Flexible and excellent electromagnetic interference shielding film with porous alternating PVA-derived carbon and graphene layers.

Recently, the design of graphene-based films with elaborately controlled microstructures and optimized electromagnetic interference shielding (EMI) properties can effectively improve EM energy attenuation and conversion. Herein, inspired by the structure of multi-layer steamed bread, an alternating multilayered structure with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-derived carbon layers and graphene/electrospun carbon nanofibers layers was designed through alternating vacuum-assisted filtration method. The composite film exhibited favorable impedance matching, abundant loss mechanism, and excellent EMI shielding ability, resulting in absorption dominated shielding characteristic.

Characterizing Tensile Strength of Building Sandstone via Uniaxial Tensile, Compressive, and Flexural Bending Tests.

Sandstone is widely used a construction and building material. However, its uniaxial tensile strength (UTS) is not adequately understood. To characterize the uniaxial tensile strength of natural sandstone, three groups of specimens were fabricated for four-point bending, uniaxial compressive, and tensile tests.

Bioinspired High-Strength Montmorillonite-Alginate Hybrid Film: The Effect of Different Divalent Metal Cation Crosslinking.

The natural nacre has a regular ordered layered structure of calcium carbonate tablets and ion crosslinking proteins stacked alternately, showing outstanding mechanical properties. Inspired by nacre, we fabricated different divalent metal cation-crosslinked montmorillonite-alginate hybrid films (MMT-ALG-X2+; X2+ = Cu2+, Cd2+, Ba2+, Ca2+, Ni2+, Co2+ or Mn2+). The effect of ionic crosslinking strength and hydrogen bond interaction on the mechanical properties of the nacre-mimetics was studied.

Bioinspired Ternary Artificial Nacre Graphene Oxide/Carboxyl Functionalized Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes/Konjac Glucomannan with Enhanced Mechanical Properties.

Inspired by the nacre layered multistage structure and high toughness and strength of the unity of mechanical properties, a graphene oxide/carboxyl functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes/konjac glucomannan (GO-SC-KGM) nanocomposite is successfully fabricated through a vacuum filtration method for the first time. The GO nanosheets with carboxyl and hydroxyl groups, SC with carboxyl groups, and the KGM molecule chains with abundant hydroxyl groups could easily form hydrogen bonding networks, resulting in a strong interface interaction. The tensile strength of prepared GO-SC-KGM nanocomposites reaches 311.

Ultra-High Electromagnetic Absorption Property of One-Dimensional Carbon-Supported Ni/MoC and Polyvinylidene Fluoride.

A novel one-dimensional carbon-supported Ni/MoC (Ni/MoC-C) nanocomposite with excellent electromagnetic wave absorption properties was successfully synthesized by annealing NiMoO@PDA directly, and then the (Ni/MoC-C)/polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) composites were fabricated using a simple blending and hot-molding technique. An excellent reflection loss (RL) of -55.91 dB at 9.

A CO-tunable plasmonic nanosensor based on the interfacial assembly of gold nanoparticles on diblock copolymers grafted from gold surfaces.

A general stepwise strategy for the fabrication of CO-tunable plasmonic nanosensors was described for the first time, based on gold surface functionalization by CO-responsive poly(,-diethylaminoethyl methacrylate) (PDEAEMA) brushes a surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) method, then the extremity of PDEAEMA was functionalized by linking the polyacrylamide (PAAm) brushes ATRP, where they were assembled with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) efficiently by altering the deposition time. The swelling-shrinking states of the PDEAEMA brushes can be tuned just by passing CO and N through a solution alternately. The unique plasmonic surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensing properties of these stimulable substrates were investigated using 4-mercaptophenol (4MPh) as a molecular probe.

Ca Enhanced Nacre-Inspired Montmorillonite-Alginate Film with Superior Mechanical, Transparent, Fire Retardancy, and Shape Memory Properties.

Inspired by nacre, this is the first time that using the cross-linking of alginate with Ca ions to fabricate organic-inorganic nacre-inspired films we have successfully prepared a new class of Ca ion enhanced montmorillonite (MMT)-alginate (ALG) composites, realizing an optimum combination of high strength (∼280 MPa) and high toughness (∼7.2 MJ m) compared with other MMT based artificial nacre. Furthermore, high temperature performance of the composites (with a maximum strength of ∼170 MPa at 100 °C) along with excellent transmittance, fire retardancy, and unique shape memory response to alcohols could greatly expand the application of the mutilfunctional composites, which are believed to show competitive advantages in transportion, construction, and insulations, protection of a flammable biological material, etc.

Tuning plasmonic and chemical enhancement for SERS detection on graphene-based Au hybrids.

Various graphene-based Au nanocomposites have been developed as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates recently. However, efficient use of SERS has been impeded by the difficulty of tuning SERS enhancement effects induced from chemical and plasmonic enhancement by different preparation methods of graphene. Herein, we developed graphene-based Au hybrids through physical sputtering gold NPs on monolayer graphene prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) as a CVD-G/Au hybrid, as well as graphene oxide-gold (GO/Au) and reduced-graphene oxide (rGO/Au) hybrids prepared using the chemical in situ crystallization growth method.

Bioinspired design and assembly of layered double hydroxide/poly(vinyl alcohol) film with high mechanical performance.

Inspired by the hierarchical structure and excellent mechanical performance of nacre, LDH nanosheets with an appropriate aspect ratio to withstand significant loads and at the same time allow for rupture under the pull-out mode were synthesized as artificial building blocks for the fabrication of nacre-like films. Multilayered PVA/LDH films with a high tensile strength and ductility were prepared for the first time by bottom-up layer-by-layer assembly of pretreated LDH nanosheets and spin-coating of PVA. The weight fraction of inorganic LDH platelets in the hybrid PVA/LDH films (wp) was controlled by changing the concentration of PVA solution applied in the spin-coating process.