The transport properties of hybrid nanoribbons formed by partially substituting zigzag boron nitride (graphene) nanoribbons into zigzag graphene (boron nitride) nanoribbons are investigated using the first-principles nonequilibrium Green’s function method. The transport properties are highly improved with the transmission conductance around the Fermi level increasing to 3G
0 in hybrid systems based on zigzag graphene nanoribbons and to 2G
0 in hybrid systems based on zigzag boron nitride nanoribbons. The enhancement is attributed to the coupling effect between B (N) atoms and C atoms at the interface of hybrid systems, which introduces a pair of bonding and antibonding bands around the Fermi level. The transport enhancement also remains in hybrid nanoribbons sandwiched into gold electrodes. The currents of such devices are improved compared with those of pristine ones, which originate from the additional transport channels at the C–B interface.
Reported herein is the growth of bifunctional random copolymer chains from silica particles through a "grafting from" approach and the use of these copolymer-bearing particles to fabricate superamphiphobic coatings. The silica particles had a diameter of 90 ± 7 nm and were prepared through a modified Stöber process before atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) initiators were introduced onto their surfaces. Bifunctional copolymer chains bearing low-surface-free-energy fluorinated units and sol-gel-forming units were then grafted from these silica particles by surface-initiated ATRP. Perfluorooctyl ethyl acrylate (FOEA) and 3-(triisopropyloxy)silylpropyl methacrylate (IPSMA) were respectively used as fluorinated and sol-gel-forming monomers in this reaction. Hydrolyzing the IPSMA units in the presence of an acid catalyst yielded silica particles that were adorned with silanol-bearing copolymer chains. Coatings were prepared by spraying these hydrolyzed silica particles onto glass and cotton substrates. A series of four different copolymer-functionalized silica particles samples bearing copolymers with similar FOEA molar fractions (fF) of ~80% but with different copolymer grafting mass ratios (gm) that ranged between 12.3 wt% and 58.8 wt%, relative to silica, were prepared by varying the polymerization protocols. These copolymer-bearing silica particles with a gm exceeding 34.1 wt% were used to coat glass and cotton substrates, yielding superamphiphobic surfaces. More importantly, these particulate-based coatings were robust and resistant to solvent extraction and NaOH etching thanks to the self-cross-linking of the copolymer chains and their covalent attachment to the substrates.
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