TY  - JOUR
A1  - Zhao, Qiang
A1  - Dunlop, John William Chapman
A1  - Qiu, Xunlin
A1  - Huang, Feihe
A1  - Zhang, Zibin
A1  - Heyda, Jan
A1  - Dzubiella, Joachim
A1  - Antonietti, Markus
A1  - Yuan, Jiayin
T1  - An instant multi-responsive porous polymer actuator driven by solvent molecule sorption
JF  - Nature Communications
N2  - Fast actuation speed, large-shape deformation and robust responsiveness are critical to synthetic soft actuators. A simultaneous optimization of all these aspects without trade-offs remains unresolved. Here we describe porous polymer actuators that bend in response to acetone vapour (24 kPa, 20 degrees C) at a speed of an order of magnitude faster than the state-of-the-art, coupled with a large-scale locomotion. They are meanwhile multi-responsive towards a variety of organic vapours in both the dry and wet states, thus distinctive from the traditional gel actuation systems that become inactive when dried. The actuator is easy-to-make and survives even after hydrothermal processing (200 degrees C, 24 h) and pressing-pressure (100 MPa) treatments. In addition, the beneficial responsiveness is transferable, being able to turn 'inert' objects into actuators through surface coating. This advanced actuator arises from the unique combination of porous morphology, gradient structure and the interaction between solvent molecules and actuator materials.
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms5293
SN  - 2041-1723
VL  - 5
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Mei, Shilin
A1  - Kochovski, Zdravko
A1  - Roa, Rafael
A1  - Gu, Sasa
A1  - Xu, Xiaohui
A1  - Yu, Hongtao
A1  - Dzubiella, Joachim
A1  - Ballauff, Matthias
A1  - Lu, Yan
T1  - Enhanced Catalytic Activity of Gold@Polydopamine Nanoreactors with Multi-compartment Structure Under NIR Irradiation
JF  - Nano-Micro Letters
N2  - Photothermal conversion (PTC) nanostructures have great potential for applications in many fields, and therefore, they have attracted tremendous attention. However, the construction of a PTC nanoreactor with multi-compartment structure to achieve the combination of unique chemical properties and structural feature is still challenging due to the synthetic difficulties. Herein, we designed and synthesized a catalytically active, PTC gold (Au)@polydopamine (PDA) nanoreactor driven by infrared irradiation using assembled PS-b-P2VP nanosphere as soft template. The particles exhibit multi-compartment structure which is revealed by 3D electron tomography characterization technique. They feature permeable shells with tunable shell thickness. Full kinetics for the reduction reaction of 4-nitrophenol has been investigated using these particles as nanoreactors and compared with other reported systems. Notably, a remarkable acceleration of the catalytic reaction upon near-infrared irradiation is demonstrated, which reveals for the first time the importance of the synergistic effect of photothermal conversion and complex inner structure to the kinetics of the catalytic reduction. The ease of synthesis and fresh insights into catalysis will promote a new platform for novel nanoreactor studies.
KW  - Gold@polydopamine
KW  - 3D tomography
KW  - Nanoreactor
KW  - Catalysis
KW  - Photothermal conversion
Y1  - 2019
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-019-0314-9
SN  - 2311-6706
SN  - 2150-5551
VL  - 11
IS  - 1
PB  - Shanghai JIAO TONG univ press
CY  - Shanghai
ER  -