Publications

Fiber-reinforced elastomer composites are indispensable structural materials for transportation and industrial applications, yet their performance is fundamentally limited by inefficient stress transfer across fiber-elastomer interfaces and the lack of efficient and sustainable interfacial engineering approaches. Herein, we report a green interfacial engineering strategy based on carbon dot (CD) grafting to regulate surface chemistry and morphology of polyethylene terephthalate fibers. A microwave-assisted reaction simultaneously generates and covalently anchors CDs onto the fiber surface, constructing functionalized and roughened surfaces. Experimental results combined with theoretical calculations reveal the molecular interactions between CD-derived functional groups and the impregnation layer, elucidating the mechanism of interfacial reinforcement. The engineered interface enables more efficient stress transfer and markedly enhanced interfacial adhesion while retaining the radical-scavenging capability of CDs, which improves thermo-oxidative aging resistance. By integrating CD-grafted fibers with an eco-friendly impregnation system, the composites achieve markedly enhanced interfacial performance, with a 137% higher peel strength compared with unmodified fibers, highlighting the effectiveness of CD grafting for green processing. This work establishes an efficient interfacial engineering strategy for fiber-reinforced elastomer composites, offering both mechanistic understanding and practical guidance for designing durable and sustainable fiber-elastomer interfaces.

Carbon dots (CDs) have gained increasing attention in the elastomer composites due to their unique physical and chemical properties. Nevertheless, due to high hydrophilicity of most kinds of CDs, it is difficult to achieve a fine CDs dispersion within the non-polar rubbers by traditional melt milling, especially when the CDs loading is high. To tackle this problem, we propose a simple and cost-effective strategy, i.e., the combination of slurry compounding and in-situ compatibilizing, to prepare the rubber/CDs composites. The CDs slurry was simply prepared by mixing the CDs powder with water. Subsequently, the slurry along with the compatibilizer (polybutadiene grafted with maleic anhydride, BR-g-MAH) were compounded with rubber via open milling. The resulted rubber composites exhibited significantly improved mechanical properties. More importantly, the CDs endowed the rubber with exceptional antioxidative property. We envisage that this scalable yet environmentally-friendly strategy may pave the way for industrial-scale utilization of CDs in the elastomer and beyond.

Low melting point Pr-Al-Cu alloys were employed in grain boundary diffusion for sintered NdFeB magnets. The coercivity of the 7 × 7 × 2 mm magnet was enhanced from 1000 kA/m to 1360, 1615, and 1714 kA/m by diffusing Pr70Al10Cu20, Pr70Al15Cu15 and Pr70Al20Cu10 alloys, respectively, at 800 °C for 2 h followed by 500 °C for 3 h. The optimized microstructure with strip-like grain boundary phase was evident in diffused magnets, which helps to reduce the magnetic exchange interaction between the hard magnetic grains and improve the coercivity. Under the same diffusion process, the coercivity of the diffused magnets decreased with increasing sample thickness, but 27% coercivity enhancement can still be obtained in the magnet with 6 mm in height. A Φ10×10 mm block magnet was diffused by Pr70Al20Cu10 alloy at 800 °C for 2–10 h. Up to 49% enhancement in coercivity was achieved, which confirms the diffusion ability of Pr-Al-Cu alloy. The diffusion behavior of Pr, Al and Cu elements has been analyzed by Fick’s law. Based on the diffusion coefficients obtained at 800 and 900 °C, Pr diffuses faster than Cu and Al along the grain boundary. The current results demonstrated that Pr-Al-Cu alloys can effectively optimize the grain boundary structure and improve the coercivity of NdFeB magnets.

The development of dual-function catalysts with high activity and durability is essential in overall water splitting applications. In this work, FeCoNiPtRu HEA was rapidly synthesized on carbon support by carbothermal shock process. The synergistic interaction among metal elements enhanced the catalytic activity. The catalyst demonstrated overpotentials of 104 mV for HER and 331 mV for OER at 10 mA cm−2. In addition, FeCoNiPtRu HEA was aimed on carbon paper and the nanoparticles were encapsulated by a carbon layer with a stability of up to 100 h. Finally, as a dual-function catalyst, when applied as both the cathode and anode in overall water splitting (OWS), FeCoNiPtRu demonstrated a voltage of 1.69 V at 10 mA cm−2. This work demonstrates the significant potential of high-entropy alloy catalysts in hydrogen production through overall water splitting.

Glassy interphase has been claimed to be of vital importance for mechanical reinforcement of elastomer nanocomposites (ENCs), but the evolution of interphase topology in correlation to reinforcement percolation remains uncertain. Here, an accurate interfacial regulation strategy upon implementing an interphase percolation mechanism is exploited to realize percolation of mechanical performance toward striking elastomer reinforcement. Architecture design of interfacial metal–ligand bridges accomplishes firm anchoring between elastomer skeleton and carbon nanodots, leading to the formation of interfacial metal-enriched regions. The volume fraction of the interfacial region systemically enlarges upon increase of interfacial bridges, which finally overlaps with neighboring domains to form a penetrating interphase. The topological evolution of the interfacial region is quantitatively monitored upon small-angle X-ray scattering and dielectric measurements, which exhibits a similar percolation behavior in sync with that of macroscopic mechanical performance. Furthermore, the interphase exhibits much slower relaxation dynamics than in bulk polymer, which significantly improves the network rigidity and hence accounts for the prominent elastomer reinforcement. This investigation corroborates that the formation of penetrating interphase may be an executable mechanism to induce the reinforcement percolation of ENCs. We further envision that the implementation of interphase percolation mechanism can be a universal avenue to afford rationalized optimization of ENCs.

Carbon black (CB), as one of the most widely used reinforcements for rubbers, can integrally improves the processability and static/dynamic mechanical properties of rubber. Nevertheless, the dispersion state of CB and the interfacial adhesion in the composites are generally subject to the significant difference in surface energy between these two components, which leads to external hysteresis loss and hence compromises the lifetime of the products. In this study, naphthylhydrazone-based imine (HZO) was used as a feasible interfacial regulator for rubber/CB composites, since the naphthylhydrazone moiety can efficiently capture and stabilize the macroradicals generated by the rupture of rubber chains during the mixing process and then transferred to the surface energy trap of CB through the charge-sharing effect. Accordingly, the interfacial adhesion and dispersion state of the CB particles in the composites can be remarkably enhanced. Incorporating only 1 phr (parts per hundred of rubber) HZO can enable substantial decreases of approximately 11 °C in heat generation and 22 % in energy loss to the composites under dynamic loading. Besides, due to its excellent radical-trapping capacity, HZO can effectively scavenge the reactive radicals generated during the thermo-oxidation process, which considerably enhances the aging resistance of the resulting samples. We envisage that the as-prepared HZO with radical-trapping capacity can open up a practical methodology to achieve efficient interfacial regulation of rubber/CB composites, which has significant potential in the preparation of energy-saving and aging-resistant tire products.

We report the synthesis of a bio-based, robust and recyclable thermoset polyester elastomer by using an inverse vulcanised sulfur-polymer (SP) as a crosslinker for the bio-based polyester elastomer (BPE).

The silane modification in silica-filled rubber composites is essential to fulfil the potentials of silica. However, the silanization efficiency of silica generally remains unsatisfactory. Promoting silica silanization contributes to not only the improvements on composite properties, but also the reduction in volatile organic compound emissions during processing. In this work, we present a novel way to promote silica silanization in rubber composites by supporting ceria nanocrystals on silica surface. Specifically, silica supported with varied ceria nanocrystal loading is synthesized and used as a novel reinforcement for styrene-butadiene rubber. Model compound experiments demonstrate that the ceria on silica surface can effectively promote the silanization reaction based on its unique acid-base property. Due to the promoted silica silanization, silica dispersion is greatly improved and interfacial interaction is remarkably enhanced in the composites. Accordingly, the resulting composites filled with ceria-anchored silica exhibit desirable improvements on the tensile modulus and dynamic mechanical properties, which is conductive to tire application.

Thioamide-functionalized polysulfide SCA is synthesized and utilized as an intelligent interfacial regulator for preparing rubber composites with low-hysteresis loss.

Fabricating superhydrophobic surfaces via self-assembly of organic conjugated small molecules is realized by spray-drying the thiophene derivates organic solutions. Formation of microsized pores and arrayed nanofibers or nanorods on the surfaces is responsible for the superhydrophobicity of the coatings. This technique can be applied for fabrication of large area superhydrophobic surfaces with conjugated molecules on different substrates.