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Introduction
Designing and developing functional nanomaterials derived from sustainable resources for advanced applications.
Skills and Expertise
Additional affiliations
September 2010 - September 2012
September 2009 - June 2010
Education
September 2012 - August 2016
September 2010 - August 2012
September 2006 - August 2010
Publications
Publications (90)
Pickering emulsions possess many advantages over traditional surfactant stabilized emulsions. For example, Pickering emulsions impart better stability against coalescence and, in most cases, are biologically compatible and environmentally friendly. These characteristics open the door for their use in a variety of industries spanning petroleum, food...
A weak polyelectrolyte, poly[2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate] (PDMAEMA), was grafted onto the surface of cellulose nanocrystals via free radical polymerization. The resultant suspension of PDMAEMA-grafted-cellulose nanocrystals (PDMAEMA-g-CNC) possessed pH-responsive properties. The grafting was confirmed by FTIR, potentiometric titration, elem...
Binary polymer brushes (BPB), poly(oligoethylene glycol) methacrylate (POEGMA) and poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA), grafted cellulose nanocrystals (CNC-BPB) were prepared by cerium mediated polymerization in aqueous solution. The physical properties of the CNC-BPB can be controlled by external triggers such as temperature and pH, which can be used to...
A sulfur electrode exhibiting strong polysulfide chemisorption using a porous N, S dual-doped carbon is reported. The synergistic functionalization from the N and S heteroatoms dramatically modifies the electron density distribution and leads to much stronger polysulfide binding. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies combined with ab initio calc...
Lithium‐sulfur (Li‐S) battery features a high theoretical energy density, but the shuttle of soluble polysulfides between the two electrodes often results in a rapid capacity decay. Herein, we report a straightforward electrostatic adsorption strategy based on a crosslinked polyimidazolium separator as a snaring shield of polysulfides, which suppre...
In biological systems, redox-driven catalytic processes efficiently occur through controllable active sites with a clearly defined step-wise charge transfer pathway. For artificial catalytic systems, especially pure organic, polymeric and heterogenous photocatalysts, the main challenge lies to gaining precise control of electron transfer pathway th...
The development of robust and industrially viable catalysts from plastic waste is of great significance, and the facile construction of high performance heterogeneous catalyst systems for phenol‐quinone conversions remains a grand challenge. Herein, we have demonstrated a feasible strategy to reclaim styrofoam into hierarchically porous nickel‐sale...
Triazine-based covalent organic frameworks functionalized by thiol and thioether (COFS-CH3/COFS-SH) were designed and served as a platform that could bind with mercury ions specifically based on Hard-Soft-Acid-Base theory. As such, when employing COFs as a modifier in a carbon paste electrode (CPE), the COFS-CH3-modified CPE revealed an extraordina...
Development of thermosets that can be repeatedly recycled via both chemical route (closed-loop) and thermo-mechanical process is attractive and remains an imperative task. In this work, we reported a triketoenamine based dynamic covalent network derived from 2,4,6-triformylphloroglucinol and secondary amines. The resulting triketoenamine based netw...
Development of thermosets that can be repeatedly recycled via both chemical route (closed‐loop) and thermo‐mechanical process is attractive and remains an imperative task. In this work, we reported a triketoenamine based dynamic covalent network derived from 2,4,6‐triformylphloroglucinol and secondary amines. The resulting triketoenamine based netw...
Constructing photocatalyst systems to functionalize the inert C-H bonds has attracted extensive research interest. However, purposeful modulation of interfacial charge transfer in heterostructures remains a challenge, as it usually suffers from sluggish kinetics. Reported herein is an easy strategy to construct the heteroatom-induced interface for...
Constructing photocatalyst systems to functionalize the inert C−H bonds has attracted extensive research interest. However, purposeful modulation of interfacial charge transfer in heterostructures remains a challenge, as it usually suffers from sluggish kinetics. Reported herein is an easy strategy to construct the heteroatom‐induced interface for...
High conductive and transparent hydrogels with adhesion function are ideal candidates for soft electronic devices. However, it remains a challenge to design appropriate conductive nanofillers to endow hydrogels with all these characteristics. The 2D MXene sheets are promising conductive nanofillers for hydrogels due to excellent electricity and wat...
Protection coatings with self-healing ability can significantly enhance their anti-corrosion properties and service life. In this study, self-healing waterborne polyurethane (WPU) coatings with high transparence and haze were facile fabricated via cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) stabilized linseed oil (LO) Pickering emulsion. Sustainable CNCs displayed...
Sustainable castor oil‐based waterborne polyurethanes (WPUs) are widely applied in multiple fields, while the strategies to simultaneously realize reprocessing, self‐healing, and novel applications are attractive and highly demanded. Herein, a molecular design strategy is proposed to incorporate dynamic oxime‐carbamate bonds into the castor oil‐bas...
In this study, a series of pretreatment methods (pectin extraction) were employed to prepare cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) with different pectin composition and contents from ramie fibers. The comprehensive effects of residual pectin on the final properties of CNFs were investigated. The residual pectin did not have a significant effect on the size...
Compatibilization of immiscible blends is critically important for developing high-performance polymer materials. In this work, an ionic liquid, 1-vinyl-3-butyl imidazole chloride, grafted polyamide 6 (PA6-g-IL(Cl)) with a quasi-block structure was used as a compatibilizer for an immiscible poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)/PA6 blend. The effects of...
N-heterocyclic-carbene based polymers with abundant active sites and excellent stability are fascinating and highly desired while remain rare for the lack of easy synthetic protocols. In this article, an unprecedented strategy that employed a porous polyimidazolium (IPF-CSU-4) as the support for Pd(II) coordination was proposed to develop efficient...
Although considerable efforts have been devoted, the development of novel ionic porous networks (IPNs) in a scalable manner to tackle the issues in pollutant treatment by adsorption remains an imminent challenge. Herein, inspired by natural spider webs, a knitting copolymerization strategy is proposed to construct analogue triazolium salt‐based por...
In this article, analogous covalent triazine framework (CTFs) were simply prepared through the trimerization of different nitrile building blocks (tetrafluoroterephthalonitrile or terephthalonitrile) under typical ionothermal conditions. We demonstrated that the fluorine contents could be simply altered by changing the comonomer compositions. Intro...
Although vegetable oil-based waterborne polyurethane (WPUs) possesses unique advantage like environmental friendliness, the shortcomings of low mechanical properties have hampered its practical implementations. In this work, sustainable diols, isosorbide (IS) and L-tyrosine derived cyclic dipeptide (L-CD), were employed into the anionic castor oil...
Porous asymmetric composite membranes (ACMs) have attracted intensive attentions in energy-efficient gas separations. However, fabricating ACMs with defect-free interface and enhanced selectivity without sacrificing permeability remains great challenge. Herein, a major step towards this goal is proposed by employing an efficient co-weaving strategy...
Facile preparation of ionic porous networks (IPNs) with large and permanent porosity is highly desirable for CO2 capture and transformation but remains a challenge. Here we report a one-pot base-mediated construction of nitrogen-rich IPNs through a combination of nucleophilic substitution and quaternisation chemistry from H-imidazole. This strategy...
Although significant advance has been achieved in developing porous organic polymers for effective iodine capture, the underlying principle for the adsorption behavior is not fully understood. Herein, analogous anionic porous networks (IPN-CSUs) bearing phosphate unit were fabricated via a one-pot Friedel-Crafts alkylation, in which heteroatom-cont...
Conjugated porous polymers with rapid separation of photogenerated charges and multiple catalytic pathways remain a great challenge. Herein, two ferrocene-based polymers (Fc-CPPs) with high charge separation efficiency and unique dual...
Conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) are cost-effective photocatalysts in organic transformations, while they are usually limited by the insufficient separation of photogenerated charges. Here we report a polarization strategy through molecular geometry optimization to promote the charge separation of CMPs. Three CMP photocatalysts with an altern...
Synthesis of adsorbents with permanent micro/mesoporous structures, tunable functional groups and processability is of great interest in industrial-scale processes for treating dye wastewater. Herein, a feasible crosslinking method has been employed to prepare porous ionic polymers (imidazolium and pyridinium-based) as adsorbents. The obtained mate...
Understanding of the temperature-induced phase transition of poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacry-late) (POEGMA) random copolymers with varied composition remains largely incomplete. Upon heating they can form either macroscopically phase-separated aggregates or micelles. We examined the effect of polymer architecture by rationally des...
Searching for green, recyclable and highly efficient catalyst for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates from CO2 is of great importance because it is profitable for reducing the greenhouse effects and meets the principles of green chemistry. Herein, a series of cellulose nanocrystals, either the pristine or modified ones (TEMPO oxidized and Co(III)sal...
Membrane technology has evolved as an alternative candidate for CO2 separation due to their inherent attributes, such as high energy efficiency, small capital investment, and environmentally benign characteristics. The key point of developing advanced membranes with satisfied performance is to find the balance between selectivity and permeability....
Photocatalytic aerobic oxidative cyanation of tertiary amines is a sustainable synthetic tool to synthesize α-aminonitriles that can be further employed as important intermediates for pharmaceutical and natural compounds production. Classical photocatalysts used for cyanation, like transition metals, usually suffer from low stability, high cost, an...
Dendrite growth and unstable surface properties are main challenges for the practical use of lithium metal anode. The promise of Li-rich alloy protection layers on lithium stems from their lower predilection for dendrite growth, however, information from a thermodynamic point of view that invoke the specific properties of the alloy is scarce. Besid...
Developing highly efficient catalyst systems for phenol–quinone transformation is of great significance in the chemical/biological industries. Herein, we reported a novel heterogenous catalytic system based on Co(Salphen) supramolecular polymers (CSP), which delivered an excellent catalytic performance in the oxidation of 2,3,6-trimethylphenol (TMP...
Polymeric membranes with high permeability for oxygen separation are highly demanded for a variety of industrial sectors. We herein developed a novel multi-component membrane system with improved O2/N2 separation performance, through physical blending an azo-bridged polymer of intrinsic microporosity (AZOPOP) with commercially available poly(phthal...
To investigate the relationship between functional groups on cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) and the performance of poly(β-hydroxybutyrate-co-valerate) (PHBV), the surface of CNC was modified by surface graft modification and PHBV/CNC biocomposites were prepared by melt blending. To demonstrate the interfacial adhesion difference between hydrophobic P...
Grafting beta-cyclodextrin (β-CD) onto cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) with the formation of well-dispersed nanoparticles (CNC-CD) and understanding their physicochemical properties are appealing but still challenging in controlled-release applications. Two immobilization methods were proposed and examined in this study; (i) copper (I) catalyzed click...
Task-specific design and construction of conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) for classic organic transformation is highly significant but challenging. Herein, we report strategy to promote charge transfer in CMPs using phenothiazine unit as a core and commonly used building blocks (carbazole/benzene) as the linker. Featuring by wide visible-ligh...
The development of new photocatalytic platforms using novel semiconductor material is an important challenge. Herein, a sp2 carbon-conjugated covalent triazine polymer (sp2 c-CTP-4), featuring a vinylene bridge and extended π-conjugation, is prepared as a highly efficient photocatalyst for degradation of methylene blue. sp2 c-CTP-4 exhibits substan...
The separation and recovery of rare earth elements (REEs) from leachates of bauxite residue has attracted increasing attention. Yet, the characteristics of bauxite residue leachates (low pH, low concentration of REEs, and co-existence of other trivalent ions) results in a longstanding challenge in the recovery of REEs. Here, we reported on the deve...
Different from traditional chemical surface modification, localized modification of the reducing end groups of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), i.e. the active aldehyde groups, provides new opportunities to diverse functional applications of this renewable nanomaterial without altering its surface chemistry and properties. Numerous reviews have deepl...
Despite abundant academic studies reported their diverse applications (as discussed in previous chapters), the practical products of nanocellulose are launched only during recent five years by several companies. In view of most cases concerning nanocellulose-based products, this chapter first summarizes the scale-up production of two types nanocell...
Due to increasing pressure to adopt sustainable approaches to product design and manufacture, the requirement to develop sustainable products has become one of the most important challenges to industry. Currently, there is a growing trend in developing products that maintain the concept of being natural and “green”. This has motivated the utilizati...
Based on the previous chapters on diverse topics of nanopolysaccharides, this chapter provides a brief conclusion for each topic and proposes some challenges and trends for the future study in this field. These challenges can serve as the inspiration to drive the research on nanopolysaccharides in functional materials, and we look forward to more r...
Due to their unique and excellent properties, nanopolysaccharides have been widely used in a variety of areas, including stabilizing agents in diet meals, active components in cosmetic products and important substances in polymer composites. This chapter covers the contents of nanopolysaccharides as green additives and the corresponding disciplines...
Rod-like polysaccharide nanocrystals, cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) and chitin nanocrystal (ChNC), can form the chiral nematic liquid crystal phase in suspensions, which can be preserved in the self-assembly solid materials (films) exhibiting colorful optical behaviors origin from the reflective wavelengths of the light. This chapter covers the studi...
Developing cost-effective approaches for fabricating porous carbon (PC) based catalysts with favourable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance is highly significant for fuel-cell devices. Herein, we reported a precursor controlled, molten salt-templated approach to prepare ultrafine CoO nanoparticles embedded nitrogen-doped PC materials with h...
A facile and universal approach to prepare cellulose nanocrystal reinforced functional hydrogels is proposed. An organic solvent-free and eco-friendly method was adopted, where both the modification and polymerization were conducted in an aqueous solution. Cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) and sodium alginate (SA) were first oxidized under mild condition...
Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) extracted from renewable resources possess many attractive characteristics, making them ideal Pickering emulsion stabilizers. However, unmodified pristine CNCs with high surface charge density are not effective in stabilizing oil–water emulsions, thereby limiting their application as in...
The effective removal of radioactive vapor wastes in fission is of significant importance and numerous porous solids have been developed to control volatile iodine emissions. However, most of porous matrixes fail to trap radioiodine reliably due to the weak binding interaction between scavenger and radioiodine, causing unexpected serious consequenc...
Ionic liquids (ILs) have gained wide‐spread focus owing to its negligible vapor pressure, low heat capacity, high thermal stability, and structural diversity. The solubility and selectivity toward carbon dioxide has made ILs a unique platform that possess the potential in gas separations. In particularly, combining functional ILs with membranes and...
Metal-functionalized porous carbons derived from microporous organic polymers remain highly desired for their intriguing physical and chemical properties. Currently, their preparation still suffers from tedious and costly synthetic procedures. Herein, we report a one-step in situ method for preparing metal-functionalized porous carbons via directly...
Three kinds of carbazole-based porous organic polymers were successfully prepared via simple Friedel-Crafts alkylation of 1,3,5-tri(9-carbazolyl)-benzene (TCB). External crosslinking agents named 1,4-bis(chloromethyl)-benzene, cyanuric chloride and 1,4-dimethoxybenzene were selected and the derived polymers (denoted as CSU-CPOPs-1, CSU-CPOPs-2 and...
Searching for catalysts that are cost‐effective, efficient, recyclable and capable of harvesting light for aerobic oxidation reactions remains a challenge for material scientists. Herein, we have designed and developed a task‐specified heterogeneous photocatalyst, which was built by a two‐step reaction starting from a commercially available compoun...
The increasing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from coal-fired power plants exacerbates the need for polymeric sorbents that can preferentially capture CO 2 over nitrogen (N 2 ). Herein we report two amine-functionalized microporous organic polymers (PTPNHs) through one-step facile modification of carboxyl-rich microporous organic polymers (PTPMA)...
Developing stable open-pore sorbents with high porosity to efficiently capture radiotoxic iodine from the waste streams of nuclear is highly desirable in addressing the environmental issues. Here, we report three highly stable covalent triazine polymers with the same chemical composition while bearing different degree of crystallinity and pore stru...
Porous organic polymers (POPs), which are built from pure organic building blocks through strong covalent bonds, are intriguing platforms with multiple functionalities. More recently, fluorescent POPs have drawn intensive attention due to their great potentials in sensing and imaging. The versatility of design and synthesis enables the facile intro...
This book describes the latest research on nanopolysaccharides in the development of functional materials, from their preparation, properties and functional modifications to the architecture of diverse functional materials. Polysaccharide-based nanoparticles, including nanocellulose, nanochitin, and nanostarch have attracted interest in the field o...
Amphiphilic Pickering particles are of immense importance because of their dominant ability to affect the emulsion stability and type. Among the present amphiphilic particulate emulsifiers to prepare controllable Pickering emulsion, there is increasing evidence that self-assembled polymeric micelles are comparatively effective and have gained atten...
Porous organic polymers (POPs), known for its high surface area and abundant porosity, can be easily designed and constructed at the molecular level. The POPs offer confined molecular spaces for the interplay of photons, excitons, electrons and holes, therefore featuring great potential in catalysis. In this review, a brief summary on the recent de...
A sustainable nanomaterial, cellulose nanofibril (CNF) was used to prepare aerogel sorbents to remove various contaminants in wastewater. A mussel-inspired coating strategy was used to introduce polydopamine onto the surface of CNFs, which were cross-linked with polyethylenimine (PEI) to form the aerogels. The synthetic procedure was optimized to a...
Sulfated cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) with high surface charge density are inadequate for stabilizing oil-water emulsions, which limits their applications as interfacial stabilizers. We performed end-group modification by introducing hydrophobic chains (polystyrene) to CNC. Results showed that the modified CNC are more effective in emulsifying tolu...
Two series of flexible ketone-bridged nanoporous organic polymers (NOPs) are readily prepared through one-pot Friedel-Crafts acylation polymerization using pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA) and terephthaloyl chloride (TC) as acylation reagents, respectively. The carboxyl-appended samples (termed [email protected] and [email protected]), derived from...
Metal-free and heterogeneous organic photocatalysts provide an environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional metal-based catalysts. This paper reports a series of carbazole-based conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) with tunable redox potentials and explores their photocatalytic performance with regard to C-3 formylation and thiocyanation o...
Rich heteroatom-doped conjugated nanoporous polymers with uniform microspherical morphology exhibit remarkablly high capacity up to 450 wt% in removing iodine from vapor phase (at 348 K and atmosphere pressure).
Rod-like cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) were incorporated into different systems containing polymers (most of them are soluble polysaccharides, such as chitosan, gum arabic, sodium alginate, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and sodium carboxylmethyl cellulose) of varying charge properties and molecular structures. The dependence of the thickening and rh...
Polymer composites have been extensively used to tune the surface property (e.g. wettability, friction and adhesion) for its advantages of cost-effective, high efficiency and ease of fabrication. In this work, different amount of trichloro(1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyl)silane (FDTS) was added into polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer to prepare polym...
The global contamination of water resources with inorganic and organic micropollutants, such as metals and pharmaceuticals, poses a critical threat to the environment and human health. Herein, we report on a bio-derived chitosan-EDTA-β-cyclodextrin (CS-ED-CD) trifunctional adsorbent fabricated via a facile and green one-pot synthesis method using E...
Nanotechnology has been successfully applied in many applications, such as nanoelectronics, nanobiomedicine, and nanodevices. However, this technology has rarely been applied in the oil and gas industry, especially in upstream exploration and production. The oil and gas industry needs to improve oil recovery and to exploit unconventional resources....
The ever-increasing demand for Rare Earth Elementals (REEs) due to their exponential use in various high-tech and futuristic applications has stimulated the development of new sustainable approaches for efficient REE separation and recovery. Herein, we report on the development of polyethylenimine (PEI) cross-linked cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) mate...
This review describes recent advances on the application of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) in selected applications. CNCs are produced via acid hydrolysis of cellulosic materials, such as wood, cotton, tunicate, or other biomass. It possesses many desirable properties, such as large surface area, high tensile strength and stiffness, excellent colloi...
Replacing the widespread use of petroleum-derived non-biodegradable materials with green and sustainable materials is a pressing challenge that is gaining increasing attention by the scientific community. One such system is cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) derived from acid hydrolysis of cellulosic materials, such as plants, tunicates and agriculture...
This paper reports on a simple and green approach to fabricate cellulose nanocrystal@polyrhodanine (CNC@PR) core–sheath nanoparticles. Polymerization of rhodanine on the surface of negatively charged CNC was achieved using ferric chloride as the initiator and oxidant. The coating conditions were optimized by varying the ratio of CNC and monomer as...
A green approach to anchor silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) onto the surface of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) coated with mussel-inspired polydopamine (PDA) at room temperature in the absence of a stabilizer and a reducing agent is proposed. The resulting nanohybrids possessed a core-shell structure with numerous “satellites” of silver nanoparticles de...