importantly, almost similar electrochemical properties, such as specific capacitance, rate performance, and cycling stability, are obtained for DSG as the negative electrode and G‐MnO₂ as the positive electrode. As a result, the assembled ASC delivers both ultrahigh gravimetric and volumetric energy densities of 62.4 Wh kg^–1 and 54.4 Wh L^–1 (based on total volume of two electrodes) in 1 m Na₂SO₄ aqueous electrolyte, respectively, much higher than most of previously reported ASCs in aqueous electrolytes.     

ZnO hierarchical structures synthesized via hydrothermal method and their photoluminescence properties

The controlled synthesis of ZnO hierarchical structures has been successfully realized in a large scale via a simple hydrothermal method. It was demonstrated that the morphology of the final products was simply tuned by adding different amounts of soluble salt. ZnO microparticles were prepared when no soluble salt was added, whereas microspheres and nanoflowers were selectively prepared in the presence of different amounts of NaF. ZnO nanosheets were obtained when adding appropriate amount of NaCl, Na₂SO₄, or K₂SO₄. ZnO nanobelts were obtained in the presence of appropriate amount of sodium citrate (C₆H₅Na₃O₇). The photoluminescence (PL) properties of those products were researched, and the origin of the PL was discussed.     

Confocal fluorescence microscopy in alumina-based ceramics: Where does the signal come from?

Confocal Cr³⁺ fluorescence microscopy is an ideal technique for investigating residual stresses in alumina-based ceramics. Due to their transparency, however, it is important to understand where the collected signal comes from by characterising the probe response function (PRF). Here, a PRF is proposed that captures all the relevant physical effects, including a newly identified consequence of scattering by pores and grain boundaries. The new PRF describes the response of a range of alumina-based ceramics to depth scanning in a high resolution confocal fluorescence microscope in a manner that balances physical significance with the accuracy of empirical fitting. The results showed that measurements could be made deep within single crystals of sapphire and ruby, although refraction degraded the depth resolution from about 3 μm at the surface to 25 μm at a depth of 500 μm. Scattering and absorption limited the depth to which polycrystalline alumina could be probed to ～15 μm. This was further reduced to ～4 μm for an alumina–10 vol.% SiC nanocomposite. However, the absorption increased the accuracy of near surface measurements in these materials by preventing contamination from subsurface fluorescence.     

Corrosion resistances and passivation of powder metallurgical and conventionally cast 316L and 2205 stainless steels

The corrosion resistances and passivation of austenitic 316L and duplex 2205 powder metallurgical (P/M) steels, produced by gas atomizing and hot isostatic pressing (HIP), have been compared with those of their conventional cast counterparts. P/M 316L steel is shown to have significantly higher pitting corrosion resistance than conventional 316L steel in 0.5 M HCl. This effect is ascribed to the fine grained microstructure of the P/M 316L steel yielding an improved passive layer. The latter hypothesis is supported by photoelectron spectroscopy data demonstrating differences between the thickness and composition of the passive layers for the 316L steels.