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Special Issue "Surface and Interface of Polymer Nanocomposites"

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College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an 710065, China
Interests: nanocomposite; polymer; two-dimensional material; nanomaterial; nanofluid; carbon

Dr. Shichao Ding

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Department of Nanoengineering, Jacobs School of Engineering, University of California San Diego, San Deigo, CA 92093, USA
Interests: single-atom catalysts; fuel cell; biosensors; electrochemistry; nanomedince
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Xiaoling Hu

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Department of Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
Interests: polymer; nanomaterial; ionic liquid; biosensor; protein; film

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Polymer nanocomposites are innovative polymer-based materials that use improved material preparation technologies to optimize the combination of material components with diverse properties. Polymer nanocomposites on the micro/nanoscale form a fairly complex phase structure due to the surface or interface interaction between different components, making polymer nanocomposites show a promising application value in many advanced applications, such as electromagnetic shielding, drives, biomedicine, energy storage, strain/stress sensor and electronic devices, and water purifying. The macroscopic characteristics of polymer nanocomposites are determined by the surface or interfacial properties of polymers and other components at micro/nanoscales. Therefore, revealing such surface or interface interactions at the molecular or atomic level gives a significant theoretical basis for improving polymer composite applications.

This Special Issue will present the latest findings from the widespread research community in the surface and interface of polymer nanocomposites to promote a better understanding and improved design of microstructure regulation required for achieving macro-performance in a variety of cutting-edge applications.

Dr. Chunbao Du
Dr. Shichao Ding
Prof. Dr. Xiaoling Hu
Guest Editors

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Keywords

polymer composites
nanomaterials
interface
surface
self-assembly
nanostructure
performance enhancement

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Mechanical Properties on the Piezoelectric Response of UV-Cured Composite Films Containing Different ZnO Morphologies

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Polymers 2023, 15(5), 1159; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15051159 - 25 Feb 2023

Viewed by 807

Abstract

ZnO flower-like (ZFL) and needle (ZLN) structures were synthesized and embedded into UV-curable acrylic resin (EB), with the aim to study the effect of filler loading on the piezoelectric properties of the resulting composite films. The composites showed uniform dispersion of fillers within the polymer matrix. However, by increasing the filler amount, the number of aggregates increased, and ZnO fillers appeared not to be perfectly embedded in polymer film, indicating poor interaction with acrylic resin. The filler content increase caused an increase in glass transition temperature (T_g) and a decrease in storage modulus in the glassy state. In particular, compared with pure UV-cured EB (T_g = 50 °C), 10 wt.% ZFL and ZLN presented T_g values of 68 and 77 °C, respectively. The piezoelectric response generated by the polymer composites was good when measured at 19 Hz as a function of the acceleration; the RMS output voltages achieved at 5 g were 4.94 and 1.85 mV for the composite films containing ZFL and ZLN, respectively, at their maximum loading levels (i.e., 20 wt.%). Further, the RMS output voltage increase was not proportional to the filler loading; this finding was attributable to the decrease in the storage modulus of the composites at high ZnO loading rather than the dispersion of filler or the number of particles on the surface. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface and Interface of Polymer Nanocomposites)

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Open AccessArticle

Facile Surface Treatment of 3D-Printed PLA Filter for Enhanced Graphene Oxide Doping and Effective Removal of Cationic Dyes

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Polymers 2023, 15(2), 269; https://doi.org/10.3390/polym15020269 - 04 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1527

Abstract

The structured adsorption filter material is one of the ways to enhance the practical applicability of powdered adsorbents, which have limitations in the real water treatment process due to difficulty in the separation process. In this study, three-dimensional (3D) printing technology was applied to prepare filter materials for water treatment processes. A 3D-printed graphene-oxide (GO)-based adsorbent is prepared on a polylactic acid (PLA) scaffold. The surface of the PLA scaffold was modified by subjecting it to strong alkaline or organic solvent treatment to enhance GO doping for realizing effective adsorption of cationic dye solutions. When subjected to 95% acetone treatment, the structural properties of PLA changed, and particularly, two main hydrophilic functional groups (carboxylic acids and hydroxyls) were newly formed on the PLA through cleavage of the ester bond of the aliphatic polyester. Owing to these changes, the roughness of the PLA surface increased, and its tensile strength decreased. Meanwhile, its surface was doped mainly with GO, resulting in approximately 75% methylene blue (MB) adsorption on the 3D-printed GO-based PLA filter. Based on the established optimal pretreatment conditions, a kinetic MB sorption study and an isotherm study were conducted to evaluate the 3D-printed GO-based PLA filter. The pseudo-second-order model yielded the best fit, and the MB adsorption was better fitted to the Langmuir isotherm. These results suggested that chemical adsorption was the main driver of the reaction, and monolayer sorption occurred on the adsorbent surface. The results of this study highlight the importance of PLA surface modification in enhancing GO doping and achieving effective MB adsorption in aqueous solutions. Ultimately, this study highlights the potential of using 3D printing technology to fabricate the components required for implementing water treatment processes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surface and Interface of Polymer Nanocomposites)

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