Advanced Materials Interfaces最新文献

Wetting Characteristics of Microstructures

The cover of the article 2400626 by Nam-Trung Nguyen, Navid Kashaninejad, and co-workers showcases the interplay between silicon carbide and silicon dioxide re-entrant microstructures, represented by the molecule models resting on mushroom-shaped structures. The scene highlights their hydrophobic behavior, with a large water droplet demonstrating surface tension. The varying cap shapes signify different material properties and geometry effects, advancing surface science and microstructure design.

A Ti-Si-C-N coating is deposited on AISI H11 hot working steel by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to investigate its micro- and nanostructure as well as its mechanical and thermal properties. Instead of a nanocomposite structure consisting of randomly oriented nanocrystalline (nc-) grains < 10 nm surround by an amorphous (a-) matrix, as usually found for these systems, this Ti-Si-C-N coating shows much larger Ti(C,N)-grains with a preferred (200) orientation identify by X-ray diffraction analysis. The strong texturing and grain sizes > 10 nm of the coating are confirmed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images. The coating's hardness is 46.3 GPa, making it equally hard to, e.g., nanocomposite Ti-Si-N coatings. These hardness values can only be achieved by a strong interface between a-matrix and nc-grains and small grain size. Despite 41.1 at.% carbon content, no significant quantity of a-C is found, as evidenced by Raman spectroscopy analysis. In order to investigate the oxidation behavior of the coatings, X-ray diffraction experiments are carried out at room temperature and in-situ in ambient atmosphere at elevated temperatures. The room temperature measurement shows a strong texturing of the Ti(C,N) lattice and yielded additional information on an anisotropic grain size.

The treatment of contaminants in water has become one of the most critical environmental issues today, especially oil- and dye-pollutants in water, for which there is still no efficient and economical solution. A multifunctional phase-selective organogel (tert-butyl (S)-(5-amino-1,5-dioxo-1-(tetradecylamino)pentan-2-yl)carbamate, TBTC) is developed to remove oils and dyes from water. Benefiting from the significant van der Waals interaction between the long alkyl chain of TBTC and the oil, TBTC can rapidly disperse into the oil phase. Then, TBTC aggregates into fibers and solidifies oil through a repairable, dynamic, and balanced hydrogen bonding network, which can solidify and recover the spilled oil at room temperature. TBTC can also efficiently remove more than a dozen typical dye contaminants through a host–guest recognition mode. The mechanism of host–guest recognition is studied by experiment combined with multiscale calculations. Partial ¹H VT NMR, FTIR, and XRD experiments have shown that the main driving force for TBTC gelation and host–guest recognition originates from interaction hydrogen bonding, are TBTC specifically recognizes dye molecules through weak hydrogen bonding interactions and rapidly aggregates to form precipitates. TBTC-based organogel provides a potential solution for oil spill recovery and removal of dyes from water.

Liquid Crystal Elastomers

In article 2400488, Mohand O. Saed and co-workers develop reusable liquid crystal adhesives with controlled transition temperatures (Tg and Ti). These adhesives show low tackiness in the glassy and isotropic phases, becoming activated between Tg and Ti. They are reusable across multiple heating and cooling cycles, resistant to contamination, and offer lap shear and peel strengths comparable to traditional pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs).

Metal Cluster-Based Chemical Sensor

The development of a nanohybrid based on trinuclear molybdenum sulfido clusters supported onto graphene and its application to detect toxic and harmful gaseous molecules is described. The outstanding sensing performance toward CO₂ makes these materials promising for a new generation of molybdenum resistive interrogators for the control of air quality. More details can be found in article 2400590 by Juan Casanova-Chafer, Eduard Llobet, and Marta Feliz.

Planetary Lithium Islands

The cover image of the article 2400693 by Yi Cui, Stacey F. Bent, and co-workers depicts a unique planetary-like microstructure with lithium islands achieved by resistive hafnia coating on copper. The work introduces an interface engineering approach that allows the decoupling of two critical lithium (Li)-metal battery parameters—Li-morphology and solid electrolyte interphase (SEI)—in their kinetically convoluted regime. The article highlights that Li morphological control is more practical due to the challenges in SEI preservation.

The transport of hydrogen through an anion-exchange membrane (AEM) is analyzed by in-line product gas analysis in a large dynamic range (0.1–2 Acm⁻²) at ambient pressure and correlated to ex situ membrane properties, including volumetric electrolyte uptake, dimensional swelling and diffusivities. A commercial AF3-HWK9-75-X membrane from Ionomr Innovations Inc. is characterized and employed in a 25 cm² electrolyzer cell, which is operated for 56 h at 60 °C in 1 M KOH solution. A model of the membrane is developed, based on a combination of existing theoretical knowledge regarding liquid electrolytes and measured properties of the membrane. The model is employed to quantify the transport parameters through the membrane and the porous electrode. The hydrogen transport through the membrane is 770 times slower than through the electrode. The anion-exchange membrane permits a low degree of gas crossover, with a hydrogen-in-oxygen concentration of $��0.37��\%�$ at 2 Acm⁻². The model indicates that modifying the membrane's microstructure has a more pronounced effect on the gas crossover than altering the swollen thickness. A correlation is derived to estimate the polymer diffusivity from the derived effective diffusivity through the membrane, which allows the determination of preferred membrane properties to lower hydrogen crossover.