Nonstop Monomer-to-Aramid Nanofiber Synthesis with Remarkable Reinforcement Ability

Next-generation all-organic composites: A sustainable successor to organic-inorganic hybrid materials

This Review presents an overview of all-organic nanocomposites, a sustainable alternative to organic-inorganic hybrids. All-organic nanocomposites contain nanocellulose, nanochitin, and aramid nanofibers as highly rigid reinforcing fillers. They offer superior mechanical properties and lightweight characteristics suitable for diverse applications. The Review discusses various methods for preparing the organic nanofillers, including top-down and bottom-up approaches. It highlights in situ polymerization as the preferred method for incorporating these nanomaterials into polymer matrices to achieve homogeneous filler dispersion, a crucial factor for realizing desired performance. Furthermore, the Review explores several applications of all-organic nanocomposites in diverse fields including food packaging, performance-advantaged plastics, and electronic materials. Future research directions-developing sustainable production methods, expanding biomedical applications, and enhancing resistance against heat, chemicals, and radiation of all-organic nanocomposites to permit their use in extreme environments-are explored. This Review offers insights into the potential of all-organic nanocomposites to drive sustainable growth while meeting the demand for high-performance materials across various industries.

Visible Microfluidic Deprotonation for Aramid Nanofibers as Building Blocks of Cascade-Microfluidic-Processed Colloidal Aerogels

 Microfluidic deprotonation approach is proposed to realize continuous, scalable, efficient, and uniform production of aramid nanofibers (ANFs) by virtue of large specific surface area, high mixing efficiency, strong heat transfer capacity, narrow residence time distribution, mild laminar-flow process, and amplification-free effect of the microchannel reactor. By means of monitoring capabilities endowed by the high transparency of the microchannel, the kinetic exfoliation process of original aramid particles is in situ observed and the corresponding exfoliation mechanism is established quantificationally. The deprotonated time can be reduced from the traditional several days to 7 min for the final colloidal dispersion due to the synergistic effect between enhanced local shearing/mixing and the rotational motion of aramid particles in microchannel revealed by numerical simulations. Furthermore, the cascade microfluidic processing approach is used to make various ANF colloidal aerogels including aerogel fibers, aerogel films, and 3D-printed aerogel articles. Comprehensive characterizations show that these cascade-microfluidic-processed colloidal aerogels have identical features as those prepared in batch-style mode, revealing the versatile use value of these ANFs. This work achieves significant progress toward continuous and efficient production of ANFs, bringing about appreciable prospects for the practical application of ANF-based materials and providing inspiration for exfoliating any other nano-building blocks.

Network of cyano-p-aramid nanofibres creates ultrastiff and water-rich hydrospongels

The structure-property paradox of biological tissues, in which water-rich porous structures efficiently transfer mass while remaining highly mechanically stiff, remains unsolved. Although hydrogel/sponge hybridization is the key to understanding this phenomenon, material incompatibility makes this a challenging task. Here we describe hydrogel/sponge hybrids (hydrospongels) that behave as both ultrastiff water-rich gels and reversibly squeezable sponges. The self-organizing network of cyano-p-aramid nanofibres holds approximately 5,000 times more water than its solid content. Hydrospongels, even at a water concentration exceeding 90 wt%, are hard as cartilage with an elastic modulus of 50-80 MPa, and are 10-1,000 times stiffer than typical hydrogels. They endure a compressive strain above 85% through poroelastic relaxation and hydrothermal pressure at 120 °C. This performance is produced by amphiphilic surfaces, high rigidity and an interfibrillar, interaction-driven percolating network of nanofibres. These features can inspire the development of future biofunctional materials.

Highly Ordered Thermoplastic Polyurethane/Aramid Nanofiber Conductive Foams Modulated by Kevlar Polyanion for Piezoresistive Sensing and Electromagnetic Interference Shielding

Highly ordered and uniformly porous structure of conductive foams is a vital issue for various functional purposes such as piezoresistive sensing and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. With the aids of Kevlar polyanionic chains, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) foams reinforced by aramid nanofibers (ANF) with adjustable pore-size distribution were successfully obtained via a non-solvent-induced phase separation. In this regard, the most outstanding result is the in situ formation of ANF in TPU foams after protonation of Kevlar polyanion during the NIPS process. Furthermore, in situ growth of copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) on TPU/ANF foams was performed according to the electroless deposition by using the tiny amount of pre-blended Ti3C2Tx MXene as reducing agents. Particularly, the existence of Cu NPs layers significantly promoted the storage modulus in 2,932% increments, and the well-designed TPU/ANF/Ti3C2Tx MXene (PAM-Cu) composite foams showed distinguished compressive cycle stability. Taking virtues of the highly ordered and elastic porous architectures, the PAM-Cu foams were utilized as piezoresistive sensor exhibiting board compressive interval of 0-344.5 kPa (50% strain) with good sensitivity at 0.46 kPa-1. Meanwhile, the PAM-Cu foams displayed remarkable EMI shielding effectiveness at 79.09 dB in X band. This work provides an ideal strategy to fabricate highly ordered TPU foams with outstanding elastic recovery and excellent EMI shielding performance, which can be used as a promising candidate in integration of satisfactory piezoresistive sensor and EMI shielding applications for human-machine interfaces.

Continuing progress in the field of two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D-COS): Part III. Versatile applications

In this review, the comprehensive summary of two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D-COS) for the last two years is covered. The remarkable applications of 2D-COS in diverse fields using many types of probes and perturbations for the last two years are highlighted. IR spectroscopy is still the most popular probe in 2D-COS during the last two years. Applications in fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy are also very popularly used. In the external perturbations applied in 2D-COS, variations in concentration, pH, and relative compositions are dramatically increased during the last two years. Temperature is still the most used effect, but it is slightly decreased compared to two years ago. 2D-COS has been applied to diverse systems, such as environments, natural products, polymers, food, proteins and peptides, solutions, mixtures, nano materials, pharmaceuticals, and others. Especially, biological and environmental applications have significantly emerged. This survey review paper shows that 2D-COS is an actively evolving and expanding field.

Pressure Drop Performance of Porous Composites Based on Cotton Cellulose Nanofiber and Aramid Nanofiber for Cigarette Filter Rod

Porous composites have been widely used in the adsorption and catalysis field due to their special structure, abundant sites, and light weight. In this work, an environmentally friendly porous composite was successfully prepared via a facile freeze-drying method, in which cotton cellulose nanofiber (CCNF) was adopted as the main framework to construct the connected flue structure, and aramid nanofiber (ANF) was used as a reinforcer to enhance its thermal property. As-prepared porous materials retained a regulated inter-connected hole structure and controllable porosity after ice template evolution and possessed improved resistance to thermal collapse with the introduction of a small amount of aramid nanofiber, as evaluated and verified by FTIR, SEM, and TGA measurements. With the increased addition of cotton cellulose nanofiber and aramid nanofiber, the porous composites exhibited decreased porosity and increased pressure drop performance. For the CCNF/ANF-5 sample, the pressure drop was 1867 Pa with a porosity of 7.46 cm³/g, which best met the required pressure drop value of 1870 Pa. As-prepared porous composite with adjustable interior structure and enhanced thermal property could be a promising candidate in the tobacco field.

Ultrafast formation of ANFs with kinetic advantage and new insight into the mechanism

Aramid nanofibers (ANFs) have important applications in many fields, including electrical insulation and battery separators. However, a few limitations seriously restrict the application of ANFs currently, such as low preparation efficiency and the unclear preparation mechanism. To overcome these limitations, the present work proposes a new view-point from the perspective of reaction kinetics. The preparation efficiency was proven to essentially rely on the effective c(OH^-). With a simple pre-treatment, a kinetic advantage was created and the preparation time of ANFs was reduced from multiple hours to 10 minutes, which was a considerable step towards practical applications. Moreover, the resultant ANF membranes still exhibited excellent properties in terms of mechanical strength (tensile strength > 160 MPa), thermal stability, light transmittance, and electrical insulation (above 90 kV mm^-1). This work not only presents an ultrafast method to produce ANFs but also provides new insights into the mechanism that will benefit the subsequent development of ANF-based materials.

Enhanced air filtration performances by coating aramid nanofibres on a melt-blown nonwoven

Nanofibre membranes with a small diameter and a large specific surface area are widely used in the filtration field due to their small pore size and high porosity. To date, aramid nanofibres (ANFs) have received extensive research interest because of their high stiffness and excellent temperature resistance. However, the preparation of ANFs usually takes a long time, which greatly hampers the practical application of these fibres. Herein, we report the preparation of ANFs by a modified deprotonation method at elevated temperature. Owing to the increase of temperature, the preparation cycle of ANFs was shortened to 8 hours. The resulting ANF dispersion was further coated on a polypropylene melt-blown nonwoven to form a composite nonwoven filter. With the submicron porous structure, the filtration efficiency, pressure drop and quality factor of the filter were 95.61%, 38.22 Pa and 0.082 Pa^-1, respectively. Compared to the pristine nonwoven, the filtration, mechanical, and heat insulation properties of the composite filter were also significantly improved. This work may offer a simple and efficient way for enhancing the air filtration performances of current filters.

Effect of anions on the phase transition temperature of two structurally isomeric polymers: poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and poly(2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline)

In chaotropic solution, the different lower critical solution temperature (LCST) increments of two structural isomers, namely, poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) and poly(2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline) (PiPOx), is studied.

Construction of Aramid Engineering Materials via Polymerization-Induced para-Aramid Nanofiber Hydrogel

The processing of poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA) has long been a great challenge. This work reports a simple "monomers-nanofibers-macroscopic product" (MNM) hierarchical self-assembly approach to build 3D all-PPTA engineering materials. This approach mainly includes the preparation of polymerization-induced aramid nanofibers (PANFs) from monomers and the fabrication of all-PPTA materials from PANF hydrogel. Various 3D architectures, including simple solid bulks and sophisticated honeycombs (HCs), are obtained after the dehydration and shrinking of the PANF hydrogel. The tensile strength and compressive yield strength of PANF bulk are more than 62 and 90 MPa, respectively, which are comparable to typical engineering plastics. The compressive strength of PANF HC with a density of 360 kg m^-3 is more than 24 MPa. The thermal stability of PANF bulk and PANF HC are as good as that of Kevlar fiber and almost no decomposition occurred before 500 °C in a nitrogen atmosphere. Furthermore, the MNM process is performed under mild conditions, without high temperature, high pressure, or corrosive solvent. The MNM process is a novel strategy for the processing of all aromatic polyamide materials with complex structures and high performances and would be another development since the breakthrough of liquid crystal spinning technology of PPTA.

Recycling of High-Value-Added Aramid Nanofibers from Waste Aramid Resources via a Feasible and Cost-Effective Approach

High-performance aramid fibers are extensively applied in the civil and military fields. A great deal of waste aramid resources originating from the manufacturing process, spare parts, or end of life cycle are wrongly disposed (i.e., landfill, smash, fibrillation), causing a waste of valuable resources as well as severe environmental pollution. Although aramid nanofibers (ANFs) have recently been recently reported as one of the most promising building blocks due to their excellent properties, they suffer from an extremely high production expenditure, thereby greatly hindering their scale-up application. Herein, in this paper, from a resources-saving and cost-reductional perspective, we present a feasible top-down approach to recycle high value-added ANFs with an affordable cost from various waste aramid resources. The results indicate that although the reclaimed ANFs have a molecular weight reduction of 8.1% compared with the recycled aramid fibers, they still exhibit a molecular weight of 43.0 kg·mol^-1 that represents the highest value compared to other methods. It is noteworthy that the fabrication cost of ANFs is significantly reduced (∼7 times) due to the reclamation of waste aramid fibers instead of the expensive virgin aramid fibers. The obtained ANFs show impressive tensile strength (149.2 MPa) and toughness (10.43 MJ·m^-3), excellent thermal stabilities (T_d of 542 °C), and a high specific surface area (65.2 m²·g^-1), which endows them to be promising candidates for constructing advanced materials. Compared to the aramid pulp obtained by the traditional recycling method, ANFs show significant advantages in dimensional homogeneity, aspect ratio, dispersibility, film-forming property, and especially the excellent properties of the ANF film. In addition, the scale-up preparation of ANFs from the recycled waste aramid fibers is carried out, demonstrating it is highly economically viable. Therefore, this work provides a highly feasible and cost-effective recycle system to reclaim the waste aramid resources together with significantly reducing the preparation cost of ANFs.

Dissolving and Regeneration of meta-Aramid Paper: Converting Loose Structure into Consolidated Networks with Enhanced Mechanical and Insulation Properties

Aramid paper has been widely used in high-voltage motors and transformers due to its excellent insulation property and thermal durability. However, the smoothness and chemical inertness of aramid fibers lead to a loose structure (voids) of aramid paper, which limits its potential applications in harsh environments, such as high-frequency and high-voltage circuits. This work reports a simple and efficient method to improve the mechanical and insulation properties of meta-aramid paper via controllable dissolving and regeneration of aramid fibers. To obtain a dense and robust structure, the pristine meta-aramid paper was immersed in a dimethyl sulfoxide/potassium hydroxide (DMSO/KOH) mixture to make aramid fibers swelled and dissolved, followed by regeneration in water vapor, eventually generating densified aramid paper with fewer voids and enhanced insulation and mechanical performance. Optimum conditions resulted in aramid paper with the best comprehensive performance, and the tensile strength, Young's modulus, and electrical breakdown strength of the consolidated aramid paper were 22.85 MPa, 0.72 GPa, and 15.3 kV/mm, respectively, which were significantly higher than those of the pristine aramid paper (12.53 MPa, 0.41 GPa, and 8.36 kV/mm). Meanwhile, such treatment did not cause any chemical structure change, and thus it still retained the excellent thermal resistance (T_d > 430 °C) of aramid fibers. This simple method can effectively regulate the surface porosity and the mechanical and breakdown strength of aramid paper, as well as provide a generic method for postprocessing and enhancing aramid paper.

Improved mechanical and ultraviolet shielding performances of hydroxyethyl cellulose film by using aramid nanofibers as additives

Recently, aramid nanofibers (ANFs) have drawn the attention of scientist due to the high mechanical strength, high-temperature resistance, and high electrical and thermal insulation properties. In this work, we aimed at improving the mechanical and ultraviolet shielding properties of hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) film by using ANFs as additives. Mechanical results show that the 1.0 % ANFs could improve the tensile strength of pure HEC film by 176.6 %. Meanwhile, the ANFs additives can also enable the HEC film excellent ultraviolet (UV) shielding and visible light transmittance, as well as high UV radiation resistance ability. It is believed that the high mechanical strength of the HEC/ANFs composites is derived from the rearrangement of HEC chains along the tensile direction after the addition of hard ANFs and the enhanced hydrogen bonds between HEC and ANFs.

Mechano-responsive hydrogen-bonding array of thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer captures both strength and self-healing

Self-repairable materials strive to emulate curable and resilient biological tissue; however, their performance is currently insufficient for commercialization purposes because mending and toughening are mutually exclusive. Herein, we report a carbonate-type thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer that self-heals at 35 °C and exhibits a tensile strength of 43 MPa; this elastomer is as strong as the soles used in footwear. Distinctively, it has abundant carbonyl groups in soft-segments and is fully amorphous with negligible phase separation due to poor hard-segment stacking. It operates in dual mechano-responsive mode through a reversible disorder-to-order transition of its hydrogen-bonding array; it heals when static and toughens when dynamic. In static mode, non-crystalline hard segments promote the dynamic exchange of disordered carbonyl hydrogen-bonds for self-healing. The amorphous phase forms stiff crystals when stretched through a transition that orders inter-chain hydrogen bonding. The phase and strain fully return to the pre-stressed state after release to repeat the healing process.

Self-healing materials strive to emulate curable and resilient biological tissue but their performance is often insufficient for commercial applications because self-healing and toughening are mutually exclusive properties. Here, the authors report a tough and strong carbonate-type thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer that self-heals at ambient temperature.

Allyl and Benzyl Modified Aramid Nanofibers as an Enhancement in Polystyrene-Based Composites

Aramid nanofibers (ANFs) represent the most promising nanoscale building blocks for high-performance nanocomposites. But their applications are mostly limited to those polymers containing –OH or –NH₂ groups that can interact with ANFs through hydrogen bonding or others. In this paper, allyl and benzyl modified ANFs were successfully fabricated using a metallization method followed by functionalization with allyl and benzyl bromide. A series of modified aramid nanomaterials (ANMs) with different degrees of modification were prepared and their morphologies studied. The modified ANFs were added to polystyrene (PS) films as reinforcements. The mechanical properties of the resulting composite PS films including Young's modulus, toughness and yield strength were dramatically improved compared to those of pure PS film. These new types of reinforcement additives for non-polar polymer materials are presented in this paper.

Aramid Nanofiber Templated In Situ SNAr Polymerization for Maximizing the Performance of All-Organic Nanocomposites

The performance limits of conventional super engineering plastics with inorganic nanofillers are surpassed by all-organic nanocomposites prepared via in situ S_NAr polymerization of polysulfone (PSU) in the presence of a highly dispersed aramid nanofiber (ANF) solution. The latter is directly used, bypassing the energy-consuming, nanostructure-damaging workup process. Using only a 0.15 wt % nanofiller, the all-organic nanocomposite shows an ultimate tensile strength 1.6× higher and 3.4× tougher than neat PSU and its blending counterpart due to the mutually interactive filler and maximally homogenized matrix. The exceptional toughness of the ANF/PSU nanocomposite originates from the grafted PSU on the surface of ANF; it drives stress-delocalized deformation, as revealed by stress-absorbable viscoelastic behavior and ductile elongation of materials. This material is a promising candidate for use as a filler-interactive, high-performance nanocomposite.

Rediscovery of nylon upgraded by interactive biorenewable nano-fillers

Inorganic nanomaterials can only stiffen nylon with a significant loss of its toughness and ductility. Furthermore, they are not eco-friendly. In this study, the facile tuning of nylon's mechanical properties from stiff to tough was achieved, using cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and chitosan nanowhiskers (CSW) as biorenewable fillers. The interaction between the matrix and filler was controlled by varying the types of fillers and the employed processing methods, including in situ interfacial polymerization and post-solution blending. Particularly with CSW, the in situ-incorporated filler with a 0.4 wt% loading strengthened nylon and led to a 1.9-fold increase in its Young's modulus (2.6 GPa) and a 1.7-fold increase in its ultimate tensile strength (106 MPa), whereas the solution-blended filler with a 0.3 wt% loading toughened the polymer with a 2.1-fold increase (104 MJ m^-3). Compared with inorganic nanocomposites, these interactive biofiller-nanocomposites are unrivaled in their reinforcing performance when normalized by filler content. This stiff-to-tough tuning trend is more pronounced in the CSW system than in the CNC system. Covalent polymer grafts on the amine surface of CSW enhanced interfacial interactions in the in situ method, whereas its cationic surface charges plasticized the polymer matrix in the blending method. This proteinaceous composite-mimicking all-organic nylon nanocomposite opens new possibilities in the field of reinforced engineering plastics.

Timesaving, High-Efficiency Approaches To Fabricate Aramid Nanofibers

Aramid nanofibers (ANFs) have become promising nanoscale building blocks due to their extraordinary performance. However, there are numerous challenges related to the preparation of ANFs, such as the lengthy preparation cycle (7-10 days), low preparation concentration (0.2 wt %), and high difficulty in quantitatively judging the end point of the deprotonation reaction. Herein, we report three time-saving and high-efficiency strategies (fibrillation, ultrasonication, and proton donor-assisted deprotonation) to prepare ANFs with excellent performance. The fiber micromorphology during the deprotonation and protonation recovery processes was first investigated. Then the end point of the deprotonation reaction was detected by Raman spectra and the cationic demand of the ANF/DMSO system. Finally, the size, preparation cycle, and performance of the corresponding ANFs and ANF films fabricated by different approaches were investigated in detail. The results showed that proton donor-assisted deprotonation significantly shortened the traditional preparation cycle from 7 days to 4 h, and is the most efficient method reported thus far. It is noteworthy that a high concentration of ANFs (4.0 wt %) could also be achieved within 12 h. Interestingly, the fabricated ANFs exhibit rigid morphology and a small diameter with a narrow size distribution (10.7 ± 1.0 nm). The resultant ANF film displays desired characteristics of high strength and toughness. The work offers a timesaving, feasible and effective strategy to realize the large-scale production for ANFs, which will facilitate the application of ANFs in the production of advanced nanomaterials.

From Monomers to a Lasagna-like Aerogel Monolith: An Assembling Strategy for Aramid Nanofibers

The manipulation of nanobuilding blocks into a 3D macroscopic monolith with ordered hierarchical structures has been much desired for broad and large-scale practical applications of nanoarchitectures. In this paper, we demonstrate a fully bottom-up strategy for the preparation of aramid aerogel monoliths. The process starts from the synthesis of poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA) through the polycondensation of p-phenylenediamine and terephthaloyl chloride, with the assistance of a nonreactive dispersing agent (polyethylene glycol dimethyl ether), which helps the dispersal of the as-synthesized PPTA in an aqueous medium for the formation of p-aramid nanofibers (ANF). Then the vacuum-assisted self-assembly (Vas) technique is skillfully connected with the ice-templated directional solidification (I) technique, and the combined VasI method successfully tailors the self-assembly of ANF to transform the 1D nanofibers into a 3D aerogel monolith with a specific long-range aligned, lasagna-like, multilaminated internal structure. The study of the aerogel microstructure revealed the dependence of the lamina orientation on the direction of the freezing front of ice crystals. This direction should be parallel to the deposition plane of the Vas process if a long-range aligned lamellar structure is desired. The anisotropy of the multilaminated aerogel was proven by the different results in the radial and axial directions in the compression and thermal conductivity tests. As a kind of organic aerogel, the ANF monolith has typical low density, high porosity, and low thermal conductivity. Additionally, the ANF monolith exhibits high compressive stress and excellent thermal stability. Considering its high performance and facile preparation process, potential applications of the ANF aerogel monolith can be expected.

Nanofibrous Kevlar Aerogel Threads for Thermal Insulation in Harsh Environments

Aerogel with low density, high porosity, and large surface area is a promising structure for the next generation of high-performance thermal insulation fibers and textiles. However, aerogel fibers suffer from weak mechanical properties or complex fabricating processes. Herein, a facile wet-spinning approach for fabricating nanofibrous Kevlar (KNF) aerogel threads ( i.e., aerogel fibers) with high thermal insulation under extreme environments is demonstrated. The aerogel fibers made from nanofibrous Kevlar render a high specific surface area (240 m²/g) and wide-temperature thermal stability. The flexible and strong KNF aerogel fibers are woven into textiles to illustrate the excellent thermal insulation property under extreme temperature (-196 or +300 °C) and at room temperature. COMSOL simulation is applied to calculate the thermal conductivity of a single aerogel fiber and find an effective way to improve the thermal insulation property of the aerogel fiber. Furthermore, a series of functionalized fibers or textiles based on KNF aerogel fibers, such as phase-change fibers, conductive fibers, and hydrophobic textiles, have been prepared. Such KNF aerogel fibers represent a promising direction for the next generation of high-performance fibrous thermal-insulation materials.