Formation of Ca+(EtOH)mfrom Alcohol Solutions of CaCl2

A nanoconcrete welding strategy for constructing high-performance wound dressing

Engineering biomaterials to meet specific biomedical applications raises high requirements of mechanical performances, and simultaneous strengthening and toughening of polymer are frequently necessary but very challenging in many cases. In this work, we propose a new concept of nanoconcrete welding polymer chains, where mesoporous CaCO₃ (mCaCO₃) nanoconcretes which are composed of amorphous and nanocrystalline phases are developed to powerfully weld polymer chains through siphoning-induced occlusion, hydration-driven crystallization and dehydration-driven compression of nanoconcretes. The mCaCO₃ nanoconcrete welding technology is verified to be able to remarkably augment strength, toughness and anti-fatigue performances of a model polymer poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)-based porous membrane. Mechanistically, we have revealed polymer-occluded nanocrystal structure and welding-derived microstress which is much stronger than interfacial Van der Waals force, thus efficiently preventing the generation of microcracks and repairing initial microcracks by microcracks-induced hydration, crystallization and polymer welding of mCaCO₃ nanoconcretes. Constructed porous membrane is used as wound dressing, exhibiting a special nanoplates-constructed surface topography as well as a porous structure with plentiful oriented, aligned and opened pore channels, improved hydrophilicity, water vapor permeability, anti-bacterial and cell adherence, in support of wound healing and skin structural/functional repairing. The proposed nanoconcrete-welding-polymer strategy breaks a new pathway for improving the mechanical performances of polymers.

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An innovative nanoconcrete welding technology is developed for improving the mechanical performances of composite.

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A new kind of mesoporous CaCO₃ nanoconcretes is synthesized by an ion etching method.

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High-performance artificial skin is constructed based on a porous CaCO₃-PHBV membrane.

Bifurcate localization modes of excess electron in aqueous Ca(2+)amide solution revealed by ab initio molecular dynamics simulation: towards hydrated electron versus hydrated amide anion

In this work, we conduct ab initio molecular dynamics simulations on the localization dynamics of an excess electron (EE) in acetamide/Ca(2+) aqueous solutions with three different interaction modes of Ca(2+) with acetamide: tight contact, solvent-shared state, and separated interaction. The simulated results reveal that an EE could exhibit two different localization behaviors in these acetamide/Ca(2+) aqueous solutions depending on different amideCa(2+) interactions featuring different contact distances. For the tight contact and solvent-shared state of amideCa(2+) solutions, vertically injected diffuse EEs follow different mechanisms with different dynamics, forming a cavity-shaped hydrated electron or a hydrated amide anion, respectively. Meanwhile, for the separated state, only one localization pattern of a vertically injected diffuse EE towards the formation of hydrated amide anion is observed. The hindrance of hydrated Ca(2+) and the attraction of the hydrated amide group originating from its polarity and low energy π* orbital are the main driving forces. Additionally, different EE localization modes have different effects on the interaction between the amide group and Ca(2+) in turn. This work provides an important basis for further understanding the mechanisms and dynamics of localizations/transfers of radiation-produced EEs and associated EE-induced lesions and damage to biological species in real biological environments or other aqueous solutions.