Multiresponsive Color-Changing and Tough Hydrogels Enabled by Self-Assembled Epoxy Oligomer Microspheres.

The fabrication process of hydrogels often incorporates various strategies to achieve multiple responses and enhance strength, which always make the procedure complex and even hinder the incorporation. Here, we develop a facile and flexible method to simultaneously achieve multiresponsive color-changing and tough properties in hydrogels by introducing epoxy oligomer microspheres (DEPMS) to hydrophobic association (HA) hydrogels. DEPMS is responsive to both pH and solvents, showing color changes due to conversion to a conjugated structure.

Water-solvent regulation on complete hydrolysis of thermosetting polyester and complete separation of degradation products.

As one of the largest productions of thermosetting plastics, unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) is difficult to be effectively chemcycled after it is discarded due to its dense network structure. Herein, we demonstrate a mild method for efficient alkaline hydrolysis of UPR into useful feedstocks in mixed solvents of polar aprotic solvent and a small amount of HO by utilizing the fragmentation effect of the solvent on the UPR and the swelling effect of HO on the subsequent partially hydrolyzed UPR respectively. The mixed solvents also play a key role in the aggregation and solubility of the degradation products.

Multifunctional Materials from Aerobic Degradation of Epoxy Thermoset via Phosphotungstic Acid-Involved Activation and Bonding.

The growing scale of production of wind turbines represents a big challenge for chemical recycling of amine-cured epoxy resin (EP) to achieve high-efficiency degradation and high-value utilization of degradation products. Here, H O /phosphotungstic acid (HPW) catalytic oxidation system is demonstrated to completely degrade EP thermoset with the solid recovery rate of 96% at a reaction temperature of 80 °C for 4 h. Owing to protonation and bonding effect of HPW to the amine groups, the degradation products had a weight-average molecular weight of 4285 with narrow molecular weight distribution.

Constructing ultrathin FeS/FeOH@Fe nano-sheets for highly efficient oxygen evolution reaction.

Exploring earth-abundant catalysts with ultra-high activity and durability are the decisive challenges for oxygen evolution reaction. This work prepared the FeS/FeOH@Fe nanosheets as the efficient and stable electrocatalysts of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) through a simple one-step co-deposition method. The FeS/FeOH@Fe exhibited small overpotentials of 245, 376 and 482 mV at the current density of 10, 500 and 1000 mA cm without iR-compensations in 1.

Synthesis of high-performance sodium carboxymethyl cellulose-based adsorbent for effective removal of methylene blue and Pb (II).

In this work, a biobased adsorbent (CMC-PAMA) consisting of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, polyacrylic acid and polyacrylamide was prepared by a simple thermal crosslinking method for the removal of methylene blue (MB) and Pb (II) from aqueous solutions. The CMC-PAMA showed excellent static adsorption capacities for MB and Pb (II) of 1611.44 mg·g 840.

Carbon dot-based fluorescent probes for sensitive and selective detection of luteolin through the inner filter effect.

As a flavonoid, luteolin (LTL) has been universally studied due to its many advantages. Luteolin is a component in drugs and accurate detection is important to determine their LTL content and estimate their disposal effects. In our study, we found that the strong fluorescence of CDs made using ammonium citrate with the quantum yield (QY) of 8.

Fluorescent carbon dots synthesized by microwave-assisted pyrolysis for chromium(VI) and ascorbic acid sensing and logic gate operation.

Herein, nitrogen, sulfur co-doped fluorescent carbon dots (N,SCDs) were synthesized by simple and facile microwave-assisted pyrolysis using ammonium citrate and cysteamine hydrochloride as precursors. The obtained N,SCDs exhibited outstanding photostability, excitation-wavelength independence, excellent fluorescence properties with fluorescence quantum yield (FLQY) up to 54.8%.

Carbon dots synthesized by hydrothermal process via sodium citrate and NHHCO for sensitive detection of temperature and sunset yellow.

In this work, the carbon dots (CDs) were synthesized by an one-pot portable hydrothermal method from sodium citrate and NHHCO. The obtained CDs were found to show high fluorescence quantum yield (31%), excitation-wavelength independence, outstanding water-soluble, excellent chemical and optical stability. Interestingly, it was discovered that sunset yellow (SY) was sensitive and effective in quenching the fluorescence of CDs.

Fluorescent Carbon Dots as Cost-Effective and Facile Probes for Caffeic Acid Sensing via a Fluorescence Quenching Process.

Caffeic acid (CA), a familiar color stabilizing reagent, has aroused general concern due to its uncontrolled addition, and thus the detection of CA is increasingly important. In our report, the bright carbon dots (CDs) were prepared via hydrothermal treatment with urea and citric acid act as raw material and their characteristics were discussed through X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and so on. Impressively, the strong emission of the as-prepared CDs (Quantum Yield: 24.