We report a unique vinyl coordination polymer (CP), [Zn(4‐Fb)2(tkpvb)]n (1, 4‐HFb=4‐fluorobenzoic acid, tkpvb=1,2,4,5‐tetrakis(4‐pyridylvinyl)benzene) that undergoes a rare photopolymerization reaction to form a two‐dimensional CP integrated with a one‐dimensional linear organic polymer. Upon light irradiation at different wavelengths, 1 exhibits an unprecedented phenomenon of photoinduced nonlinear lattice expansion. 1 can be uniformly dispersed in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to form the composite film of 1‐PVA. When this film is exposed to UV light, internal minute stresses within crystallites are released by lattice expansion, resulting in a variety of photopolymerization‐driven macroscopic mechanical motions. The findings provide new insights into the conversion of small lattice expansions of CPs into macroscopic mechanical motions based on photopolymerization reactions, which can promote the development of CPs‐based smart photoactuators in the burgeoning field of microrobotics.

Four Zn(II)-based coordination polymers (CPs), [Zn(4-tkpvb)(FB)2] (CP1), [Zn(4-tkpvb)(CB)2] (CP2), [Zn(4-tkpvb)(BB)2] (CP3) and [Zn(4-tkpvb)(NTP)]n (CP4), were prepared from solvothermal reactions of Zn(NO3)2•6H2O with 1,2,4,5-tetrakis((E)-2-(pyridin-4-yl)vinyl)benzene (4-tkpvb) in the presence of 3-florobenzoic acid...

We report a unique vinyl coordination polymer (CP), [Zn(4‐Fb)2(tkpvb)]n (1, 4‐HFb=4‐fluorobenzoic acid, tkpvb=1,2,4,5‐tetrakis(4‐pyridylvinyl)benzene) that undergoes a rare photopolymerization reaction to form a two‐dimensional CP integrated with a one‐dimensional linear organic polymer. Upon light irradiation at different wavelengths, 1 exhibits an unprecedented phenomenon of photoinduced nonlinear lattice expansion. 1 can be uniformly dispersed in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to form the composite film of 1‐PVA. When this film is exposed to UV light, internal minute stresses within crystallites are released by lattice expansion, resulting in a variety of photopolymerization‐driven macroscopic mechanical motions. The findings provide new insights into the conversion of small lattice expansions of CPs into macroscopic mechanical motions based on photopolymerization reactions, which can promote the development of CPs‐based smart photoactuators in the burgeoning field of microrobotics.

The ThermoElectric-driven Liquid-metal plasma-facing Structures (TELS) experiment at the University of Illinois is a gas-puff driven, theta-pinch plasma source that is used as a test stand for off-normal plasma events incident on materials in the edge and divertor regions of a tokamak. The ion temperatures and resulting energy distributions are crucial for understanding how well a TELS pulse can simulate an extreme event in a larger, magnetic confinement device. A retarding field energy analyzer (RFEA) has been constructed for use with such a transient plasma due to its inexpensive and robust nature. The innovation surrounding the use of a control analyzer in conjunction with an actively sampling analyzer is presented and the conditions of RFEA operation are discussed, with results presented demonstrating successful performance under extreme conditions. Such extreme conditions are defined by heat fluxes on the order of 0.8 GW m and on time scales of nearly 200 μs. Measurements from the RFEA indicate two primary features for a typical TELS discharge, following closely with the pre-ionizing coaxial gun discharge characteristics. For the case using the pre-ionization pulse (PiP) and the theta pinch, the measured ion signal showed an ion temperature of 23.3 ± 6.6 eV for the first peak and 17.6 ± 1.9 eV for the second peak. For the case using only the PiP, the measured signal showed an ion temperature of 7.9 ± 1.1 eV for the first peak and 6.6 ± 0.8 eV for the second peak. These differences illustrate the effectiveness of the theta pinch for imparting energy on the ions. This information also highlights the importance of TELS as being one of the few linear pulsed plasma sources whereby moderately energetic ions will strike targets without the need for sample biasing.

Eu3+ and Tb3+ ions singly activated Gd2O2S hollow spheres have been successfully synthesized via solvothermal method by using Gd (NO3)3, Eu (NO3)3, Tb (NO3)3 and thiourea as raw materials. Detailed characterization of the as-prepared samples were obtained by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electronic microscope (TEM) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The results demonstrate that at 220 oC for 24 h, the molar ratio of thiourea/Gd3+ has no significant impact on the phase composition of Gd2O2S products. With the reaction time increased from 6 h to 24 h, the morphology of Gd2O2S samples changed from ellipsoidal to near-spheroidal structure, but still remained hollow structure. PL results show that the strongest emission peaks for Gd2O2S:Eu3+ and Gd2O2S:Tb3+ samples were centered at 625 nm and 545 nm, corresponding to the 5D0→7F2 transition of Eu3+ ions and 5D4→7F5 transition of Tb3+ ions, respectively. The quenching concentrations for Eu3+ and Tb3+ ions were 12% and 6%, which can be attributed to the exchange interaction for Eu3+ and Tb3+ ions, respectively.