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Polypropylene (PP)/ethylene-propylene rubber (EPR)/Montmorillonite ternary nanocomposites with a phase separated morphology were studied in this work. Wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to investigate the samples. One of the aim of this work was to separate the effects of rubber and clay content on the structure, morphology and mechanical properties of the samples. The presence of clay favored the formation of gamma phase and disrupted the lamellar framework. Clay had moreover a major role in shaping the phase separated morphology of the samples. Atomic Force Microscopy showed that the shear exerted by the clay layers was key for inducing a shish kebab morphology in the polymer matrix. Rubber content decreased the degree of crystallinity at a crystalline cell level and induced the formation of a double population of lamellar stacks. The mechanical properties of the samples primarily depended on rubber content, and they were secondarily tuned by the effect of clay. This synergistic effect allowed to obtain composites with increased stiffness, ductility and toughness, oppositely to what is frequently found.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1166/jnn.2012.5166 | DOI Listing |
PLoS One
September 2025
Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
For effective treatment of bacterial infections, it is essential to identify the species causing the infection as early as possible. Current methods typically require hours of overnight culturing of a bacterial sample and a larger quantity of cells to function effectively. This study uses one-hour phase-contrast time-lapses of single-cell bacterial growth collected from microfluidic chip traps, also known as a "mother machine".
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Phys Chem B
September 2025
Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Key Laboratory of Precision and Intelligent Chemistry, Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
Multivalent protein-protein interactions play essential roles in mediating liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) that drives biomolecular condensate formation. Here, we systematically investigate how the spatial distribution and relative size of protein binding domains (PBDs) would influence LLPS in a mixture of spherical proteins and RNA single strands by using a patchy-particle polymer model, wherein each protein contains a fixed number of PBDs on the surface distributed closely or sparsely. Intriguingly, we find that LLPS behavior exhibits a nontrivial dependence on the cooperative interplay between PBD distribution and protein size: while sparsely distributed PBDs are more favorable to LLPS for small proteins, closely packed PBDs facilitate LLPS for larger counterparts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Phys Chem A
September 2025
Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.
The gas-phase structures of dibenzo-24-crown-8 (DB24C8) and dinaphtho-24-crown-8 (DN24C8) complexes with divalent metal ions (Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Fe, Ni, and Zn) were investigated by cryogenic ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) in combination with density functional theory calculations. Several complexes, particularly those of DN24C8, exhibited multiple coexisting conformers. DFT-optimized structures were classified based on the relative orientation of the two aromatic rings in the crown ether.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChaos
September 2025
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India.
The absorption of laser energy by plasma is of paramount importance for various applications. Collisional and resonant processes are often invoked for this purpose. However, in some contexts (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNano Lett
September 2025
Key Laboratory of Micro & Nano Photonic Structures, Department of Optical Science and Engineering, College of Future Information Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China.
The separation and propagation of spin are vital to understanding spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in quantum systems. Exciton-polaritons, hybrid light-matter quasiparticles, offer a promising platform for investigating SOC in quantum fluids. By utilization of the optical anisotropy of materials, Rashba-Dresselhaus SOC (RDSOC) can be generated, enabling robust polariton spin transport.
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