A review on porous polymer composite materials for multifunctional electronic applications

A Comprehensive Review of Self-Healing Polymer, Metal, and Ceramic Matrix Composites and Their Modeling Aspects for Aerospace Applications

Composites can be divided into three groups based on their matrix materials, namely polymer, metal and ceramic. Composite materials fail due to micro cracks. Repairing is complex and almost impossible if cracks appear on the surface and interior, which minimizes reliability and material life. In order to save the material from failure and prolong its lifetime without compromising mechanical properties, self-healing is one of the emerging and best techniques. The studies to address the advantages and challenges of self-healing properties of different matrix materials are very limited; however, this review addresses all three different groups of composites. Self-healing composites are fabricated to heal cracks, prevent any obstructed failure, and improve the lifetime of structures. They can self-diagnose their structure after being affected by external forces and repair damages and cracks to a certain degree. This review aims to provide information on the recent developments and prospects of self-healing composites and their applications in various fields such as aerospace, automobiles etc. Fabrication and characterization techniques as well as intrinsic and extrinsic self-healing techniques are discussed based on the latest achievements, including microcapsule embedment, fibers embedment, and vascular networks self-healing.

Partial Liquid Alloy Microdroplet Sedimentation Induced a Gradient Porous Structured Elastomer with a Tunable Property for an Anisotropic Robotic Bulk

With the confrontation of ever increasing complicated working objects and unstructured environments, it is necessary for soft robots to be equipped with diverse intelligent mechanical structures, for example, anisotropically motorial bulk and timely proprio/exteroceptive sensing with programmable morphologies. Owing to abundant pores inside, porous media are promising to host various intelligent functions as interfaces/structures of robots yet challenging because of a limited anisotropic response inherited from a random hierarchical pore distribution. Here, an electron competition between Ga, N, and Pt is found and used to tune the polymerization of a gradient liquid alloy and NH4HCO3-suspended silicone precursor mixture and, thus, decompose gas movements in gradient pore formation under high-temperature heating (120 °C). By such a competition-collaboration effect, we present here an interconnected gradient porous structure (GPS) that can serve as an anisotropically robotic motorial bulk. Moreover, the mechanical stiffness and piezoresistive/capacitive property of GPS can be further tuned and reconfigured via so-called self-sucked coating, following solvent erasing. Such new structures provide a dynamic tactile recognition with an ultrabroad sensing range (from 135 Pa to 2.3 MPa) and a reconfigurable biomimetic elephant trunk with monolithic proprioceptive sensing-integrated bulks.

Vascularizing the brain in vitro

The brain is arguably the most fascinating and complex organ in the human body. Recreating the brain in vitro is an ambition restricted by our limited understanding of its structure and interacting elements. One of these interacting parts, the brain microvasculature, is distinguished by a highly selective barrier known as the blood-brain barrier (BBB), limiting the transport of substances between the blood and the nervous system. Numerous in vitro models have been used to mimic the BBB and constructed by implementing a variety of microfabrication and microfluidic techniques. However, currently available models still cannot accurately imitate the in vivo characteristics of BBB. In this article, we review recent BBB models by analyzing each parameter affecting the accuracy of these models. Furthermore, we propose an investigation of the synergy between BBB models and neuronal tissue biofabrication, which results in more advanced models, including neurovascular unit microfluidic models and vascularized brain organoid-based models.

Recent Advances of Porous Materials Based on Cyclodextrin

Porous materials have attracted significant attention because of their rising applications in many fields. Cyclodextrins (CDs) are suitable building units in the fabrication of porous materials owing to their intrinsic nanoporous structure, easy modification, and biocompatibility, which may result in the formation of CD-based organic frameworks (including cyclodextrin metal-organic frameworks (CD-MOFs) and cyclodextrin covalent organic frameworks (CD-COFs)), and CD-based polymer hybrid porous materials. This review focuses on the recent progress in the fabrication and applications of CD-based porous materials with novel structures and functionalities.

Entropy and Random Walk Trails Water Confinement and Non-Thermal Equilibrium in Photon-Induced Nanocavities

Molecules near surfaces are regularly trapped in small cavitations. Molecular confinement, especially water confinement, shows intriguing and unexpected behavior including surface entropy adjustment; nevertheless, observations of entropic variation during molecular confinement are scarce. An experimental assessment of the correlation between surface strain and entropy during molecular confinement in tiny crevices is difficult because strain variances fall in the nanometer scale. In this work, entropic variations during water confinement in 2D nano/micro cavitations were observed. Experimental results and random walk simulations of water molecules inside different size nanocavitations show that the mean escaping time of molecular water from nanocavities largely deviates from the mean collision time of water molecules near surfaces, crafted by 157 nm vacuum ultraviolet laser light on polyacrylamide matrixes. The mean escape time distribution of a few molecules indicates a non-thermal equilibrium state inside the cavity. The time differentiation inside and outside nanocavities reveals an additional state of ordered arrangements between nanocavities and molecular water ensembles of fixed molecular length near the surface. The configured number of microstates correctly counts for the experimental surface entropy deviation during molecular water confinement. The methodology has the potential to identify confined water molecules in nanocavities with life science importance.

Synthesis and properties of porous polymers synthesized by Michael addition reactions of multi-functional acrylate, diamine, and dithiol compounds

Porous polymers have been synthesized by Michael addition reactions of multi-functional acrylate and diamine or dithiol compounds. Aza-Michael addition reaction of multi-functional acrylate, trimethylolpropane propoxylate triacrylate (TPT) and hexamethylene diamine (HDA) in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) successfully yielded the porous polymer. The porous structure was characterized by connected globules or co-continuous structure, and could be controlled by the reaction conditions. Mechanical properties of the porous polymers were investigated by compression test. The porous polymers with co-continuous structure showed higher Young's modulus than those with connected globules. The porous polymer absorbed some organic solvents, especially CHCl₃. The porous polymer as prepared in DMSO state showed coloring induced by Christiansen filter effect depending on the reaction time and observation temperature. The thio-Michael addition reaction of TPT and 1,6-hexanedithiol (HDT) in DMSO using different base catalysts also yielded the porous polymer. The porous structure could be controlled by the catalysts amount when the reaction was initiated by a photo-base generator as the base catalyst. The present reaction systems make it possible to synthesize the porous polymers with simple process without phase separator.