Given the continuous and excessive CO2 emission into the atmosphere from anthropomorphic activities, there is now a growing demand for negative carbon emission technologies, which requires efficient capture and conversion...

Symmetry-broken nanoparticles (NPs) are important building blocks with directional interparticle interaction as a key to access the precise organization of NPs macroscopically. We report a facile, one-pot synthetic approach to prepare high-quality symmetry-broken plasmonic gold NPs (AuNPs). Symmetry-broken patterning is achieved through deficient ligand exchange of isotropic AuNPs with thiol-terminated polystyrene (PS-SH) in the presence of an amphiphilic polymer surfactant. The concentration of PS-SH plays a dominant role in tuning surface patterning and coverage of AuNPs. The formation of asymmetric surface patches arises from the interplay between the conformational entropy of polymer ligands and the interfacial energy between polymer-grafted AuNPs and the solvent. Our method illustrates new paradises to design asymmetric NPs with directional interparticle interactions to access the precise organization of NPs.

On account of the intralayer and interlayer heterogeneity, high temperature (110 °C), and high salinity (224,919 mg/L) of Tahe channel sand reservoir, single profile control or chemical flooding cannot greatly enhanced oil recovery. The goal of the current research was to optimize a polymer gel formula that was suitable for high-temperature and high-salinity reservoirs, screen an appropriate chemical flooding method, and determine the efficiency of the combination of profile control and chemical flooding. Experimental results indicated that the formed polymer gel could maintain relatively high strength after aging for 30 days. Moreover, the combination of profile control and surfactant flooding could result in an enhanced oil recovery of 17.9%, and the combination of profile control and foam flooding could result in an enhanced oil recovery of 23.0%, which was ascribed to the improvement of sweeping efficiency and displacement efficiency. All the results indicated that the formed polymer gel and the combination of profile control and chemical flooding have great application potential in Tahe high-temperature and highsalinity channel sand reservoir.

We report the synthesis of ordered mesoporous ceria (mCeO2) with highly crystallinity and thermal stability using hybrid polymer templates consisting of organosilanes. Those organosilane-containing polymers can convert into silica-like nanostructures that further serve as thermally stable and mechanically strong templates to prevent the collapse of mesoporous frameworks during thermal-induced crystallization. Using a simple evaporation-induced self-assembly process, control of the interaction between templates and metal precursors allows the co-self-assembly of polymer micelles and Ce3+ ions to form uniform porous structures. The porosity is well-retained after calcination up to 900 oC. After the thermal engineering at 700 oC for 12 h (mCeO2-700-12 h), mCeO2 still has a specific surface area of 96 m2/g with a pore size of 14 nm. mCeO2 is demonstrated to be active for electrochemical oxidation of sulfite. mCeO2-700-12 h with a perfect balance of crystallinity and porosity shows the fastest intrinsic activity that is about 84 times more active than bulk CeO2 and 5 times more active than mCeO2 that has a lower crystallinity.

Control of polymer assemblies in solution is of great importance to determine the properties and applications of these polymer nanostructures. We report a novel co-self-assembly strategy to control the self-assembly outcomes of a micelle-forming amphiphilic block copolymer (BCP) of poly­(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly­[3-(trimethoxysilyl)­propyl methacrylate] (PTMSPMA), PEO114-b-PTMSPMA228. With a reactive and hydrophobic additive tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), the assembly nanostructures of PEO114-b-PTMSPMA228 are tunable. The swelling of the PTMSPMA block by hydrophobic TEOS increases the hydrophobic-to-hydrophilic ratio that enables a continuous morphological evolution from spherical micelles to vesicles and eventually to large compound vesicles. TEOS that co-hydrolyzes with the PTMSPMA block can further stabilize and fix these hybrid nanostructures. With high TEOS concentrations, these polymer assemblies can be further converted through thermal annealing into unique silica nanomaterials, including nanospheres, hollow nanoparticles with dual shells, and mesoporous silica frameworks that cannot be synthesized through conventional syntheses otherwise.