MXene-Vitrimer Nanocomposites: Photo-Thermal Repair, Reinforcement, and Conductivity at Low Volume Fractions Through a Percolative Voronoi-Inspired Microstructure.

An innovative process to multifunctional vitrimer nanocomposites with a percolative MXene minor phase is reported, marking a significant advancement in creating stimuli-repairable, reinforced, sustainable, and conductive nanocomposites at diminished loadings. This achievement arises from a Voronoi-inspired biphasic morphological design via a straight-forward three-step process involving ambient-condition precipitation polymerization of micron-sized prepolymer powders, aqueous powder-coating with 2D MXene (TiCT), and melt-pressing of MXene-coated powders into crosslinked films. Due to the formation of MXene-rich boundaries between thiourethane vitrimer domains in a pervasive low-volume fraction conductive network, a low percolation threshold (≈0.

Identifying and assessing pond best management practice under future climate scenarios.

Climate change can play important roles in the hydrological processes within watershed with ponds as the Best Management Practice (BMP). Unlike several other studies, this study integrated remote sensing technique with hydrological model to identify and simulate pond BMP. Limited studies have been carried out to evaluate pond BMP in relation to the climate change impacts on hydrology and water quality particularly in Mississippi watersheds.

Magneto-Responsive Chiral Optical Materials: Flow-Induced Twisting of Cellulose Nanocrystals in Patterned Magnetic Fields.

Magnetic fields have been used to uniformly align the lyotropic chiral nematic (cholesteric) liquid crystalline (LC) phase of biopolymers to a global orientation and optical appearance. Here, we demonstrate that, in contrast, weak and patterned magnetic field gradients can create a complex optical appearance with the variable spatial local organization of needle-like magnetically decorated cellulose nanocrystals. The formation of optically patterned thin films with left- and right-handed chiral and achiral regions is observed and related to local magnetic gradient-driven vortices during LC suspension flow.

Resolving plasmon-mediated high-order multiphoton excitation pathways in dolmen nanostructures using ultrafast nonlinear optical interferometry.

The multiphoton excitation pathways of plasmonic nanorod assemblies are described. By using dolmen structures formed from the directed assembly of three gold nanorods, plasmon-mediated three-photon excitation is resolved. These high-order multiphoton excitation channels were accessed by resonantly exciting a hybrid mode of the dolmen structure that was resonant with the 800-nm carrier wavelength of an ultrafast laser system.