Co‐sintering ceramic and thermoplastic polymer composites in a single step with very high volume fractions of ceramics seems unlikely, given the vast differences in the typical sintering temperatures ...of ceramics versus polymers. These processing limitations are overcome with the introduction of a new sintering approach, namely “cold sintering process” (CSP). CSP utilizes a transient low temperature solvent, such as water or water with dissolved solutes in stoichiometric ratios consistent with the ceramic composition, to control the dissolution and precipitation of ceramics and effect densification between room temperature and ≈200 °C. Under these conditions, thermoplastic polymers and ceramic materials can be jointly formed into dense composites. Three diphasic composite examples are demonstrated to show the overall diversity of composite material design between organic and inorganic oxides, including the microwave dielectric Li2MoO4–(C2F4
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n
, electrolyte Li1.5Al0.5Ge1.5(PO4)3–(CH2CF2
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CF2CF(CF3)
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, and semiconductor V2O5–poly(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate composites. Cold sintering is more general and shall have a major impact on the processing of composite materials for many different applications, mechanical, thermal, and electronic, to mention a few possibilities. CSP concepts open up new composite material design and device integration schemes, impacting a wide variety of applications.
“Cold sintering process” (CSP) is an extremely low temperature sintering process (between room temperature and ≈200 °C), which makes it promising to co‐sinter ceramic and thermoplastic polymer composites in a simple one‐step sintering processing. CSP concepts open up new composite material design with many different applications, such as electrical and mechanical.
The use of composites of stimuli-responsive polymers with polysaccharides during water remediation has gained impetus in recent years. The applications of composites of polysaccharides (chitosan, ...cellulose and cyclodextrin) with stimuli-responsive polymers (CO2-, thermo-, light-, and pH-responsive polymers) were reviewed in this paper. These smart composites have tuneable physicochemical properties that enable them to form tailor-made adsorbents for the adsorption of pollutants from water. Adsorption and desorption of pollutants can be switched on and off by adjusting appropriate stimuli without the use of toxic organic solvents. The polysaccharide/stimuli-responsive polymer-based adsorbents, therefore, can be easily recovered during water remediation by adjusting the stimuli, and this makes them to be eco-friendly and recyclable. These attributes of the polysaccharide/stimuli-responsive polymer-based composites were explored in detail in this review. In addition, the challenges associated with the use of these smart composites as well as their future prospects were also articulated in this paper.
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•Polysaccharide/stimuli-responsive polymer composites are used for water remediation•Adsorption/desorption processes are triggered by adjustment of stimuli•Their chemical modification form tailor-made adsorbents for water remediation•Selective water remediation is achieved by molecularly imprinting the composites
Polymeric dielectrics have attracted intensive attention worldwide because of their huge potential for advanced energy storage capacitors. Thus far, various effective strategies have been developed ...to improve the inherent low energy densities of polymer dielectrics. However, enhanced energy density is always accompanied by suppressed discharge efficiency, which is detrimental to practical applications and deserves considerable concern. Targeting at achieving simultaneous high energy density and high discharge efficiency, the unique design of asymmetric all‐polymer trilayer composite consisting of a transition layer sandwiched by a linear dielectric layer and a nonlinear dielectric layer is herein reported. It is demonstrated that the nonlinear dielectric layer offers high energy density, while the linear dielectric layer provides high discharge efficiency. Especially, the transition layer can effectively homogenize the electric field distribution, resulting in greatly elevated breakdown strength and improved energy density. In particular, a high efficiency of 89.9% along with a high energy density of 12.15 J cm−3 are concurrently obtained. The asymmetric trilayer all‐polymer design strategy represents a new way to achieve high‐performance dielectric energy storage materials.
The unique design of an asymmetric all‐polymer trilayer composite consisting of a transition layer sandwiched by a linear dielectric layer and a nonlinear dielectric layer is developed. It is demonstrated that this design strategy is capable of homogenizing electric fields, yielding ultrahigh breakdown strengths (>690 kV mm−1), ultrahigh efficiencies (>88%), and high energy densities (>10 J cm−3).
A polyaniline/polystyrene composite film with a lotus‐leaf‐like structure is prepared via a simple electrospinning method. The film shows stable superhydrophobicity and conductivity, even in many ...corrosive solutions, such as acidic or basic solutions over a wide pH range, and also in oxidizing solutions. The special surface composition and morphology are the two important aspects that induce such unusual properties. The polystyrene content can strongly influence the morphology of the composite films, which thus display different superhydrophobicities and conductivities.
Electrospinning is used to prepare polyaniline/polystyrene films with water contact angles as high as 165° and a sliding angle of less than 5°. The superhydrophobicity and conductivity of the films are stable over a wide pH range, and also in oxidizing solutions. The effect of surface morphology (a typical example is shown in the Figure) on these properties is also investigated.
Polymeric dielectrics with large dielectric constants (ε) and breakdown strength (Eb) coupled with low loss are highly pursued in modern electrical power systems. To synergistically bolster the ε and ...Eb and restrain the dielectric loss in the barium strontium titanite (BST)/poly(vinylidene fluoride, PVDF), in this research, a crystalline titanium dioxide (TiO2) shell was introduced onto the BST to generate PVDF nanocomposites with high ε and Eb but low loss. The findings show that, in comparison to pure BST/PVDF, the BST@TiO2/PVDF nanocomposites present largely enhanced ε, higher Eb and suppressed dielectric loss. The elevated ε results from the synergistic promotion of inter-particle and intra-particle polarizations in the nanocomposites. The TiO2 shell as a buffer layer availably mitigates the interface mismatch in dielectric parameters between BST and PVDF, thereby heightening the Eb. Additionally, by precisely controlling the TiO2 shell thickness, the best dielectric performances of the nanocomposites can be realized at low filler loadings. The underlying multiple polarization mechanisms are theoretically revealed by analyzing the dielectric data using the Havriliak-Negami equation. The present work provides new insight and paradigm for the design of polymeric dielectrics possessing simultaneously high ε and Eb yet low loss for applications in electrical power systems.
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•The BST@TiO2/PVDF nanocomposites present superior overall dielectric properties than unmodified BST/PVDF.•Fast intra-particle polarization and slow inter-particle polarization are enhanced and can be tuned by the TiO2 shell thickness.•The simulation reveals the BST@TiO2 structure's influence on enhanced permittivity and suppressed loss.•The enhanced polarization in BST@TiO2/PVDF is contributed by a fast intra-particle polarization and a slow inter-particle polarization.
In recent years, the synergistic crosslinked networks formed by zinc oxide (ZnO) particles and organic polymers have gained significant attention. This importance is ascribed due to the valuable ...combination of low band gap containing ZnO particles with responsive behavior containing organic polymers. These properties of both ZnO and organic polymers make a suitable system of crosslinked ZnO-organic polymer composite (CZOPC) for various applications in the fields of biomedicine, catalysis, and environmental perspectives. The literature extensively provided the diverse morphologies and structures of CZOPC, and these architectural structures play a crucial role in determining their efficiency across various applications. Consequently, the careful design of CZOPC shapes tailored to specific purposes has become a focal point. This comprehensive review provides insights into the classifications, synthetic approaches, characterizations, and applications of ZnO particles decorated in organic polymers with crosslinked network. The exploration extends to the adsorption, environmental, catalytic, and biomedical applications of ZnO-organic polymer composites. Adopting a tutorial approach, the review systematically investigates and elucidates the applications of CZOPC with a comprehensive understanding of their diverse capabilities and uses.
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•Crosslinked ZnO-organic polymer composites are classified into various classes.•Confirmation of synthesized composites is done with different characterization techniques.•Specific synthetic methods are used for specific morphological composites.•Composites are applicable in different fields such as catalysis, environmental, medicinal and adsorption.
Cold sintering process (CSP) is an extremely low‐temperature sintering process (room temperature to ~200°C) that uses aqueous‐based solutions as transient solvents to aid densification by a ...nonequilibrium dissolution‐precipitation process. In this work, CSP is introduced to fabricate microwave and packaging dielectric substrates, including ceramics (bulk monolithic substrates and multilayers) and ceramic‐polymer composites. Some dielectric materials, namely Li2MoO4, Na2Mo2O7, K2Mo2O7, and (LiBi)0.5MoO4 ceramics, and also (1−x)Li2MoO4−xPTFE and (1−x)(LiBi)0.5MoO4−xPTFE composites, are selected to demonstrate the feasibility of CSP in microwave and packaging substrate applications. Selected dielectric ceramics and composites with high densities (88%‐95%) and good microwave dielectric properties (permittivity, 5.6‐37.1; Q × f, 1700‐30 500 GHz) were obtained by CSP at 120°C. CSP can be also used to potentially develop a new co‐fired ceramic technology, namely CSCC. Li2MoO4−Ag multilayer co‐fired ceramic structures were successfully fabricated without obvious delamination, warping, or interdiffusion. Numerous materials with different dielectric properties can be densified by CSP, indicating that CSP provides a simple, effective, and energy‐saving strategy for the ceramic packaging and microwave device development.
•Sisal fibre obtained by decortication from sisal plants widely found in East Africa.•It possess super engineering mechanical properties like jute and hemp fibres.•Tensile strength, modulus and ...elongation at break are comparable to jute and flax.•Adding in thermosets, thermoplastics and biopolymer improves mechanical strength.•Sisal polymer composites impart revolution in structural and building industries.
Recently, growing environmental impact associated with production, disposal and recycling of synthetic fibre based polymer composites triggers the development of ecofriendly composite for various applications such as automotive, marine, chemical, Infrastructure, sporting goods etc. Among many natural fibres like kenaf, jute, oil palm, cotton, flax, banana and hemp, sisal are gaining attention as they are abundantly available, cheaper, eco-friendly and possess remarkable and satisfactory mechanical properties to hemp, banana and jute. Sisal fibre will play a key role to fabricate a varied range of structural and non-structural industrial products with different polymer matrix. This review article deals the mechanical properties of sisal fibre and the several factors influencing the mechanical properties of its polymer composites, such as fibre loadings, fibre length, fibre architecture, chemical treatments and hybridization by incorporating different natural/synthetic fibre/fillers or additive, according to the application and strength requirements. Attempt also been made to investigate the effect of water absorption, chemical concentration, exposure time, filler weight% and individual fibre loading % in the hybrid configuration on the mechanical properties. Overall present review article was designed to explore, highlights and gathered the previous reported studies directing the mechanical properties of sisal fibre and its polymer composites to provide a perfect source of data and literature for doing future research to reveal it as construction and building materials like synthetic fibres.
•Surface grafting of MoS2 nanosheets with poly(MPC-IA).•The strategy is based on the combination of mussel inspired chemistry and SET-LRP.•MoS2-PDA-poly(MPC-IA) composites show high water dispersity ...and drug loading capability.•MoS2-PDA-poly(MPC-IA) composites can be used for controlled release of CDDP.
Mussel inspired chemistry is a promising surface modification tool, which has attracted great research attention for different applications owing to its universality and interest properties. In this work, a rather simple and efficient method for the surface modification of MoS2 nanosheets with copolymers was achieved through the combination of mussel inspired chemistry and single-electron transfer living radical polymerization (SET-LRP) using 2-methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine (MPC) and itaconic acid (IA) as the monomers. The obtained MoS2-PDA-poly(MPC-IA) nanocomposites were ascertained by a series of characterization techniques, such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Moreover, the MoS2-PDA-poly(MPC-IA) nanocomposites showed enhanced dispersbility and great biocompatibility. The results implied that the MoS2-PDA-poly(MPC-IA) nanocomposites showed great potential in the field of biomedical science. In this work, the drug loading capability and controlled drug release behavior towards CDDP have been investigated. The drug loading in MoS2-PDA-poly(MPC-IA) composites is as high as 55.26%. All of these above results suggested that the combination of mussel inspired chemistry and SET-LRP is a facile and efficient strategy for fabrication of MoS2 based polymer nanocomposites with great potential application in biomedical fields.
Display omitted The water dispersible MoS2 polymer nanocomposites were facilely fabricated via the combination of mussel inspired chemistry and surface-initiated SET-LRP and utilized for controlled drug delivery.
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•Blue luminescent GQDs were prepared from Citric acid.•GQDs nanoparticles were successfully embedded on the polymeric starch matrix.•Addition of GQDs in the TPS created the solid ...stats photoluminescence properties.•The prepared TPS/GQD exhibited a broad photoluminescence emission spectrum.•A cost-effective and eco-friendly TPS/GQDs system was successfully prepared.
Fluorescent polymer films, a matrix of thermoplastic starch (TPS) based bio-polymer and graphene quantum dots (GQDs) were fabricated by a casting method. The GQDs provide solid state fluorescent properties to the prepared thermoplastic starch graphene quantum dots (TPS/GQD). The fluorescent, thermal, mechanical and optical properties of TPS/GQD were investigated. High optical transparency (88–91%) and well dispersion of GQDs (1–17wt%) in the polymeric matrix of TPS/GQD nanocomposite was observed. The maximum photoluminescence intensity of materials has been obtained at 50wt% of GQD content. These materials have great potential to use in flexible electronic displays, light emitting diodes (LED), GQD-LED packaging and other optoelectronics applications.
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