Pore size dependent connectivity and ionic transport in saturated cementitious materials

Microstructure-property relationship has drawn strong attention in modern material science. The progress achieved in this field relies on a common basis that the material performance originates from the microstructure. This paper brings together new insights and facts from experiments regarding the pore size dependent connectivity and its...

Dependence of unsaturated chloride diffusion on the pore structure in cementitious materials

Conceptual analysis is performed to examine the effects of pore features on the water continuity in unsaturated porous systems. The roles of pore features in relative chloride diffusion coefficient (D_rc) of mortar specimens at various degrees of water saturation (S_w) were studied based on mercury intrusion porosimetry...

Ink-bottle effect and pore size distribution of cementitious materials identified by pressurization-depressurization cycling mercury intrusion porosimetry

Capturing the long-term performance of concrete must be underpinned by a detailed understanding of the pore structure. Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) is a widely used technique for pore structure characterization. However, it has been proven inappropriate to measure the pore size distribution of cementitious materials due to the ink-bottle...

Promoting sensitivity and selectivity of HCHO sensor based on strained InP₃ monolayer: A DFT study

Sensitive materials for formaldehyde (HCHO) sensor need high sensitivity and selectivity. The research on two dimensional (2D) sensitive material is growing, and most studies focus on the pristine or modified graphene. So it is essential to introduce other 2D materials into HCHO gas sensor. In this report, the adsorption behaviors of organic...

Germanene on single-layer ZnSe substrate: Novel electronic and optical properties

In this work, the structural, electronic and optical properties of germanene and ZnSe substrate nanocomposites have been investigated using first-principles calculations. We found that the large direct-gap ZnSe semiconductors and zero-gap germanene form a typical orbital hybridization heterostructure with a strong binding energy, which shows...

Spherical polyelectrolyte nanogels as templates to prepare hollow silica nanocarriers: observation by small angle X-ray scattering and TEM

Hollow silica nanoparticles were prepared through generating a silica layer in spherical polyelectrolyte nanogels (SPN), which consisted of a solid core of polystyrene (PS) and a shell of crosslinked poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), followed by removing the PS core via solvent dissolution. Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) in combination with TEM...

First-principles study of the effect of functional groups on polyaniline backbone

We present a first-principles density functional theory study focused on how the chemical and electronic properties of polyaniline are adjusted by introducing suitable substituents on a polymer backbone. Analyses of the obtained energy barriers, reaction energies and minimum energy paths indicate that the chemical reactivity of the polyaniline...