Halloysite/polyaniline Nanocomposites for Enhanced Actinide Sorption.

Extracting radionuclides from natural and anthropogenic sources addresses two challenges: remediating contaminated environments and enabling the separation of technologically important isotopes. Understanding how actinides interact and form complexes with polymer-based ligands allows the development of efficient extractants for selective remediation, supporting sustainable environmental protection and resource recovery strategies. Here, we report on the structure and actinide sorption properties of eco-friendly hybrid nanocomposite systems based on the natural mineral halloysite and multifunctional conjugated polymers.

PVDF/poly(3-methylthiophene)/MWCNT nanocomposites for EMI shielding in the microwave range.

This work presents a new approach to enhance EMI shielding efficiency of nanocomposites of dielectric polymers, multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and intrinsically conducting polymers for account of using core-shell morphology for conducting components. To realize this approach new ternary nanocomposites of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), MWCNTs and poly(3-methylthiophene) doped by Cl anions (P3MT) were prepared through synthesis of thermally stable core/shell nanocomposites PVDF/P3MT and MWCNT/P3MT. These binary nanocomposites were mixed with pure MWCNTs or PVDF followed by compression molding to prepare the ternary nanocomposites of different morphology to discriminate their EMI shielding properties in a wide frequency range (1-67 GHz).

High effectiveness of pure polydopamine in extraction of uranium and plutonium from groundwater and seawater.

Sorption properties of polydopamine (PDA) for uranium and plutonium from an aqueous environment are reported at three different pH values (2, 4 and 6.5-7). In addition to deionized (DI) water, artificial groundwater (GW) and seawater (SW) were used with U uptake close to 100% in each case.

Poly(vinylidene fluoride)/poly(3-methylthiophene) core-shell nanocomposites with improved structural and electronic properties of the conducting polymer component.

We report significant improvements in the structure and electronic properties of a poly(3-alkylthiophene) representative, namely poly(3-methylthiophene) (P3MT), when it is synthesized in the presence of submicron electroactive poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) particles. The applied template oxidative synthesis leads to the formation of the PVDF/P3MT composite consisting of core-shell particles. The shells are constituted with a monolayer of 20-40 nm nanoparticles of the doped P3MT (P3MT-Cl) precipitated at the surface of the spherical PVDF cores.

Influence of Dispersed Nanoparticles on the Kinetics of Formation and Molecular Mass of Polyaniline.

Using a combination of the open circuit potential and pH profiles of aniline (An) polymerization and their mathematical treatment, we develop a new convenient semiquantitative approach to determine the influence of the dispersed nanoparticles (e.g., TiO nanoparticles) on the kinetic features of this process and molecular mass of the formed polyaniline (PANI).

Hybrid solar cell on a carbon fiber.

In this work, a method to assemble nanoscale hybrid solar cells in the form of a brush of radially oriented CdS nanowire crystals around a single carbon fiber is demonstrated for the first time. A solar cell was assembled on a carbon fiber with a diameter of ~5-10 μm which served as a core electrode; inorganic CdS nanowire crystals and organic dye or polymer layers were successively deposited on the carbon fiber as active components resulting in a core-shell photovoltaic structure. Polymer, dye-sensitized, and inverted solar cells have been prepared and compared with their analogues made on the flat indium-tin oxide electrode.

Effect of multiwalled carbon nanotubes on the kinetics of the aniline polymerization: the semi-quantitative OCP approach.

We demonstrate applicability of the open-circuit potential (OCP) method for kinetic analysis of the oxidative chemical polymerization of aniline both in clear solution and in dispersions of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT). The characteristic points and the shape of the OCP profile are used to estimate the kinetic parameters of the main stages of the known two-step polymerization mechanism of aniline. We have found that the reciprocal values of the duration of the main polymerization stages namely the induction period, pernigraniline (PN) accumulation and reduction of PN with residual aniline are the linear functions of the weight fraction of MWCNT.

Deep impact of the template on molecular weight, structure, and oxidation state of the formed polyaniline.

In this work we find that polyaniline (PANI), synthesized by aniline chemical polymerization at a surface of template polycarbonate (PC) particles, is significantly different in molecular weight, structural order, oxidation state, and conductivity from a neat PANI. Molecular weight of the PANI phase in the composite (Mw = 158,000) is 1.6 times higher than that of the neat PANI synthesized in the absence of the template particles.