Carbonized Cellulose Nanofibril with Individualized Fibrous Morphology: toward Multifunctional Applications in Polycaprolactone Conductive Composites.

Drying cellulose nanofibril (CNF) from aqueous suspensions often leads to aggregated fibril morphology, negatively affecting its performance in ensuing applications. In this work, we introduced a new solvent drying approach to acquire dry CNF from aqueous suspensions and subsequently pyrolyzed the CNF precursor to obtain carbonized CNF (CCNF) without loss of its fibrous morphology. The fibrous CCNF was dispersed homogeneously in polycaprolactone (PCL) thermoplastic resin, greatly enhancing PCL composite tensile performance.

Nitrogen-doped fullerene as a potential catalyst for hydrogen fuel cells.

We examine the possibility of nitrogen-doped C60 fullerene (N-C60) as a cathode catalyst for hydrogen fuel cells. We use first-principles spin-polarized density functional theory calculations to simulate the electrocatalytic reactions on N-C60. The first-principles results show that an O2 molecule can be adsorbed and partially reduced on the N-C complex sites (Pauling sites) of N-C60 without any activation barrier.

Colossal positive Seebeck coefficient and low thermal conductivity in reduced TiO(2).

Reduced (oxygen deficient) single crystal TiO(2) exhibits a very large positive Seebeck coefficient S at low temperature. S as large as 60 000 µV K(-1) was observed near 10 K for the least reduced sample, which gives a thermoelectric power factor of 170 µW K(-2) cm(-1). This value is about four times higher than the power factor of Bi(2)Te(3)-based materials near room temperature.