Buildings consume an inordinate amount of energy, accounting for 30-40% of worldwide energy consumption. A major portion of solar radiation is transmitted directly to building interiors through windows, skylights, and glazed doors where the resulting solar heat gain necessitates increased use of air conditioning. Current technologies aimed at addressing this problem suffer from major drawbacks, including a reduction in the transmission of visible light, thereby resulting in increased use of artificial lighting. Since currently used coatings are temperature-invariant in terms of their solar heat gain modulation, they are unable to offset cold-weather heating costs that would otherwise have resulted from solar heat gain. There is considerable interest in the development of plastic fenestration elements that can dynamically modulate solar heat gain based on the external climate and are retrofittable onto existing structures. The metal-insulator transition of VO is accompanied by a pronounced modulation of near-infrared transmittance as a function of temperature and can potentially be harnessed for this purpose. Here, we demonstrate that a nanocomposite thin film embedded with well dispersed sub-100-nm diameter VO nanocrystals exhibits a combination of high visible light transmittance, effective near-infrared suppression, and onset of NIR modulation at wavelengths <800 nm. In our approach, hydrothermally grown VO nanocrystals with <100 nm diameters are dispersed within a methacrylic acid/ethyl acrylate copolymer after either (i) grafting of silanes to constitute an amorphous SiO shell or (ii) surface functionalization with perfluorinated silanes and the use of a perfluorooctanesulfonate surfactant. Homogeneous and high optical quality thin films are cast from aqueous dispersions of the pH-sensitive nanocomposites onto glass. An entirely aqueous-phase process for preparation of nanocrystals and their effective dispersion within polymeric nanocomposites allows for realization of scalable and viable plastic fenestration elements.

As a result of the increasing emphasis on accessing unconventional deposits of heavy oil and bitumen to meet global energy needs, there is an intense focus on addressing the rheological challenges involved in the transportation, handling, and processing of viscous hydrocarbons. While the design of superhydrophobic surfaces has been extensively explored, the fabrication of surfaces nonwetted by low-surface-tension and high-viscosity oils that can be scaled to meet industrial needs remains to be adequately addressed. Here, we demonstrate that colloidally templated architectures of TiO2 particles applicable through a facile spray deposition process can form 3D inverse opal coatings adhered to low-alloy steels. Low-temperature sintering induces necking of particles, giving rise to an interconnected framework of plastrons surrounded by necked TiO2 ligaments. Surface functionalization with 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctanephosphonic acid yields a helical surface monolayer with pendant trifluoromethyl moieties. The combination of interconnected plastrons, re-entrant curvature, and low surface energy suspends liquid droplets, of both water and heavy oil, in the Cassie–Baxter regime, yielding contact angles of 164° ± 5° and 161° ± 2°, respectively. The interconnected network of plastrons further enables the facile gliding of heavy oil (<100 s) upon immersion within a bath, whereas a comparable untreated surface remains completely fouled. The performance of this coating suggests a promising solution to mitigate the challenges of handling viscous oils in midstream applications and furthermore delineates a route to designing coatings for a broad host of rheologically challenging fluids.

For transportation of hydrocarbon liquids via pipelines, reducing the frictional forces between internal walls and viscous oils through modification of the interfacial surface chemistry and topography represents a key imperative, enabling viscous oil flow at lower temperatures while mitigating the need for diluents. Although drag reduction of aqueous flows in lithographically patterned microchannels has been widely explored, herein drag reduction of oil flows within macroscopic tubing spanning several feet in length is demonstrated. Multiscale texturation is derived from the introduction of micron‐sized pits during electroless deposition of nickel and is augmented by nanoscale texturation derived from the incorporation of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) beads within the coating. Further functionalization with a monolayer of 1H,1H,2H,2H‐perfluorooctanephosphonic acid yields a surface that is not wetted by water or viscous oils, yielding 17% drag reduction under laminar flow for castor oil and a slip length that approaches 329 μm. The results demonstrate a promising solution for obtaining robust plastronic architectures embedded within the inner walls of macroscopic tubing. The performance of such coatings is constrained primarily by the robustness of plastrons and molecular properties of the flow liquid with the latter modifying the solid/liquid interface energy as a result of surface adsorption.

Laboratory safety teams (LSTs), led by graduate student and postdoctoral researchers, have been propagating across the U.S. as a bottom-up approach to improving safety culture in academic research laboratories. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, LSTs relied heavily on in-person projects and events. Additionally, committed Champions from the ranks of safety professionals and faculty were critical to their operation and continued expansion. As was the case for many existing systems, the COVID-19 global crisis served as an operational stress test for LSTs, pushing them to unexpected new limits. The initial spread of COVID-19 brought with it a shutdown of academic institutions followed by a limited reopening that prohibited in-person gatherings and disrupted standard lines of communication upon which LSTs relied. Safety professionals and faculty members were required to take on new duties that were often undefined and time-consuming, substantially impacting their ability to support LSTs. In this case study, we report the impact of this operational stress test on 12 LSTs, detailing the adaptive means by which they survived and highlighting the key lessons learned by the represented LST leaders. The key takeaways were to spend time nurturing relationships with a diverse array of Champions, securing stable funding from multiple sources, and networking with members of LSTs from different institutions to strengthen moral support and broaden ideation for common challenges.

An increasing global population and a sharply upward trajectory of per capita energy consumption continue to drive the demand for fossil fuels, which remain integral to energy grids and the global transportation infrastructure. The oil and gas industry is increasingly reliant on unconventional deposits such as heavy crude oil and bitumen for reasons of accessibility, scale, and geopolitics. Unconventional deposits such as the Canadian Oil Sands in Northern Alberta contain more than one-third of the world’s viscous oil reserves and are vital linchpins to meet the energy needs of rapidly industrializing populations. Heavy oil is typically recovered from subsurface deposits using thermal recovery approaches such as steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). In this perspective article, we discuss several aspects of materials science challenges in the utilization of heavy crude oil with an emphasis on the needs of the Canadian Oil Sands. In particular, we discuss surface modification and materials’ design approaches essential to operations under extreme environments of high temperatures and pressures and the presence of corrosive species. The demanding conditions for materials and surfaces are directly traceable to the high viscosity, low surface tension, and substantial sulfur content of heavy crude oil, which necessitates extensive energy-intensive thermal processes, warrants dilution/emulsification to ease the flow of rheologically challenging fluids, and engenders the need to protect corrodible components. Geopolitical reasons have further led to a considerable geographic separation between extraction sites and advanced refineries capable of processing heavy oils to a diverse slate of products, thus necessitating a massive midstream infrastructure for transportation of these rheologically challenging fluids. Innovations in fluid handling, bitumen processing, and midstream transportation are critical to the economic viability of heavy oil. Here, we discuss foundational principles, recent technological advancements, and unmet needs emphasizing candidate solutions for thermal insulation, membrane-assisted separations, corrosion protection, and midstream bitumen transportation. This perspective seeks to highlight illustrative materials’ technology developments spanning the range from nanocomposite coatings and cement sheaths for thermal insulation to the utilization of orthogonal wettability to engender separation of water–oil emulsions stabilized by endogenous surfactants extracted during SAGD, size-exclusion membranes for fractionation of bitumen, omniphobic coatings for drag reduction in pipelines and to ease oil handling in containers, solid prills obtained from partial bitumen solidification to enable solid-state transport with reduced risk of damage from spills, and nanocomposite coatings incorporating multiple modes of corrosion inhibition. Future outlooks for onsite partial upgradation are also described, which could potentially bypass the use of refineries for some fractions, enable access to a broader cross-se...