In this work, PVDF homopolymer was blended with PVDF-co-HFP copolymer and studied in terms of morphology, porosity, pore size, hydrophobicity, permeability, and mechanical properties. Different solvents, namely N-Methyl-2 pyrrolidone (NMP), Tetrahydrofuran (THF), and Dimethylformamide (DMF) solvents, were used to fabricate blended PVDF flat sheet membranes without the introduction of any pore f...

Polymeric insulators are widely used in newly constructed systems and to replace porcelain and glass insulators in existing power lines due to its improved performance. This paper presents an experimental work, which was carried to evaluate the flashover voltage (kV) of Silicone rubber / Ethylene propylene diene monoemer blends of outdoor insulators. Effect of environmental parameters at desert...

We introduce hybrid solar cells with an architecture consisting of an electrodeposited ZnO nanorod array (NRA) coated with a conformal thin layer (<50 nm) of organic polymer-fullerene blend and a quasi-conformal Ag top contact (Thin/NR). We have compared the performance of Thin/NR cells to conventional hybrid cells in which the same NRAs are completely filled with organic blend (Thick/NR). The ...

Azopolymers are known to exhibit a strong light responsivity known as athermal photofluidization. Although the underlying physics is still under debate, athermal photofluidization has been demonstrated to trigger mass-migration according to the polarization of a proper illumination light. Here, a polymer blend is proposed wherein a commercial azo-polyelectrolyte is mixed with a passive polymer....

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) spectroscopic imaging techniques are introduced to determine the structure of protein-based polymer blends, using the silk fibroin/polyethylene oxide (SF/PEO) blend as a model material. We demonstrate that FTIR and STXM imaging techniques provide complementary chemical sensitivities, resolution ranges and sample...

The photogeneration and decay of charge carriers in blend films of ZnO nanoparticles (diameter 5 nm) and poly[2-methoxy-5-(3',7'-dimethyloctyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MDMO-PPV) or poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) were studied by means of microwave-photoconductance measurements. Excitation of the polymer in the visible spectrum was found to lead to a transient photoconductance due to dissociati...

By means of computer simulations, we investigate the relaxation of the Rouse modes in a simple bead-spring model for non-entangled polymer blends. Two different models are used for the fast component, namely fully flexible and semiflexible chains. The latter, which incorporate intramolecular barriers with bending and torsion terms, are semiflexible in the sense that static intrachain correlatio...

We have designed highly efficient ternary blend solar cells based on a wide-bandgap crystalline polymer, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), and a low-bandgap polymer, poly[(4,4'-bis(2-ethylhexyl)dithieno[3,2-b:2'3'-d]silole)-2,6-diyl-alt-(2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)-4,7-diyl] (PSBTBT), and a fullerene derivative (PCBM). By using highly crystalline P3HT, high fill factors were obtained even for ternary ...

Polylactic acid-g-polyvinyl acetate (PLLA-g-PVAc) was used as a compatibilizer for 50/50 starch/PLLA blend. PLLA-gPVAc with different mol% of PVAc contents were prepared by grafting PVAc onto PLLA backbone via free radical polymerization in solution process. Various conditions such as type and the amount of initiator, monomer concentration, polymerization time and temperature were studied. Resu...

Organic solar cells (OSCs) with a bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) are promising energy conversion devices, because they are flexible and environmental-friendly, and can be fabricated by low-cost roll-to-roll process. Here, we systematically investigated the interrelations between photovoltaic properties and the domain morphology of the active layer in OSCs based on films of poly-(9,9-dioctylfluorene-...