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This work focuses on the fabrication and organic dye adsorption capacity of pill-shaped polyimide aerogel microparticles of diameter approximately 200 μm and length approximately 1000 μm. First, spherical polyimide sol droplets suspended in silicone oil are generated in a microfluidic droplet generator. Second, these droplets are guided into a contraction flow channel to deform them into pill-shaped droplets. Third, the pill-shaped droplets undergo sol–gel transition in a heated section of the flow channel and turn into particles. Finally, the pill-shaped aerogel microparticles are recovered via solvent exchange and supercritical drying and characterized. The data indicate that the flow rates of polyimide sol and silicone oil strongly influence the length of the microparticles while surfactants, although not necessary to obtain pill-shaped particles, exert strong influence on the aspect ratio of the particles. The aspect ratio of particles and the internal morphology are discussed using hydrodynamic and interfacial forces. The ionic dye adsorption capacity of these pill-shaped particles is determined and compared with that of spherical gel microparticles.

This research investigates the potential of benzocyclobutene (BCB) chemistry for crosslinking styrene-butadiene rubber in conjunction with sulfur curatives with the objective of achieving curing at lower temperatures and/or in shorter times compared with entirely sulfur-based cure formulations. The reversible polysulfidic linkages produced in sulfur crosslinking allow self-healing characteristics but suffer from poor heat-aging stability. The C–C crosslinks from BCB chemistry are irreversible and offer higher resistance to aging, but they do not present apparent self-healing properties. The hybrid curative package based on C–C, C–S, and S–S linkages developed is expected to provide reduced crosslinking time and/or temperature, along with higher crack-growth resistance, the ability to self-heal, higher resistance to fatigue-to-failure, reduced hysteresis, and increased abrasion resistance. The crosslinking performance of 1-substituted BCB-based compounds in conjunction with sulfur is specifically investigated.