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Nanostructured Functional Materials: Fabrication, Characterization and Their Application

A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 December 2021) | Viewed by 6637

Special Issue Editors

Professor and leader of Materials & Manufacturing, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Australian National University, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia
Interests: biomechanics; biomaterials; nanomaterials; computational mechanics; composite materials;
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia
Interests: structural optimization; aerospace composites; computational simulation; finite element modelling; multiscale modelling; failure analysis; fracture and fatigue; damage tolerance analysis
School of Aeronautical Manufacturing Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang 330063, China
Interests: multi-scale modelling of additive manufacturing; composite mechanics; computational methods of modeling material behavior; nanomechanics and suprealloy; numerical simulation of material forming
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue entitled “Nanostructured Functional Materials: Fabrication, Characterization and Their Applications” will cover various aspects of nanostructured and nano-porous materials and structures, their synthesis and fabrication system, and related interdisciplinary technology and approaches such as the nanostructure analysis and additive manufacturing. In recent years, nanostructured materials and their processing and advanced manufacturing technology have attracted intense research efforts from a wide range of areas such as material science, physics, additive manufacturing, and computational engineering. Nano analysis and characterization play an important role in the processing of the disparate nanomaterials used in engineering and manufacturing. In the processing of nanostructured functional materials, processing induces strains resulting in accommodation by mechanical relaxation processes which modify the properties. The characterization of these materials and their mechanical properties are essential if their functional properties are to be understood and optimized. This Special Issue will cover some of the recent significant advances in the field of nanostructured materials processing, characterization, advanced manufacturing technology, and their industrial applications as thermoplastic elastomers, coatings, surfactants, dispersants, optoelectronic, and biomedical materials. Research and review articles focusing on the above-mentioned fields are welcome.

All manuscripts will be peer-reviewed before their acceptance for publication.

Prof. Dr. Qinghua Qin
Dr. Raj Das
Prof. Dr. Wugui Jiang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • functional materials
  • nanostructure
  • characterization
  • nano-porous materials
  • fabrication

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 4972 KiB  
Article
Investigating the Crystallization Process of Boron-Bearing Silicate-Phosphate Glasses by Thermal and Spectroscopic Methods
by Magdalena Szumera, Barbara Łagowska, Justyna Sułowska, Piotr Jeleń, Zbigniew Olejniczak, Radosław Lach, Anna Berezicka and Agnieszka Kijo-Kleczkowska
Molecules 2022, 27(3), 867; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules27030867 - 27 Jan 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2132
Abstract
Glasses and devitrificates from the SiO2–B2O3–P2O5–K2O–CaO–MgO system with constant contents of SiO2 and P2O5 network formers, modified by the addition of B2O3, were [...] Read more.
Glasses and devitrificates from the SiO2–B2O3–P2O5–K2O–CaO–MgO system with constant contents of SiO2 and P2O5 network formers, modified by the addition of B2O3, were analyzed. All materials were synthesized by the traditional melt-quenching technique. The glass stability (GS) parameters (Krg, ∆T, KW, KH) were determined. The effect of the addition of B2O3 on the GS, liquation phenomenon, crystallization process, and the type of crystallizing phases were examined using SEM-EDS, DSC, XRD, and Raman spectroscopy imaging methods. It was observed that the addition of B2O3 increased the tendency of the glass to crystallize. Both phosphates (e.g., Ca9MgK(PO4)7, Mg3Ca3(PO4)4), and silicates (e.g., K2Mg5(Si12O30), CaMg(Si2O6), MgSiO3) crystallized in the studied system. The Raman spectrum for the orthophosphate Mg3Ca3(PO4)4 stanfieldite type was obtained. Boron ions were introduced into the structures of crystalline compounds at high crystallization temperatures. The type of crystallizing phases was found to be related to the phenomenon of liquation, and the order of their occurrence was dependent on the Gibbs free enthalpy. Full article
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15 pages, 9026 KiB  
Article
Dynamic Behavior of Rotation Transmission Nano-System in Helium Environment: A Molecular Dynamics Study
by Pan Zheng, Wugui Jiang, Qinghua Qin and Duosheng Li
Molecules 2021, 26(17), 5199; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules26175199 - 27 Aug 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1626
Abstract
The molecular dynamics (MD) method is used to investigate the influence of the shielding gas on the dynamic behavior of the heterogeneous rotation transmission nano-system (RTS) built on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) in a helium environment. In the heterogeneous [...] Read more.
The molecular dynamics (MD) method is used to investigate the influence of the shielding gas on the dynamic behavior of the heterogeneous rotation transmission nano-system (RTS) built on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and boron nitride nanotube (BNNT) in a helium environment. In the heterogeneous RTS, the inner CNT acts as a rotor, the middle BNNT serves as a motor, and the outer CNT functions as a stator. The rotor will be actuated to rotate by the motor due to the interlayer van der Waals effects and the end effects. The MD simulation results show that, when the gas density is lower than a critical range, a stable signal of the rotor will arise on the output and the rotation transmission ratio (RRT) of RTS can reach 1.0, but as the gas density is higher than the critical range, the output signal of the rotor cannot be stable due to the sharp drop of the RRT caused by the large friction between helium and the RTS. The greater the motor input signal of RTS, the lower the critical working helium density range. The results also show that the system temperature and gas density are the two main factors affecting the RTS transmission behavior regardless of the size of the simulation box. Our MD results clearly indicate that in the working temperature range of the RTS from 100 K to 600 K, the higher the temperature and the lower the motor input rotation frequency, the higher the critical working helium density range allows. Full article
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19 pages, 29695 KiB  
Article
Influence of Substitutional Defects in ZIF-8 Membranes on Reverse Osmosis Desalination: A Molecular Dynamics Study
by Terence Zhi Xiang Hong, Liming You, Madhavi Dahanayaka, Adrian Wing-Keung Law and Kun Zhou
Molecules 2021, 26(11), 3392; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/molecules26113392 - 03 Jun 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2095
Abstract
In this study, molecular dynamics simulation is used to investigate the effects of water-based substitutional defects in zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF)-8 membranes on their reverse osmosis (RO) desalination performance. ZIF-8 unit cells containing up to three defect sites are used to construct the [...] Read more.
In this study, molecular dynamics simulation is used to investigate the effects of water-based substitutional defects in zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIF)-8 membranes on their reverse osmosis (RO) desalination performance. ZIF-8 unit cells containing up to three defect sites are used to construct the membranes. These substitutional defects can either be Zn defects or linker defects. The RO desalination performance of the membranes is assessed in terms of the water flux and ion rejection rate. The effects of defects on the interactions between the ZIF-8 membranes and NaCl are investigated and explained with respect to the radial distribution function (RDF) and ion density distribution. The results show that ion adsorption on the membranes occurs at either the nitrogen atoms or the defect sites. Complete NaCl rejection can be achieved by introducing defects to change the size of the pores. It has also been discovered that the presence of linker defects increases membrane hydrophilicity. Overall, molecular dynamics simulations have been used in this study to show that water-based substitutional defects in a ZIF-8 structure reduce the water flux and influence its hydrophilicity and ion adsorption performance, which is useful in predicting the type and number of defect sites per unit cell required for RO applications. Of the seven ZIF-8 structures tested, pristine ZIF-8 exhibits the best RO desalination performance. Full article
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