Donghua University

About: Donghua University is a education organization based out in Shanghai, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Fiber & Nanofiber. The organization has 21155 authors who have published 21841 publications receiving 393091 citations. The organization is also known as: Dōnghuá Dàxué & China Textile University.

Improving carbon fiber adhesion to polyimide with atmospheric pressure plasma treatment

Abstract: Plasma treatment is frequently used to modify carbon fiber surfaces to improve adhesion of the fiber to matrices although it may also influence carbon fiber tensile strength. In order to determine the effect of atmospheric pressure plasma treatment on carbon fiber tensile strength and interfacial bonding strength to polyimide, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based carbon fibers are treated with atmospheric pressure oxygen/helium plasmas for different durations. Tensile strength change of the fiber is studied at different gage lengths before and after the plasma treatment. Interfacial bonding between the carbon fiber and a thermoplastic polyimide matrix is evaluated using a single fiber composite test system. Weibull analysis of the single fiber tensile test data shows no obvious changes in the tensile strength at short gage lengths after plasma treatment while the fiber strength tends to decrease at larger gage lengths. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) show that the plasma treatments roughen the fiber surfaces. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of fiber surface shows a significant increase of oxygen concentration after plasma treatment and the oxygen containing functional groups reach their maximum levels after 32 s treatment time and further increasing treatment time does not achieve a higher level of oxidation. Plasma treatments decrease dynamic water contact angles and increase the surface energy of the carbon fibers as measured by the modified Wilhelmy method. The interfacial shear strength is improved 21% after the atmospheric pressure plasma treatment for 32 s. It is concluded that the increase of oxygen containing functional groups and changing of the surface topology may contribute collectively to the improvement of fiber/resin interfacial adhesion.

Atomic Iron Catalysis of Polysulfide Conversion in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries.

Abstract: Lithium–sulfur batteries have been regarded as promising candidates for energy storage because of their high energy density and low cost. It is a main challenge to develop long-term cycling stability battery. Here, a catalytic strategy is presented to accelerate reversible transformation of sulfur and its discharge products in lithium–sulfur batteries. This is achieved with single-atomic iron active sites in porous nitrogen-doped carbon, prepared by polymerizing and carbonizing diphenylamine in the presence of iron phthalocyanine and a hard template. The Fe-PNC/S composite electrode exhibited a high discharge capacity (427 mAh g–1) at a 0.1C rate after 300 cycles with the Columbic efficiency of above 95.6%. Besides, the electrode delivers much higher capacity of 557.4 mAh g–1 at 0.5C over 300 cycles. Importantly, the Fe-PCN/S has a smaller phase nucleation overpotential of polysulfides than nitrogen-doped carbon alone for the formation of nanoscale of Li2S as revealed by ex situ SEM, which enhance lithium...