Search

Poly(butyleneadipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) was used to toughen poly(lactic acid) (PLA) with the addition of poly(methyl methacrylate)-poly (butyl acrylate)-poly(methyl methacrylate) (MAM) through melt blending. The impact toughness and tensile toughness of the PLA/PBAT/MAM ternary blends were greatly enhanced when the MAM content was higher than 5%. For PLA/PBAT/MAM (80/15/5) blend, the notched impact strength was as high as 42.4 kJ/[m.sup.2], and the elongation at break reached 194.7%. The structure-property relationship of the PLA/PBAT/MAM ternary blends were studied through scanning electron microscopy, dynamic mechanical analysis, and contact angle measurements. It is found MAM and PBAT have a synergistic toughening effect on PLA, the MAM acts as not only a compatibilizer but also a toughening agent, which can improve the compatibility and enhance the interfacial adhesion between PLA and PBAT. As a result, the overall mechanical properties of PLA blends were improved significantly. This result provides a simple to operate and more efficient method for PLA toughening. KEYWORDS MAM, mechanical properties, PBAT, PLA, synergistic toughening, 1 | INTRODUCTION Poly(lactic acid) (PLA), as a biodegradable polymer produced entirely from renewable resources, has good mechanical properties, easy processability, and excellent biodegradability in most products. [1] However, the [...]

The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation method was used to study the influence of the Al₂O₃-RO (R=Ca, Mg) ratio on the structure and properties of CaO-MgO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-Na₂O glass at high temperatures. The micro-structure characteristics, degree of network polymerisation (DNP), and high-temperature viscosity of the glass melts were analysed. The results showed that the coordination number of Si4+ and Al3+ remained about 4 in the process of replacing Al₂O₃ with RO. The silicon-oxygen and aluminium-oxygen tetrahedron content showed a decreasing trend with a decrease in the Al₂O₃ content, the bridging oxygen content decreased, and the degree of the network polymerisation of the glass decreased from 3.33 to 2.79. The decrease in the Al₂O₃ content also caused a rapid decrease in the glass fibre-forming temperature from 1637.66K to 1552.87K. According to the molecular dynamics calculation, the linear relationship between the DNP and fibre-forming temperature was obtained.

A mussel-inspired multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) nanocomposite (MWCNTs@CCh-PEI) was prepared by the co-deposition of catechol (CCh)/polyethyleneimine (PEI) and modification of MWCNTs for the efficient removal of methyl orange (MO). The effects of MO solution pH, contact time, initial MO concentration, and temperature on the adsorption capacity of MWCNTs@CCh-PEI were investigated. The results indicate that the adsorption capacity of MWCNTs@CCh-PEI was two times higher than that of pristine MWCNTs under the same conditions. The adsorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order model, suggesting that the adsorption process was chemisorption. The adsorption isotherm shows that the experimental data were fitted well with the Langmuir isotherm model, with a correlation coefficient of 0.9873, indicating that the adsorption process was monolayer adsorption. The theoretical maximum adsorption capacity was determined to be 400.00 mg·g−1. The adsorption thermodynamic data show that the adsorption process was exothermic and spontaneous. More importantly, the adsorption capacity of MWCNTs@CCh-PEI showed no significant decrease after eight reuse cycles. These results demonstrate that MWCNTs@CCh-PEI is expected to be an economical and efficient adsorbent for MO removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbiome has emerged as a promising indicator or predictor of human diseases. However, previous studies have typically labeled each specimen as either healthy or with a specific disease, ignoring prevalence of complications or comorbidities in actual cohorts, which may confound the microbial–disease associations. For instance, a patient may suffer from multiple diseases, making it challenging to detect their health status accurately. Furthermore, host phenotypes like physiological characteristics and lifestyles can alter microbiome structure, but such information has not yet been fully utilized in data models. To address these issues, a highly explainable deep learning (DL) method called Meta‐Spec is proposed. Using a deep neural network (DNN)‐based approach, it encodes and embeds refined host variables with microbiome features, enabling the detection of multiple diseases simultaneously. Experiments show that Meta‐Spec outperforms regular machine learning (ML) strategies for multilabel disease screening in several cohorts. More importantly, Meta‐Spec successfully detects comorbidities that are often missed by other approaches. In addition, for its high interpretability, Meta‐Spec captures key factors that shape disease patterns from host variables and microbes. Hence, these efforts improve the feasibility and sensitivity of microbiome‐based disease screening in practical scenarios, representing a significant step toward personalized medicine and better health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ag nanowires coated with TiO2 nanosheets (AgNWS@TiO2NS, AWT) have been successfully synthesized via a one-pot hydrothermal synthesis. Importantly, the prepared AWT shows enhanced photocatalytic activity compared with Degussa P25, which is attributed to its continuous hierarchical structures, special conductive channel and localized surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Additionally, these prepared AWT were exploited as an electron conductor and scattering material in the TiO2 composite photoanodes of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The highest energy conversion efficiency of 6.98% was achieved when the AWT doping rate in the photoanode slurry was 5 wt%. Both enhanced Isc and Voc are attributed to the increased photo-absorption efficiency from the localized SPR. The potential enhanced light-scattering effect and faster photoelectric transmission efficiency of the AWT in the photoanode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of sensing platforms based on nanoenzymes has been the focus of scientists from different countries. Since phosphate ion (Pi) is considered as an important indicator for water eutrophication, it is important to construct a fast, cost-effective, convenient and reliable determination method to monitor Pi for controlling water quality. In this study, MoS2 induced bimetallic–organic framework UiO-66(Fe/Zr) nanoparticles were prepared by a solvothermal method. Compared with that of pure UiO-66(Fe/Zr), MoS2/UiO-66(Fe/Zr) exhibits a higher peroxidase-like activity due to the generation of superoxide free radical (˙O2−). With the aid of the 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) substrate together with H2O2, the enzyme-like behaviors of MoS2/UiO-66(Fe/Zr) as nanoperoxidase are evaluated. Interestingly, Zr4+ can specifically recognize Pi. Thus, according to the excellent peroxidase activity as well as specific recognition towards Pi of MoS2/UiO-66(Fe/Zr), a fast cost-effective colorimetric sensing platform has been established to determine phosphate in a good linear range of 10–100 μM with the limit of detection as low as 6.4 μM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure, thermal stability and dielectric properties of aluminoborosilicate glasses with different contents of Pr2O3 were researched by XRD, FT-IR, DSC and electronic impedance analyzer. FT-IR results showed that the addition of Pr2O3 enhanced the degree of polymerization of glass network. The molar volume decreased at first and then increased, which reached the minimum value with the content of Pr2O3 up to 1.5 mol%. With the addition of Pr2O3 the glass transition temperature (Tg) showed an upward trend, while Dietzel's thermal stability (ΔT) and the Saad parameter (S) both increased initially to be followed by a decrease, which indicated that the thermal stability of glass can be improved by doping proper content of Pr2O3. The dielectric constant (εr) and dielectric loss (tanα) both decreased at first then started to go up as the content of Pr2O3 increased. When Pr2O3 content moved up to 0.5 mol% and 1.5 mol%, the εr and tanα reached the minimum values 4.68 and 3.13 × 10–4, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]