Synthesis of silver nanoclusters by irradiation reduction and detection of Cr3+ ions.

In our work, a simple and fast synthesis method is provided to synthesize silver nanoclusters (AgNCs). In this method, with using polyacrylic acid (PAA) as a template, the silver ions were reduced to silver nanoclusters by irradiation reduction at room temperature. The prepared silver nanoclusters (PAA-AgNCs) with average particle size of 1.98 ± 0.79 nm have a fluorescence property, and their physical and chemical properties can be controlled by absorbed dose, PAA/Ag+ mole ratio and other factors. The fluorescence stability of the PAA-AgNCs is good, and it is unique in that the fluorescence emission of the s PAA-AgNCs depends on the excitation wavelength. In addition, based on the fluorescence quenching phenomenon of PAA-AgNCs in the presence of Cr3+ ion, we established a simple and efficient method for the detection of Cr3+ ion by using PAA-AgNCs as fluorescent probes.

Gamma-Ray Irradiation to Accelerate Crystallization of Mesoporous Zeolites.

Gamma-ray (γ-ray) irradiation was introduced into zeolite synthesis. The crystallization process of zeolite NaA, NaY, Silicalite-1, and ZSM-5 were greatly accelerated. The crystallization time of NaA zeolite was significantly decreased to 18 h under γ-ray irradiation at 20 °C, while more than 102 h was needed for the conventional process. Unexpectedly, more mesopores were created during this process, and thus the adsorption capacity of CO2 increased by 6-fold compared to the NaA prepared without γ-ray irradiation. Solid experimental evidence and density function theory (DFT) calculations demonstrated that hydroxyl free radicals (OH*) generated by γ-rays accelerated the crystallization of zeolite NaA. Besides NaA, mesoporous ZSM-5 with MFI topology was also successfully synthesized under γ-ray irradiation, which possessed excellent catalytic performance for methanol conversion, suggesting the universality of this new synthetic strategy for various zeolites.

A new promising nucleating agent for polymer foaming: effects of hollow molecular-sieve particles on polypropylene supercritical CO2 microcellular foaming.

Because polypropylene (PP) foam normally exhibits nonuniform cell size and cracked cellular structure, a narrow cell-size distribution and a well-defined morphology are always the focus of PP foaming technology. In this work, hollow molecular-sieve (MS) particles were applied as a potential nucleating agent in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) foaming of PP. It was observed that the addition of MS particles largely narrowed the cell-size distribution. The resultant PP/MS foams exhibited significant concurrent enhancement in their cell density and mechanical properties: the cell density increased remarkably, by approximately 10 times, and the tensile strength increased from 6.1 MPa to 12.6 MPa. The hollow-structure MS particles resulted in a higher heterogeneous nucleation efficiency in the PP foaming process. We believe that the trapping of CO2 in the hollow holes of MS particles largely increased the solubility CO2 in PP and a number of gas cavities were formed. The existence of gas cavities reduced the energy barrier of heterogeneous nucleation, favoring the formation of a well-defined cellular structure. Additionally, the regular-hexagon shape of the cells might endow the PP foam with better mechanical properties compared with a circular cell shape.

Supercritical CO2 Foaming of Radiation Cross-Linked Isotactic Polypropylene in the Presence of TAIC.

Since the maximum foaming temperature window is only about 4 °C for supercritical CO2 (scCO2) foaming of pristine polypropylene, it is important to raise the melt strength of polypropylene in order to more easily achieve scCO2 foaming. In this work, radiation cross-linked isotactic polypropylene, assisted by the addition of a polyfunctional monomer (triallylisocyanurate, TAIC), was employed in the scCO2 foaming process in order to understand the benefits of radiation cross-linking. Due to significantly enhanced melt strength and the decreased degree of crystallinity caused by cross-linking, the scCO2 foaming behavior of polypropylene was dramatically changed. The cell size distribution, cell diameter, cell density, volume expansion ratio, and foaming rate of radiation-cross-linked polypropylene under different foaming conditions were analyzed and compared. It was found that radiation cross-linking favors the foamability and formation of well-defined cell structures. The optimal absorbed dose with the addition of 2 wt % TAIC was 30 kGy. Additionally, the foaming temperature window was expanded to about 8 °C, making the handling of scCO2 foaming of isotactic polypropylene much easier.

Preparation and characterization of superhydrophobic organic-inorganic hybrid cotton fabrics via γ-radiation-induced graft polymerization.

A new kind of non-fluorine-based organic-inorganic hybrid superhydrophobic cotton fabric was successfully prepared by simultaneous radiation-induced graft polymerization of γ-methacryloxypropyl trimethoxy silane (MAPS) and subsequent end-capping modification with hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS). The chemical structure and surface topography of the pristine and modified cotton fabrics were investigated in detail by ATR-FTIR, XPS, (29)Si NMR, SEM and TGA to confirm that the graft reaction and end-capping modification had taken place. The above results demonstrated that the grafting polymerization and following end-capping reaction were completed, and a grafting layer was immobilized onto the surface of the cotton fabric. Surface wettability measurement and oil-water separation showed that the modified cotton surface not only exhibited the superhydrophobicity with a water contact angle of 165°, but also afforded a high efficiency of oil-water separation (96%). In particular, this modified cotton fabric retains superhydrophobicity even after 30 laundering cycles or 400 cycles of abrasion.