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At least 1,405 records · Page 78

Crystal structures of polymerized lithium chloride and dimethyl sulfoxide in the form of {2LiCl·3DMSO} n and {LiCl·DMSO} n

Two novel LiCl·DMSO polymer structures were created by combining dry LiCl salt with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), namely, catena-poly[[chlorido­lithium(I)]-μ-(dimethyl sulfoxide)-κ 2 O:O-[chlorido­lithium(I)]-di-μ-(dimethyl sulfoxide)-κ 4 O:O], [Li 2 Cl 2 (C 2 H 6 OS) 3 ]n, and catena-poly[lithium(I)-μ-chlorido-μ-(dimethyl sulfoxide)-κ 2 O:O], [LiCl(C 2 H 6 OS)]n. The initial synthesized phase had very small block-shaped crystals (<0.08 mm) with monoclinic symmetry and a 2 LiCl: 3 DMSO ratio. As the solution evaporated, a second phase formed with a plate-shaped crystal morphology. After about 20 minutes, large (>0.20 mm) octa­hedron-shaped crystals formed. The plate crystals and the octa­hedron crystals are the same tetra­gonal structure with a 1 LiCl: 1 DMSO ratio. These structures are reported and compared to other known LiCl·solvent compounds.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Dielectric breakdown of additively manufactured polymeric materials

Dielectric strength testing of selected Polyjet-printed polymer plastics was performed in accordance with ASTM D149. This dielectric strength data is compared to manufacturer-provided dielectric strength data for selected plastics printed using the stereolithography (SLA), fused deposition modeling (FDM), and selective laser sintering (SLS) methods. Tested Polyjet samples demonstrated dielectric strengths as high as 47.5 kV/mm for a 0.5 mm thick sample and 32.1 kV/mm for a 1.0 mm sample. As a result, the dielectric strength of the additively manufactured plastics evaluated as part of this study was lower than the majority of non-printed plastics by at least 15% (with the exception of polycarbonate).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Probabilistic distributions of pinhole defects in atomic layer deposited films on polymeric substrates

Pinhole defects in atomic layer deposition (ALD) coatings were measured in an area of 30 cm{sup 2} in an ALD reactor, and these defects were represented by a probabilistic cluster model instead of a single defect density value with number of defects over area. With the probabilistic cluster model, the pinhole defects were simulated over a manufacturing scale surface area of ∼1 m{sup 2}. Large-area pinhole defect simulations were used to develop an improved and enhanced design method for ALD-based devices. A flexible thermal ground plane (FTGP) device requiring ALD hermetic coatings was used as an example. Using a single defect density value, it was determined that for an application with operation temperatures higher than 60 °C, the FTGP device would not be possible. The new probabilistic cluster model shows that up to 40.3% of the FTGP would be acceptable. With this new approach the manufacturing yield of ALD-enabled or other thin film based devices with different design configurations can be determined. It is important to guide process optimization and control and design for manufacturability.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Sequential infiltration of two-photon polymerized 3D photonic crystals for mid-IR spectroscopic applications

Photonic crystals (PhCs) are spatially organized structures with lattice parameters equivalent to the operational wavelength of light. PhCs have been subject to extensive research efforts in the last two decades and are known for controlling light propagation with applications in sensing and time-delayed communication due to the slow-light phenomenon. Despite their exceptional properties, PhCs are difficult to fabricate using planar micromachining techniques due to their periodic structures. Techniques like two-photon stereolithography have been discussed for PhC fabrication in the literature, but the inherent disadvantage of poor refractive index (RI) contrast results in limited application. In this work, we present sequential infiltration synthesis performed on two-photon stereolithographically printed 3D PhCs for infiltration with zinc oxide to increase the RI of 3D PhCs. Further, finite element analysis was performed over a range of RI contrast values to study the change in photonic bandgap (PBG) with RI contrast. The transmission spectra were recorded on 3D PhCs before and after infiltration to demonstrate the change experimentally. An increase in the PBG width and absorbance is seen postinfiltration due to enhanced RI. This work presents the first, to our knowledge, sequentially infiltrated enhanced 3D PhC fabricated with two-photon stereolithography.

3D printing↗

Large-scale polymeric carbon nanotube membranes with sub–1.27-nm pores

We report the first characterization study of commercial prototype carbon nanotube (CNT) membranes consisting of sub–1.27-nm-diameter CNTs traversing a large-area nonporous polysulfone film. The membranes show rejection of NaCl and MgSO 4 at higher ionic strengths than have previously been reported in CNT membranes, and specific size selectivity for analytes with diameters below 1.24 nm. The CNTs used in the membranes were arc discharge nanotubes with inner diameters of 0.67 to 1.27 nm. Water flow through the membranes was 1000 times higher than predicted by Hagen-Poiseuille flow, in agreement with previous CNT membrane studies. Ideal gas selectivity was found to deviate significantly from that predicted by both viscous and Knudsen flow, suggesting that surface diffusion effects may begin to dominate gas selectivity at this size scale.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Machine learning reveals key ion selectivity mechanisms in polymeric membranes with subnanometer pores

Designing single-species selective membranes for high-precision separations requires a fundamental understanding of the molecular interactions governing solute transport. Here, we comprehensively assess molecular-level features that influence the separation of 18 different anions by nanoporous cellulose acetate membranes. Our analysis identifies the limitations of bulk solvation characteristics to explain ion transport, highlighted by the poor correlation between hydration energy and the measured permselectivity (R 2 = 0.37). Entropy-enthalpy compensation, spanning 40 kilojoules per mole, leads to a free-energy barrier (ΔG‡) variation of only ~8 kilojoules per mole across all anions. We apply machine learning to elucidate descriptors for energetic barriers from a set of 126 collected features. Notably, electrostatic features account for 75% of the overall features used to describe ΔG‡, despite the relatively uncharged state of cellulose acetate. Our work presents an approach for studying ion transport across nanoporous membranes that could enable the design of ion-selective membranes.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Synthesis and crystal and molecular structure of three heterometallic polymeric compounds (Ln{sub 2}[LnGe{sub 6}(μ-Oedph){sub 6}(μ-O){sub 3}(μ-OH){sub 3}(H{sub 2}O){sub 4}] · xH{sub 2}O){sub n} [Ln = Nd, x ∼ 26 (I); Er, x ∼ 24 (II); Tm, x ∼ 20 (III); H{sub 4}Oedph = 1-hydroxyethylidenediphosphonic acid]

The synthesis and X-ray diffraction study of three heterometallic compounds of general formula (Ln{sub 2}[LnGe{sub 6}(μ-Oedph){sub 6}(μ-O){sub 3}(μ-OH){sub 3}(H{sub 2}O){sub 4}] · xH{sub 2}O){sub n} [Ln = Nd, x ∼ 26 (I); Er, x ∼ 24 (II); Tm, x ∼20 (III); H{sub 4}Oedph = 1-hydroxyethylidenediphosphonic acid] are performed. The basis element of structures I–III is a hexanuclear complex anion [Ge(μ-Oedph)(μ-O){sub 0.5}(μ-OH){sub 0.5}]{sub 6}{sup 9−}, in which bridging hydroxo and oxo ligands are statistically disordered with equally probability. Hexameric units are connected by Ln1(H{sub 2}O){sub 4} fragments into a framework whose channels are completely populated by disordered lanthanide atoms and water molecules.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Orthotropic Viscoelastic Modeling of Polymeric Battery Separator

The separator is one of the most important components for battery safety since its failure can cause short-circuit that may lead to thermal runaway. As such, understanding the mechanical behaviors of separators is critical to improve battery safety. Nevertheless, modeling the mechanical behaviors of separators is challenging since they usually depend on multiple factors such as orientation, temperature and strain rate due to the microstructure of separators. Here we develop an orthotropic linear viscoelastic model for separators, which takes both anisotropy and strain rate effects into account. This model is the first step of a future model that considers more factors such as temperature and large deformation. The model has been implemented as a user material model in a finite element package, where a discretization algorithm is developed to evaluate the stiffness-based hereditary integral with a kernel of Prony series. The user model has been applied to a polypropylene (PP) separator Celgard ® 2400. The simulation results agree well with experimental data, which include the rate dependent uniaxial tensile behavior of the separator in the two in-plane material directions and in shear, and the strain contour patterns of every strain component during biaxial tension.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Development and Modeling of a Novel Self-Assembly Process for Polymer and Polymeric Composite Nanoparticles

Extensive computational simulations and experiments have been used to investigate the structure, dynamics and resulting photophysical properties of a number para-phenylenevinylene (PPV) based polymers and oligomers. These studies have shown how the morphology and structure are controlled to a large extent by the nature of the solute-solvent interactions in the initial solution phase preparation. A good solvent such as dichloromethane generates non-compact structures with more of a defect-extended chain like morphology while a bad solvent such as toluene leads to compact organized and folded structures with rod-like morphologies. Secondary structural organization is induced by using the solution phase structures to generate solvent-free single molecule nanoparticles. These nanoparticles are very compact and rod shaped, consisting of near-cofacial ordering of the conjugated PPV chain backbones between folds located at tetrahedral defects (sp3 C-C bonds). The resulting photophysical properties exhibit a significant enhancement in the photoluminescence quantum yield, lifetime, and stability. In addition, the single molecule nanoparticles have Gaussian-like emission spectra with discrete center frequencies that are correlated to a conjugation length, allowing the design of nanoparticles which luminesces at a particular frequency. We followed a similar approach and applied a comparable methodology in our recent work on polythiophenes in order to study the effect of polymer architecture on nanoscale assembly. Unlike linear chains of comparable size, we observed aggregation of the bottlebrush architecture of poly(norbornene)-g-poly(3-hexylthiophene) (PNB-g-P3HT) after the freeze-drying and dissolution processes. The behavior can be attributed to a significant enhancement in the number of π-π interactions between grafted P3HT side chains.

Sumpter, Bobby G.↗