@article{WadeWoodColladoFregosoetal.2017, author = {Wade, Jessica and Wood, Sebastian and Collado-Fregoso, Elisa and Heeney, Martin and Durrant, James and Kim, Ji-Seon}, title = {Impact of Fullerene Intercalation on Structural and Thermal Properties of Organic Photovoltaic Blends}, series = {The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces}, volume = {121}, journal = {The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, address = {Washington}, issn = {1932-7447}, doi = {10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b05893}, pages = {20976 -- 20985}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The performance of organic photovoltaic blend devices is critically dependent on the polymer:fullerene interface. These interfaces are expected to impact the structural and thermal properties of the polymer with regards to the conjugated backbone planarity and transition temperatures during annealing/cooling processes. Here, we report the impact of fullerene intercalation on structural and thermal properties of poly(2,5-bis(3-tetradecylthiophen-2-yOthieno[3,2-b]thiophene (PBTTT), a highly stable material known to exhibit liquid crystalline behavior. We undertake a detailed systematic study of the extent of intercalation in the PBTTT:fullerene blend, considering the use of four different fullerene derivatives and also varying the loading ratios. Resonant Raman spectroscopy allows morphology in situ during controlled heating and cooling. We find that small fullerene molecules readily intercalate into PBTTT crystallites, resulting in a planarization of the polymer backbone, but high fullerene loading ratios or larger fullerenes result in nonintercalated domains. During cooling from melt, nonintercalated blend films are found to return to their original morphology and reproduce all thermal transitions on cooling with minimal hysteresis. Intercalated blend films show significant hysteresis on cooling due to the crystallized fullerene attempting to reintercalate. The strongest hysteresis is for intercalated blend films with excess fullerene loading ratio, which form a distinct nanoribbon morphology and exhibit a reduced geminate recombination rate. These results reveal that careful consideration should be taken during device fabrication, as postdeposition thermal treatments significantly impact the charge generation and recombination dynamics.}, language = {en} } @article{YanFangWeigeletal.2017, author = {Yan, Wan and Fang, Liang and Weigel, Thomas and Behl, Marc and Kratz, Karl and Lendlein, Andreas}, title = {The influence of thermal treatment on the morphology in differently prepared films of a oligodepsipeptide based multiblock copolymer}, series = {Polymers for advanced technologies}, volume = {28}, journal = {Polymers for advanced technologies}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {1042-7147}, doi = {10.1002/pat.3953}, pages = {1339 -- 1345}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Degradable multiblock copolymers prepared from equal weight amounts of poly(epsilon-caprolactone)-diol (PCL-diol) and poly[oligo(3S-iso-butylmorpholine-2,5-dione)]-diol (PIBMD-diol), named PCL-PIBMD, provide a phase-segregated morphology. It exhibits a low melting temperature from PCL domains (T-m,T-PCL) of 382 degrees C and a high T-m,T-PIBMD of 170 +/- 2 degrees C with a glass transition temperature (T-g,T-PIBMD) at 42 +/- 2 degrees C from PIBMD domains. In this study, we explored the influence of applying different thermal treatments on the resulting morphologies of solution-cast and spin-coated PCL-PIBMD thin films, which showed different initial surface morphologies. Differential scanning calorimetry results and atomic force microscopy images after different thermal treatments indicated that PCL and PIBMD domains showed similar crystallization behaviors in 270 +/- 30 mu m thick solution-cast films as well as in 30 +/- 2 and 8 +/- 1nm thick spin-coated PCL-PIBMD films. Existing PIBMD crystalline domains highly restricted the generation of PCL crystalline domains during cooling when the sample was annealed at 180 degrees C. By annealing the sample above 120 degrees C, the PIBMD domains crystallized sufficiently and covered the free surface, which restricted the crystallization of PCL domains during cooling. The PCL domains can crystallize by hindering the crystallization of PIBMD domains via the fast vitrification of PIBMD domains when the sample was cooled/quenched in liquid nitrogen after annealing at 180 degrees C. These findings contribute to a better fundamental understanding of the crystallization mechanism of multi-block copolymers containing two crystallizable domains whereby the T-g of the higher melting domain type is in the same temperature range as the T-m of the lower melting domain type. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley \& Sons, Ltd.}, language = {en} } @article{PilusoLendleinNeffe2017, author = {Piluso, Susanna and Lendlein, Andreas and Neffe, Axel T.}, title = {Enzymatic action as switch of bulk to surface degradation of clicked gelatin-based networks}, series = {Polymers for advanced technologies}, volume = {28}, journal = {Polymers for advanced technologies}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {1042-7147}, doi = {10.1002/pat.3962}, pages = {1318 -- 1324}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Polymer degradation occurs under physiological conditions in vitro and in vivo, especially when bonds susceptible to hydrolysis are present in the polymer. Understanding of the degradation mechanism, changes of material properties over time, and overall rate of degradation is a necessary prerequisite for the knowledge-based design of polymers with applications in biomedicine. Here, hydrolytic degradation studies of gelatin-based networks synthesized by copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction are reported, which were performed with or without addition of an enzyme. In all cases, networks with a stilbene as crosslinker proofed to be more resistant to degradation than when an octyl diazide was used. Without addition of an enzyme, the rate of degradation was ruled by the crosslinking density of the network and proceeded via a bulk degradation mechanism. Addition of Clostridium histolyticum collagenase resulted in a much enhanced rate of degradation, which furthermore occurred via surface erosion. The mesh size of the hydrogels (>7nm) was in all cases larger than the hydrodynamic radius of the enzyme (4.5nm) so that even in very hydrophilic networks with large mesh size enzymes may be used to induce a fast surface degradation mechanism. This observation is of general interest when designing hydrogels to be applied in the presence of enzymes, as the degradation mechanism and material performance are closely interlinked. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley \& Sons, Ltd.}, language = {en} } @article{HommesSchattmannNeffeAhmadetal.2017, author = {Hommes-Schattmann, Paul J. and Neffe, Axel T. and Ahmad, Bilal and Williams, Gareth R. and Vanneaux, Valerie and Menasche, Philippe and Kalfa, David and Lendlein, Andreas}, title = {RGD constructs with physical anchor groups as polymer co-electrospinnable cell adhesives}, series = {Polymers for advanced technologies}, volume = {28}, journal = {Polymers for advanced technologies}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {1042-7147}, doi = {10.1002/pat.3963}, pages = {1312 -- 1317}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The tissue integration of synthetic polymers can be promoted by displaying RGD peptides at the biointerface with the objective of enhancing colonization of the material by endogenous cells. A firm but flexible attachment of the peptide to the polymer matrix, still allowing interaction with receptors, is therefore of interest. Here, the covalent coupling of flexible physical anchor groups, allowing for temporary immobilization on polymeric surfaces via hydrophobic or dipole-dipole interactions, to a RGD peptide was investigated. For this purpose, a stearate or an oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG) was attached to GRGDS in 51-69\% yield. The obtained RGD linker constructs were characterized by NMR, IR and MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry, revealing that the commercially available OEG and stearate linkers are in fact mixtures of similar compounds. The RGD linker constructs were co-electrospun with poly(p-dioxanone) (PPDO). After electrospinning, nitrogen could be detected on the surface of the PPDO fibers by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The nitrogen content exceeded the calculated value for the homogeneous material mixture suggesting a pronounced presentation of the peptide on the fiber surface. Increasing amounts of RGD linker constructs in the electrospinning solution did not lead to a detection of an increased amount of peptide on the scaffold surface, suggesting inhomogeneous distribution of the peptide on the PPDO fiber surface. Human adipose-derived stem cells cultured on the patches showed similar viability as when cultured on PPDO containing pristine RGD. The fully characterized RGD linker constructs could serve as valuable tools for the further development of tissue-integrating polymeric scaffolds. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley \& Sons, Ltd.}, language = {en} } @article{ThierbachNeissGallandietal.2017, author = {Thierbach, Adrian and Neiss, Christian and Gallandi, Lukas and Marom, Noa and Koerzdoerfer, Thomas and Goerling, Andreas}, title = {Accurate Valence Ionization Energies from Kohn-Sham Eigenvalues with the Help of Potential Adjustors}, series = {Journal of chemical theory and computation}, volume = {13}, journal = {Journal of chemical theory and computation}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, address = {Washington}, issn = {1549-9618}, doi = {10.1021/acs.jctc.7b00490}, pages = {4726 -- 4740}, year = {2017}, abstract = {An accurate yet computationally very efficient and formally well justified approach to calculate molecular ionization potentials is presented and tested. The first as well as higher ionization potentials are obtained as the negatives of the Kohn-Sham eigenvalues of the neutral molecule after adjusting the eigenvalues by a recently [Gorling Phys. Rev. B 2015, 91, 245120] introduced potential adjustor for exchange-correlation potentials. Technically the method is very simple. Besides a Kohn-Sham calculation of the neutral molecule, only a second Kohn-Sham calculation of the cation is required. The eigenvalue spectrum of the neutral molecule is shifted such that the negative of the eigenvalue of the highest occupied molecular orbital equals the energy difference of the total electronic energies of the cation minus the neutral molecule. For the first ionization potential this simply amounts to a Delta SCF calculation. Then, the higher ionization potentials are obtained as the negatives of the correspondingly shifted Kohn-Sham eigenvalues. Importantly, this shift of the Kohn-Sham eigenvalue spectrum is not just ad hoc. In fact, it is formally necessary for the physically correct energetic adjustment of the eigenvalue spectrum as it results from ensemble density-functional theory. An analogous approach for electron affinities is equally well obtained and justified. To illustrate the practical benefits of the approach, we calculate the valence ionization energies of test sets of small- and medium-sized molecules and photoelectron spectra of medium-sized electron acceptor molecules using a typical semilocal (PBE) and two typical global hybrid functionals (B3LYP and PBE0). The potential adjusted B3LYP and PBE0 eigenvalues yield valence ionization potentials that are in very good agreement with experimental values, reaching an accuracy that is as good as the best G(0)W(0) methods, however, at much lower computational costs. The potential adjusted PBE eigenvalues result in somewhat less accurate ionization energies, which, however, are almost as accurate as those obtained from the most commonly used G(0)W(0) variants.}, language = {en} } @article{FarhanRudolphNoecheletal.2017, author = {Farhan, Muhammad and Rudolph, Tobias and N{\"o}chel, Ulrich and Yan, Wan and Kratz, Karl and Lendlein, Andreas}, title = {Noncontinuously Responding Polymeric Actuators}, series = {ACS applied materials \& interfaces}, volume = {9}, journal = {ACS applied materials \& interfaces}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, address = {Washington}, issn = {1944-8244}, doi = {10.1021/acsami.7b11316}, pages = {33559 -- 33564}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Reversible movements of current polymeric actuators stem from the continuous response to signals from a controlling unit, and subsequently cannot be interrupted without stopping or eliminating the input trigger. Here, we present actuators based on cross-linked blends of two crystallizable polymers capable of pausing their movements in a defined manner upon continuous cyclic heating and cooling. This noncontinuous actuation can be adjusted by varying the applied heating and cooling rates. The feasibility of these devices for technological applications was shown in a 140 cycle experiment of free-standing noncontinuous shape shifts, as well as by various demonstrators.}, language = {en} } @article{LoncaricFuchselJuaristietal.2017, author = {Loncaric, Ivor and Fuchsel, Gernot and Juaristi, J. I. and Saalfrank, Peter}, title = {Strong Anisotropic Interaction Controls Unusual Sticking and Scattering of CO at Ru(0001)}, series = {Physical review letters}, volume = {119}, journal = {Physical review letters}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, address = {College Park}, issn = {0031-9007}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.146101}, pages = {5}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Complete sticking at low incidence energies and broad angular scattering distributions at higher energies are often observed in molecular beam experiments on gas-surface systems which feature a deep chemisorption well and lack early reaction barriers. Although CO binds strongly on Ru(0001), scattering is characterized by rather narrow angular distributions and sticking is incomplete even at low incidence energies. We perform molecular dynamics simulations, accounting for phononic (and electronic) energy loss channels, on a potential energy surface based on first-principles electronic structure calculations that reproduce the molecular beam experiments. We demonstrate that the mentioned unusual behavior is a consequence of a very strong rotational anisotropy in the molecule-surface interaction potential. Beyond the interpretation of scattering phenomena, we also discuss implications of our results for the recently proposed role of a precursor state for the desorption and scattering of CO from ruthenium.}, language = {en} } @article{MondalHovestadtDeyetal.2017, author = {Mondal, Suvendu Sekhar and Hovestadt, Maximilian and Dey, Subarna and Paula, Carolin and Glomb, Sebastian and Kelling, Alexandra and Schilde, Uwe and Janiak, Christoph and Hartmann, Martin and Holdt, Hans-J{\"u}rgen}, title = {Synthesis of a partially fluorinated ZIF-8 analog for ethane/ethene separation}, series = {CrystEngComm}, volume = {19}, journal = {CrystEngComm}, publisher = {Royal Society of Chemistry}, address = {Cambridge}, issn = {1466-8033}, doi = {10.1039/c7ce01438d}, pages = {5882 -- 5891}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The separation of ethane/ethene mixtures (as well as other paraffin/olefin mixtures) is one of the most important but challenging processes in the petrochemical industry. In this work, we report the synthesis of ZIF-318, isostructural to ZIF-8 but built from the mixed linkers of 2-methylimidazole (L1) and 2-trifluoromethylimidazole (L2) (ZIF-318 = [(Zn(L1)(L2)](n)). The synthesis has been optimized to proceed without ZnO-formation. Using only the L2 linker under solvothermal conditions afforded ZnO-embedded in the H-bonded and non-porous coordination polymer ZnO@[Zn-2(L2)(2)(HCOO)(OH)](n). The slight differences in the size of the substituents (-CH3 vs. -CF3) possibly in combination with different electronic inductive effects led to small but significant changes to the pore size and properties respectively, though the effective pore opening (aperture) size of ZIF-318 remained the same in comparison with ZIF-8. ZIF-318 is chemically (boiling water, methanol, benzene, and wide pH range at room temperature for 1 day), thermally (up to 310 degrees C) stable, and more hydrophobic than ZIF-8 which is proven by contact angle measurement. ZIF-318 can be activated for N-2, CO2, CH4, H-2, ethane, ethane, propane, and propene gases sorptions. Consequently, in breakthrough experiments, the ethane/ethene mixtures can be separated.}, language = {en} } @article{HovestadtBendtMondaletal.2017, author = {Hovestadt, Maximilian and Bendt, Stephan and Mondal, Suvendu Sekhar and Behrens, Karsten and Reif, Florian and Dopken, Merle and Holdt, Hans-J{\"u}rgen and Keil, Frerich J. and Hartmann, Martin}, title = {Experimental and Theoretical Analysis of the Influence of Different Linker Molecules in Imidazolate Frameworks Potsdam (IFP-n) on the Separation of Olefin-Paraffin Mixtures}, series = {Langmuir}, volume = {33}, journal = {Langmuir}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, address = {Washington}, issn = {0743-7463}, doi = {10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b02016}, pages = {11170 -- 11179}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Four metal organic frameworks with similar topology but different chemical environment inside the pore structure, namely, IFP-1, IFP-3, IFP-5, and IFP-7, have been investigated with respect to the separation potential for olefin paraffin mixtures as well as the influence of the different linkers on adsorption properties using experiments and Monte Carlo simulations. All IFP structures show a higher adsorption of ethane compared to ethene with the exception of IFP-7 which shows no selectivity in breakthrough experiments. For propane/propane separation, all adsorbents show a higher adsorption for the olefin. The experimental results agree quite well with the simulated values except for the IFP-7, which is presumably due to the flexibility of the structure. Moreover, the experimental and simulated isotherms were confirmed with breakthrough experiments that render IFP-1, IFP-3, and IFP-5 as suitable for the purification of ethene from ethane.}, language = {en} } @article{HentrichBrezesinskiKuebeletal.2017, author = {Hentrich, Doreen and Brezesinski, Gerald and Kuebel, Christian and Bruns, Michael and Taubert, Andreas}, title = {Cholesteryl Hemisuccinate Monolayers Efficiently Control Calcium Phosphate Nucleation and Growth}, series = {Crystal growth \& design : integrating the fields of crystal engineering and crystal growth for the synthesis and applications of new materials}, volume = {17}, journal = {Crystal growth \& design : integrating the fields of crystal engineering and crystal growth for the synthesis and applications of new materials}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, address = {Washington}, issn = {1528-7483}, doi = {10.1021/acs.cgd.7b00753}, pages = {5764 -- 5774}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The article describes the phase behavior of cholesteryl hemisuccinate at the air-liquid interface and its effect on calcium phosphate (CP) mineralization. The amphiphile forms stable monolayers with phase transitions at the air-liquid interface from a gas to a tilted liquid-condensed (TLC) and finally to an untilted liquid-condensed (ULC) phase. CP mineralization beneath these monolayers leads to crumpled CP layers made from individual plates. The main crystal phase is octacalcium phosphate (OCP) along with a minor fraction of hydroxyapatite (HAP), as confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, bright field transmission electron microscopy, and electron diffraction.}, language = {en} }