Covalent grafting of chitosan onto stainless steel through aryldiazonium self-adhesive layers.

Although the conventional methods for strong attachment of chitosan onto stainless steel require many steps in different solvents, it has been demonstrated in this work that covalent grafting of chitosan on a steel surface can be easily achieved through the formation of a self-adhesive surface based on aryldiazonium seed layers. Initially, a polyaminophenyl layer is grafted on a stainless steel surface by means of the one-step GraftFast(TM) process (diazonium induced anchoring process). The grafted aminophenyl groups are then converted to an aryldiazonium seed layer by simply dipping the substrate in a sodium nitrite acidic solution.

Decoration of graphitic surfaces with Sn nanoparticles through surface functionalization using diazonium chemistry.

Composites of tin nanoparticles (Sn NP) and graphene are candidate materials for high capacity and mechanically stable negative electrodes in rechargeable Li ion batteries. A uniform dispersion of Sn NP with controlled size is necessary to obtain high electrochemical performance. We show that the nucleation of Sn particles on highly ordered pyrolitic graphite (HOPG) from solution can be controlled by functionalizing the HOPG surface by aryl groups prior to Sn deposition.

Surface homogeneity of anion exchange membranes: a chronopotentiometric study in the overlimiting current range.

Electrotransport of sodium chloride near and through the ASV anion exchange membrane was first investigated. Chronopotentiometric and current-voltage characteristics results have shown that the ASV membrane acts as a totally conducting plane with respect to the transport of NaCl electrolyte. SEM and AFM images contributed to confirm the overall homogeneous surface of the membrane.

Permselectivity and microstructure of anion exchange membranes.

The water content, the ion exchange capacity, the transport number of counter-ion of the AMV and AMX anion exchange membranes were determined. The two-phase model (gel phase and interstitial phase) of structure microheterogeneity was validated by means of conductivity measurements. The chronopotentiometric results allowed us to affirm the overall surface homogeneity of the membranes.