Relief of Residual Stress in Bulk Thermosets in the Glassy State by Local Bond Exchange.

The covalently cross-linked network gives thermosets superior thermal, mechanical, and electrical properties, which, however, squarely makes the large residual stress that is inevitably induced during preparation hardly relieved in the glassy state. In this work, an incredible reduction in residual stress is successfully achieved in bulk thermosets in the glassy state through introducing highly dynamic thiocarbamate bonds by "click" reactions of thiols and isocyanates. Due to the excellent dynamic behaviors of thiocarbamate bonds, local network rearrangement is achieved through thermal stimulation, while the strong 3D cross-linked network is well maintained. Ultimately, a decrease by 44% in residual stress is detected by simply annealing samples at 30 °C below glass transition temperature (Tg), during which they could well maintain more than 98.4% of the storage modulus. After the annealing, more uniform residual stress distribution is also observed, showing a 32% decline in sample standard deviation. However, the residual stress of epoxy resin, a typical thermoset as a reference, changes little even after annealing at Tg. The results prove it a feasible strategy to reduce residual stress in bulk thermosets in the glassy state by introducing proper dynamic covalent bonds.

Dynamic Cross-Linked Polyethylene Networks with High Energy Storage and Electrical Damage Self-Healability.

Dielectric polymers that exhibit high energy density Ue, low dielectric loss, and thermal resistance are ideal materials for next-generation electrical equipment. The most widely utilized approach to improving Ue involves augmenting the polarization through increasing the dielectric constant εr or the breakdown strength Eb. However, as a conflicting parameter, the dielectric loss also increases inevitably at the same time. In addition, due to the long-term work under a strong electric field or high potential, dielectric materials often produce electrical damage (electrical tree), which is one of the main factors affecting the reliability and service life of electrical equipment. To address these problems, we herein develop dynamic cross-linked polyethylene materials (PE-MA-Epo) by polyethylene-graft-maleic anhydride (PE-MA) and polar epoxy monomers, which showed high εr (>7), low dielectric loss (<0.02), high Ue (5.16 J/cm3 at 425 MV/m), and outstanding discharge efficiency (97%). The performances of the materials are adequate to rival biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) films. Moreover, the excellent self-healing capability of PE-MA-Epo enables the total recovery of εr and tan δ after electrical tree healing. After two cycles of electrical breakdown healing, Eb remained at 80%, which improves the durability and reliability of dielectric polymers. Therefore, PE-MA-Epo shows great potential for applications in advanced electronic power devices.

Characterization and expression analysis of peroxiredoxin family genes from the silkworm Bombyx mori in response to phoxim and chlorpyrifos.

The organophosphorus pesticide poisoning of the silkworm Bombyx mori is one of the major events causing serious damage to sericulture. Some antioxidant enzymes play roles in regulating generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by pesticides including phoxim and chlorpyrifos, but relatively little is known about their effects on the silkworm peroxiredoxin family genes. Here, five peroxiredoxin (Prx) genes have been identified in silkworm genome, and Prx genes of silkworm and mammalian homologs have apparent ortholog relationship. Based on the genomic DNA sequence, putative 5'-flanking region of five BmPrxs were obtained and the transcription factor binding sites were predicted. Their expression profiles exposed to different concentrations of phoxim and chlorpyrifos for 24 h, 48 h and 72 h in midgut of silkworm were investigated using quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). The results showed that five BmPrxs and dual oxidase (BmDUOX) gene were all expressed in midgut of silkworm. After feeding with 0.375 mg/L and 0.75 mg/L phoxim, the transcription levels of BmPrx3 and BmPrx5 that can be located in mitochondria reached their peak levels at an early time point (24h). However, the transcription levels of BmPrx4 and BmPrx6 that can be addressed to secrete from the cell and cytosol, respectively, reached their peak levels at a later time point (72 h). Similar to expose to phoxim, the transcription levels of BmPrx3 and BmPrx5 that can be located in mitochondria reached their peak levels at an early time point (24 h) under chlorpyrifos stress. However, the transcription levels of BmPrx4 and BmPrx6 that can be addressed to secrete from the cell and cytosol, respectively, reached their peak levels at a later time point (72 h) under chlorpyrifos stress. These results revealed that BmPrxs that can be located in mitochondria were able to protect cells even more efficiently than cytosolic from an oxidative stress caused by OP. In addition, BmDUOX was also induced by phomix and chlorpyrifos. Overall, our results indicate that a complex expression regulation of Prxs that play important roles in maintaining redox equilibrium state of silkworm to reduce oxidative damage caused by pesticide.