Highly stretchable, integrated, single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) film supercapacitors are prepared by combining directly grown SWCNT films with continuous reticulate architecture with polydimethylsiloxane with enhanced prestrain. The performance of the prepared stretchable supercapacitors remains nearly unchanged even during the stretching process under 120% strain.

We reported the realization of assembling compact-designed supercapacitors using large-scaled freestanding and flexible single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) films as both anode and cathode. A prototype of the processing procedures was developed to obtain the uniform spreading of the SWCNT films onto the separators serving as both electrodes and charge collectors without metallic current collectors, leading to a simplified and lightweight architecture. The area of SWCNT film on a separator can be scaled up and its thickness can be extended. High energy and power densities (43.7 Wh kg -1 and 197.3 kW kg -1 , respectively) were achieved from the prepared SWCNT film-based compact-designed supercapacitors with small equivalent series resistance. The specific capacitance of this kind of compact-designed SWCNT film supercapacitor is about 35 F g -1 . These results clearly show the potential application of free-standing SWCNT film in compact-designed supercapacitor with enhanced performance and significantly improved energy and power densities. We reported the realization of assembling compact-designed supercapacitors using large-scaled freestanding and flexible single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) films as both anode and cathode. A prototype of the processing procedures was developed to obtain the uniform spreading of the SWCNT films onto the separators serving as both electrodes and charge collectors without metallic current collectors, leading to a simplified and lightweight architecture. The area of SWCNT film on a separator can be scaled up and its thickness can be extended. High energy and power densities (43.7 Wh kg À1 and 197.3 kW kg À1, respectively) were achieved from the prepared SWCNT film-based compact-designed supercapacitors with small equivalent series resistance. The specific capacitance of this kind of compact-designed SWCNT film supercapacitor is about 35 F g À1 . These results clearly show the potential application of free-standing SWCNT film in compact-designed supercapacitor with enhanced performance and significantly improved energy and power densities.

Carbon nanotubes have unprecedented mechanical properties as defect-free nanoscale building blocks, but their potential has not been fully realized in composite materials due to weakness at the interfaces. Here we demonstrate that through load-transfer-favored three-dimensional architecture and molecular level couplings with polymer chains, true potential of CNTs can be realized in composites as initially envisioned. Composite fibers with reticulate nanotube architectures show order of magnitude improvement in strength compared to randomly dispersed short CNT reinforced composites reported before. The molecular level couplings between nanotubes and polymer chains results in drastic differences in the properties of thermoset and thermoplastic composite fibers, which indicate that conventional macroscopic composite theory fails to explain the overall hybrid behavior at nanoscale.To build composites with superior strength and flawtolerance, nanoscale reinforcements have natural advantages than their micrometer-sized counterparts because of their paucity of structural defects and high aspect ratio.1 However, a huge challenge still lies in the manufacturing of a highperformance nanocomposite because of the agglomeration tendency of the nanometer-sized fillers and poor load transfer efficiency between the matrix and reinforcements. A good example is carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced composites. Although individual CNTs have Young's modulus of 1 TPa and strength over 60 GPa, 2,3 to date CNT reinforced polymer composites fabricated by mixing polymers and nanotubes have shown only moderate enhancement in modulus and even more limited improvements in strength. 4 Even in the cases where CNTs are optimally dispersed at high volume fraction, their moduli and strengths are at least 2 orders of magnitude lower than what was theoretically predicted by composite theory. [5][6][7] Essentially, the mechanical performance of CNT reinforced composites relies on the load-bearing status of the CNTs in the matrix. However, two inherent problems of CNTs shadow their promise as efficient load-bearers. One is their waviness. A multiwalled carbon nanotube with a diameter of 10 nm is 10 12 times easier to be bent than a

One of the most critical aspects in the preparation of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)/ conducting polymer hybrid electrodes is to improve the energy density without seriously deteriorating their high power capability. Here, we report a ''skeleton/skin'' strategy for the preparation of freestanding, thin and flexible SWCNT/polyaniline (PANI) hybrid films by a simple in situ electrochemical polymerization method using directly grown SWCNT films with a continuous reticulate structure as template. In situ electrochemical polymerization can achieve effective deposition of PANI onto the surface of SWCNT bundles in the films and control the morphology and microstructure of the SWCNT/PANI hybrid films. In a SWCNT/PANI hybrid film, the directly grown SWCNT film with continuous reticulate architecture acts as the skeleton and PANI layers act as the skin. This unique continuous ''skeleton/skin'' structure ensures that these hybrid films have much higher conductivity compared to SWCNT/PANI composite films based on post-deposition SWCNT films. Flexible supercapacitors have been fabricated using the SWCNT/PANI hybrid films as both electrodes and charge collectors without metallic current collectors. High energy and power densities (131 W h kg À1 and 62.5 kW kg À1 , respectively) have been achieved for the optimized assembly. The high electrical conductivity and flexibility, in combination with continuous porous architecture, suggests that the asprepared ultrathin free-standing SWCNT/PANI hybrid films have significant potential as promising electrode materials for thin, lightweight and flexible energy storage devices with high performance. Broader contextThe hybrid electrodes of SWCNT/conducting polymer display high energy density due to pseudocapacitance originating from the conducting polymer. However, their power density is dramatically reduced in comparison with pure SWCNT-based electrodes, due to the poor electrical conductivity of PANI layers and overlapped PANI-PANI contact. Therefore, one of the most critical aspects in the development of SWCNT/conducting polymer supercapacitors is to optimize the energy density without deteriorating their high power capability as these two parameters determine concomitantly the ultimate performance of the supercapacitor. In this work, we report a ''skeleton/skin'' strategy to prepare free-standing, thin and flexible SWCNT/PANI hybrid films by a simple in situ electrochemical polymerization method using directly grown SWCNT films with continuous reticulate structure as template. The high electrical conductivity and flexibility, in combination with continuous porous architecture, suggest that as-prepared ultrathin freestanding SWCNT/PANI hybrid films have significant potential as promising electrode materials for thin, lightweight and flexible energy storage devices with high performance. The flexible supercapacitors based on the SWCNT/PANI hybrid films achieve high energy and power densities. 8726

Free-standing, hierarchical reticulate single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) fi lms are embedded in poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) to fabricate stretchable conductors (SWCNT/PDMS stretchable conductors). The stretchable conductors are highly transparent in visible light region and retain excellent conductance under large tensile strains. Strain tests reveal a unique strainhistory dependence behavior of the resistance, and resistance stabilization is achieved upon repetitive stretching and releasing, implying that the SWCNT/ PDMS stretchable conductors can be programmed to be reversibly stretched to a defi ned strain without resistance changes. A quantitative description of the increase in resistance is determined by adopting the Weibull distribution. Moreover, a light-emitting diode is illuminated using a repetitively stretched SWCNT/PDMS strip as the connecting wire, demonstrating the utility of the stretchable conductors as interconnects for stretchable electronics. Because of the high transparency, high conductivity, and excellent stretchability, in addition to the facile fabrication, the SWCNT/PDMS stretchable conductors might be widely used as interconnects and electrodes for stretchable intelligent and functional devices.

Here we report a novel single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) based bimorph electromechanical actuator, which consists of unique as-grown SWNT films as double electrode layers separated by a chitosan electrolyte layer consisting of an ionic liquid. By taking advantage of the special hierarchical structure and the outstanding electrical and mechanical properties of the SWNT film electrodes, our actuators show orders-of-magnitude improvements in many aspects compared to previous ionic electroactive polymer (i-EAP) actuators, including superfast response (19 ms), quite wide available frequency range (dozens to hundreds of Hz), incredible large stress generating rate (1080 MPa/s), and ultrahigh mechanical output power density (244 W/kg). These remarkable achievements together with their facile fabrication, low driving voltage, flexibility, and long durability enable the SWNT-based actuators many applications such as artificial muscles for biomimetic flying insects or robots and flexible deployable reflectors.

ZAT18 modulated genes involved in hormone signaling transduction and stress response pathways, resulting in enhanced osmotic stress responses in seed germination and improved drought stress tolerance.

Core/shell nano-structuring of metal oxide semiconductors and their photocatalytic studies AIP Conf. Proc. 1512, 34 (2013); 10.1063/1.4790898Surface effects on the optical and photocatalytic properties of graphene-like ZnO:Eu3+ nanosheetsThe molybdenum disulfide (MoS 2 )@ZnO nano-heterojunctions were successfully fabricated through a facile three-step synthetic process: prefabrication of the ZnO nanoparticles, the synthesis of MoS 2 nanoflowers, and the fabrication of MoS 2 @ZnO heterojunctions, in which ZnO nanoparticles were uniformly self-assembled on the MoS 2 nanoflowers by utilizing polyethyleneimine as a binding agent. The photocatalytic activities of the composite samples were evaluated by monitoring the photodegradation of methylene blue (MB). Compared with pure MoS 2 nanoflowers, the composites show higher adsorption capability in dark and better photocatalytic efficiency due to the increased specific surface area and improved electron-hole pair separation. After irradiation for 100 min, the remaining MB in solution is about 7.3%. Moreover, the MoS 2 @ZnO heterojunctions possess enhanced field emission properties with lower turn-on field of 3.08 V lm À1 and lower threshold field of 6.9 V lm À1 relative to pure MoS 2 with turn-on field of 3.65 V lm À1 and threshold field of 9.03 V lm À1 . V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.