In this letter, we report a modified percolative polymer composite that has a low dielectric loss (tanδ∼0.02@10KHz, comparable to that of the polymer matrix), a high dielectric constant (k>100@10KHz, about 30 times higher than that of the polymer matrix), and a low frequency dependence. This high-k polymer hybrid is filled with self-passivated micro- and nano-aluminum particles. The self-passivation of an aluminum particle results in dense nanoscale insulating Al2O3 shells outside of the metallic spheres, which allows the electrons in the metallic core to tunnel through it, and thereby the aluminum/polymer composites exhibit a high dielectric constant as a percolation system; on the other hand, the insulating oxide layer restricts the electron transfer between aluminum particles, thus leading to a very low loss of the composites.

Considerable effort has been expended on theoretical studies of superhydrophobic surfaces with two-tier (micro and nano) roughness, but experimental studies are few due to the difficulties in fabricating such surfaces in a controllable way. The objective of this work is to experimentally study the wetting and hydrophobicity of water droplets on two-tier rough surfaces for comparison with theoretical analyses. To compare wetting on micropatterned silicon surfaces with wetting on nanoscale roughness surfaces, two model systems are fabricated: carbon nanotube arrays on silicon wafers and carbon nanotube arrays on carbon nanotube films. All surfaces are coated with 20 nm thick fluorocarbon films to obtain low surface energies. The results show that the microstructural characteristics must be optimized to achieve stable superhydrophobicity on microscale rough surfaces. However, the presence of nanoscale roughness allows a much broader range of surface design criteria, decreases the contact angle hysteresis to less than 1 degrees , and establishes stable and robust superhydrophobicity, although nanoscale roughness could not increase the apparent contact angle significantly if the microscale roughness dominates.

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Aliphatic polycarbonates were discovered a long time ago, with their conventional applications mostly limited to low molecular weight oligomeric intermediates for copolymerization with other polymers. Recent developments in polymerization techniques have overcome the difficulty in preparing high molecular weight aliphatic polycarbonates. These in turn, along with new functional monomers, have enabled the preparation of a wide range of aliphatic polycarbonates with diverse chemical compositions and structures. This review summarizes the latest polymerization techniques for preparing well-defined functional aliphatic polycarbonates, as well as the new applications of those aliphatic polycarbonates, esecially in the biomedical field.

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