The
chirality of nanostructured systems has gained growing attention
in catalysis, biotechnology, and optoelectronics owing to their exotic
enantio-/spin-selective interactions and intriguing chiroptical features.
However, large-scale fabrication of chiral inorganic nanostructures
still remains a challenge. Herein, we report a simple but generalized
route for the synthesis of diverse chiral inorganic nanoparticles
(NPs) such as Au, Ag, PdO, and TiO2 NPs using block copolymer
(BCP) templates. The self-assembled BCP inverse micelles offered a
specific environment, wherein dl-alanine induced left-handedness
via hydrogen bonding with the pyridines of polystyrene-block-poly(4-vinyl pyridine), for the evolution of chirality. The BCPs
were then used as a chiral host to transfer their handedness to the
anchored inorganic NPs, resulting in an anisotropy factor of −8.6
× 10–4 for the BCP/Au NP hybrid. Our design
concept pinpoints the steps required to construct an extended library
of viable chiral nanostructures and will aid in the development of
artificial chiral materials.
In this study, molecular dynamic simulation method was employed to study the structure and transport properties of Aquivion in comparison to Nafion. From experimental and computational work, there is a general consensus that the favored properties of Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) system are a result of nano-phase segregation of hydrophilic clusters in a hydrophobic matrix. Aquivion has a similar chemical structure to Nafion with hydrophobic backbone and hydrophilic sulfonate group. As such, we investigate the structure formed by Aquivion, to check for the desired nanophase segregation, when simulated in conditions similar to fuel cell conditions of temperature and humidity. We also characterize water diffusion and proton transport in this segregated structure, and compared them with hydrated Nafion membrane system.
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