• Thermomechanical properties are engineered with immiscible PHBV copolymer blends. • Blending can be made using non-halogenated solvents as part of PHBV recovery. • Blends of PHBVs that are distinct in crystallinity form biphasic microstructures. • Biphasic PHBV microstructures can have thermoplastic elastomeric like properties. • Solution blending is a means to masterbatch PHBV properties with quality control. Plastic waste motivates the development of products and services from renewable, biodegradable polymers, like polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). Approaches for quality control and engineering of PHA property specifications (i.e. crystallinity, crystallization rate, mechanical properties, processability, etc.) are going to be needed for industrial scale production. Methods of PHBV, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate -co- 3-hydroxyvalerate), extraction from biomass with non-halogenated solvents were applied to formulate immiscible PHBV copolymer blends. The goal was to test, in principle, if material properties could be controlled as part of the step of PHBV extraction since solution blending is anyway inherent to the biomass extraction process. Homogenous solution blends with average 3-hydroxyvalerate (3HV) content from 0 to 38 wt% were formulated in dimethyl carbonate with proportions of the more crystalline polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) mixed with a less crystalliine, miscible, pre-eutectic PHBV copolymer blend. Respective PHBV grade properties and microstructures were characterized using Pyrolysis GC/MS, solution rheology, DSC, DMTA, AFM, and melt rheology. Blends exhibited immiscibility (two distinct glass transition temperatures) and phase-separated microstructure morphologies (dispersed or layered-network) of interpenetrating harder and softer phases, as evidenced using Peak Force QNM. Blending systematically modulated elongation at break (from 3% to > 100%) and stiffness (from 1500 to 250 MPa). The more crystalline PHB component progressively effected melt stiffening temperature and rate, which are important to melt processing. Blending reproduced properties of an independently recovered PHBV grade with 37 wt% 3HV that was similarly independently extracted from a dried mixed microbial culture. Thus, solution blending of especially immiscible PHBV grades during PHA recovery is proposed as a novel and practical scalable route for effective property quality control and application-specific PHBV bioplastic masterbatch production.

Effect of applied stress on creep behavior and microstructure evolution of Mo–3Nb single crystal at high temperature

Increasing SiGe crystal growth rate utilizing microgravity

Fusing a variant of the sterile alpha motif domain of the human translocation ETS leukaemia protein (1TEL) to a protein of interest has been shown to significantly enhance its crystallization propensity. 1TEL is a pH-dependent, polymer-forming protein crystallization chaperone which, when covalently fused to a protein of interest, forms a stable, well ordered crystal lattice. However, despite its success, a challenge persists in that crystal quality and diffraction limits appear to be heavily dependent on the choice of linker between 1TEL and the protein of interest, with the identification of a functional linker currently relying on trial-and-error methods. Likewise, previous studies revealed that a ten-histidine tag at the 1TEL N-terminus can either facilitate or hinder the ordered crystallization of target proteins attached via flexible or semi-flexible linkers. To address these challenges, we designed multiple constructs with several types of linkers [rigid (helical fusion), semi-flexible (Pro-Ala and Pro-Ala-Ala) and flexible (Gly-Gly and Gly-Gly-Gly)] of varying lengths to fuse either a designed ankyrin-repeat protein (DARPin) or the thirty-eight-negative kinase-1 ubiquitin-associated (UBA) domain to the 1TEL C-terminus. Semi-flexible and flexible linker constructs were made with and without a ten-histidine tag. Our findings indicate that short semi-flexible and rigid linkers consistently yielded large crystals with a DARPin target protein, but that flexible linkers performed best with a UBA-domain target protein. Removing the ten-histidine tag uniformly enhanced crystallization rates, improved the crystal morphology and increased the crystallization propensity of the semi-flexible and flexible linker constructs. These results suggest that the ideal linker selection primarily depends on the properties of the target protein. Our data support our current recommendation to use a short flexible or semi-flexible linker between 1TEL and the target protein to facilitate protein crystallization and high-resolution structure determination.

Curcumin, a plant-derived polyphenolic compound, exhibits diverse pharmacological activities such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, neuroprotective, and cardiovascular protective effects, and is widely used in food, medicine, and other fields. However, its poor water solubility and easy oxidative degradation limit its extensive application in biomedicine. To solve these problems, a series of biomedical polyurethanes (Cur-PU) with similar molecular weights but different PEG contents were successfully synthesized using HO-PCL-OH and HO-PEG-OH as soft segments and curcumin as a chain extender. The results indicated that increasing the PEG content reduced the T1m, T1c, and H1c of Cur-PU, along with a slower crystallization rate and lower crystallinity. More importantly, a higher PEG content decreased the water contact angle but increased water solubility and water uptake, which, combined with reduced crystallinity, enhanced hydrophilicity, swelling ratio, curcumin release rate, and degradation rate in an enzymatic solution and pH 8.0 buffer. Thus, precise regulation of Cur-PU’s degradation and curcumin release was achieved by controlling the PEG content. Biocompatibility tests confirmed that Cur-PU exhibited excellent antioxidant and antibacterial activities, making it a highly promising biomedical material.

Antisolvent-free perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are a promising technology for scalable manufacturing. Due to a more complicated crystallization process, a key factor limiting device performance is phase segregation induced by the varying crystallization rates of the various components. Herein, we propose a transient interphase strategy to manipulate the nucleation process and crystal growth for enhanced device performance without an antisolvent. We found that tetramethylurea (TMU) induces instantaneous nucleation with a Cs-rich component and forms a transient interphase, which balances the integrated crystallization for the formation of α-CsXFA1-XPbI3 phase. This approach enhances device performance with an efficiency up to 25.63% and a module efficiency of 19.62%. Crucially, suppressed phase segregation endows exceptional stability: devices show negligible degradation after 1700h (ISOS-L-1) and retain 90% of their initial efficiency after 3500h. It represents the longest reported MPPT stability for antisolvent-free CsXFA1-XPbI3-based PSCs to date.

Mineral reaction textures are fundamental archives of geological change. Amphibole reaction rims are among the most widely used to reconstruct pre-eruptive magmatic conditions, traditionally interpreted through changes in pressure, temperature and melt composition. However, these interpretations have largely overlooked the role of deformation, ubiquitous during magma ascent. Here we show that amphibole breakdown is not only thermodynamically sensitive, but also mechanically sensitive. Using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analyses of experimental and natural samples, combined with numerical simulations of crystal rotation under magma flow, we demonstrate that pyroxene nucleates topotactically on amphibole, forming rims, but can later reorient in response to strain. In static experiments, gravitational settling alone produces measurable misorientations that can be tracked over time, while natural samples reveal signatures of externally imposed shear. The resulting rim textures encode evolving strain histories, with crystal misorientation distributions tracking both total strain and variations in rim crystallisation and/or deformation rates. With EBSD-derived crystal orientations now shown to capture both thermodynamic and mechanical histories, amphibole reaction rims emerge as four-dimensional petrological recorders, sensitive to pressure, temperature, composition and strain (P-T-X-ε), providing a powerful unified framework for reconstructing magma evolution and the mechanics of magma transport.

Polymers have been widely used to physically stabilize amorphous drugs by forming amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs), resulting in commercial and clinical success as a pharmaceutical technique to improve the bioavailability of a poorly water-soluble drug. However, the role of polymers in maintaining the physical stability of ASDs has not been fully understood. Herein, we investigated how poly(methyl methacrylates) (PMMAs) with different tacticities impact the liquid dynamics and crystallization kinetics of amorphous griseofulvin (GSF). PMMAs with similar chain lengths and identical monomer structures were selected, aiming to exclude effects arising from differences in monomer structure and end groups. The syndiotactic form of PMMA (s-PMMA) exhibited a stronger inhibitory effect on the crystal growth of amorphous GSF in comparison with isotactic (i-PMMA) and atactic (a-PMMA) forms. Effects of the isotactic atactic forms of PMMA on the crystal growth of GSF can be mainly attributed to their molecular mobility, as shown by the overlapping of the logarithm growth rate curves versus viscosity and α-relaxation time. However, the crystal growth rate curves of GSF in the system containing 10 wt% s-PMMA did not overlap with those of the pure GSF system. These results suggest that liquid dynamics is not a main contributor to the inhibitory effect of s-PMMA during drug crystallization.

The shared processing technologies of perovskite and organic semiconductors make them ideal partners for constructing perovskite-organic tandem solar cells. However, the different crystallization rates of bromide and iodide ions lead to inhomogeneous vertical halide distribution within wide-bandgap (WBG) perovskite films, causing notable open-circuit voltage (VOC) loss. In this study, we developed an approach to blade-coat halide-compositionally homogeneous WBG perovskite films by introducing a hydrogen-bonding donor solvent (formamide). The formamide effectively modulates crystallization kinetics via balancing the differential hydrogen-bonding interactions of formamide with bromide and iodide ions. The resultant WBG perovskite solar cells achieved a power conversion efficiency of 18.9% with an exceptional VOC of 1.41 volts. Last, a perovskite-organic tandem solar cell was fabricated, achieving a high efficiency of 26.3% (certified as 25.6%) and retaining 92% of its initial efficiency after being illuminated for 1000 hours. This work provides an approach for the large-area fabrication of halide-compositionally homogeneous WBG perovskite films, paving the way for the industrialization of tandem devices.

Assembling the nanochannels of microporous crystalline materials in continuous membranes/coatings has broad applications for separation, selective catalysis, and sensing. Current hydrothermal/solvothermal synthesis methods, however, suffer from long synthesis time, typically hours or days, leading to low fabrication efficiency and intensive energy consumption. Herein, we report an ultrafast synthesis strategy to prepare continuous molecular-sieving membranes, reducing synthesis time to just one to a few minutes-nearly two orders of magnitude faster than traditional ones. This was realized through a combination of a nuclei-loaded seed layer and a drastically increased crystallization rate, preventing substantial dissolution of the seed layer and successfully incorporating it into the resulting membranes. Utilizing this strategy, high-quality zeolite membranes-exhibiting breakthrough separation performance compared to previously reported ones, were rapidly prepared. Interestingly, ultrathin oriented zeolite membranes with ultrahigh separation performance were also prepared in as little as one minute. The drastically shortened synthesis time, together with the demonstrated reproducibility, highlights the practical potential of the UFS strategy for molecular-sieving membranes and coatings.

Blockage in tunnel drainage pipelines caused by crystal deposition can induce lining deterioration such as cracking, spalling, and leakage, highlighting the need for effective crystal removal in tunnel maintenance. This study develops and validates an ultrasonic crystal removal device for corrugated drainage pipes through combined numerical simulation and indoor experiments. COMSOL Multiphysics was used to evaluate the sound-pressure field under straight and oblique installations at 20, 28, 40, and 52kHz, indicating that 40kHz provides the most favorable acoustic conditions in the present geometry and that the straight installation yields stronger and more uniform excitation than the oblique installation. Based on these findings, the fabricated device was tested at 40kHz and 50W in a CaCl2-NaHCO3 recirculating crystallization-removal experiment, and removal efficiency was quantified using key mass-based indices, specifically the crystal removal rate and the remaining crystal mass. The results show a clear two-stage removal process, with most mass reduction occurring in the first 30 days and a slower stage thereafter as residual deposits become denser and more strongly adhered. Removal performance exhibits strong spatial dependence and decreases with distance from the transducer. In the straight installation, the closest sections achieved removal rates of 98% and 97% with residual masses of 4.8g and 7.8g, whereas the oblique installation showed pronounced directional asymmetry, with only facing-side sections reaching 95% and 90% and several back-facing or distant sections remaining below 45% with residual masses exceeding 120g. Overall, the experiments corroborate the simulations and demonstrate that straight installation at 40kHz enables higher, more stable, and more spatially uniform crystal removal performance, providing guidance for mitigating crystal-induced blockage in tunnel drainage systems.

ABSTRACT Traditional PA66 cable ties rely on water absorption for plasticization to achieve toughness, but this leads to reduced strength, unreliable low‐temperature performance, and the need for additional conditioning processes. This study aims to develop a PA66‐based composite material that, in its as‐molded dry state, achieves mechanical performance comparable to, or even exceeding, that of water‐conditioned traditional PA66, thereby eliminating the need for post ‐ molding water absorption while meeting the requirements of high strength, high toughness, excellent low‐temperature performance, and rapid injection molding. A ternary composite of PA66/organically modified montmorillonite (O‐MMT)/maleic anhydride‐grafted polyolefin elastomer (POE‐g‐MAH) was prepared through melt blending. Systematic research revealed that the synergistic effect of O‐MMT and POE‐g‐MAH is key to achieving performance breakthroughs. O‐MMT, as a nanofiller, exhibits a dual effect of “nucleation promotion” and “growth restriction”: at a low content (0.5 wt%) and with good dispersion, it serves as an efficient heterogeneous nucleating agent, significantly enhancing crystallization rate and α‐crystal content, thereby improving modulus and strength; however, at a high content (2 wt%), its aggregation forms a network that hinders crystal perfection growth and restricts molecular chain mobility, leading to increased brittleness. POE‐g‐MAH plays a central role as a multifunctional compatibilizer and system architect: it not only achieves strong and tough bonding through interfacial reactions, forming a uniformly dispersed elastomer phase (approximately 285 nm) and realizing efficient toughening (impact strength of 72 kJ/m 2 ), but also significantly improves the dispersion of O‐MMT, synergistically optimizing the crystallization network of PA66. Through extrusion process optimization (500 rpm, 30 kg/h), the final composite achieved a balance of high tensile strength (58 MPa), high toughness, outstanding high‐temperature rigidity (storage modulus > 250 MPa at 150°C), and good processability without requiring water absorption. This study provides effective material design and mechanistic insights for the development of a new generation of water‐free, high‐performance engineering plastic products.

ABSTRACT Owing to inherent limitations such as low melt strength and slow crystallization rate, poly(4‐hydroxybutyrate) (P4HB) exhibits unsatisfactory foaming performance and oil adsorption capacity. Herein, a shear‐induced in situ fibrillation process is integrated with supercritical CO 2 foaming to fabricate P4HB/polyaryl polymethylene isocyanate (PAPI)/polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) foams. This strategy enhances the crystallization behavior and melt strength of chain‐extended P4HB, suppresses foam shrinkage, and improves both foaming ability and oil adsorption performance. The resulting foam achieves a maximum expansion ratio of 45.9 and a cell density of 5.8 × 10 12 cells/cm 3 . Notably, the foam with 2 wt% PVDF exhibits the highest oil adsorption capacity, reaching 28.1 g/g for CCl 4 . This work provides an effective strategy for overcoming the challenges of P4HB foaming and demonstrates significant potential for expanding its applications in oil adsorption and related fields.

Reducing dependence on fossil-based feedstocks for packaging can be achieved through three complementary strategies: minimizing packaging use, increasing closed-loop recycling rates, and expanding the adoption of renewable (e.g., biobased) packaging materials. To ensure these defossilization pathways reinforce rather than hinder one another, it is essential to understand how new biobased materials interact with existing recycling streams. With the market introduction of packaging containing the biobased polyester poly(ethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate) (PEF) approaching, several studies have investigated blends and copolyesters of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and PEF. This study expands current knowledge of thermomechanical and crystallization behavior by examining the influence of PEF on the mechanical recycling process of bottle-grade PET. Processing behavior was assessed at various PEF contents at both laboratory and industrial scales, and the resulting recycled resin and bottles were analyzed for color, crystallization behavior, and bottle performance. Although the melting temperature decreased with rising PEF content, no negative impact on the industrial recycling process investigated was observed for PEF levels up to 10 wt%. Two notable trends emerged: increasing PEF content reduced crystallization rate, yielding bottles with higher transparency, while yellowness also increased. Ongoing research aims to understand and mitigate this rise in yellowness.

ABSTRACT In this work, long‐chain branched polylactic acid (LCB‐PLA) with enhanced melt strength was synthesized via a radical‐regulated strategy using diisopropylphenyl peroxide (DCP) as the radical initiator, polyfunctional pentaerythritol tetraacrylate (PET4A) as the branching agent, and tetramethyltoluene disulfide (TMTD) as the radical regulators. Meanwhile, the synthesized mechanism of the functional PLA was investigated. Experimental results demonstrated that TMTD effectively promoted the branching efficiency of PET4A monomers and facilitated the formation of long branched chains along the PLA backbone. Moreover, the terminal slope of the storage modulus for the modified PLA decreased from 1.76 to 0.74. Additionally, deviations observed in the Cole–Cole plot indicated slower molecular chain relaxation after long‐chain branching, along with prolonged relaxation time. Notably, the crystallinity, crystallization rate, and crystallization temperature of the modified PLA all improved with increasing branching degree, with the half‐crystallization time reduced to 0.47 min. Thus, the modified PLA synthesized via this radical‐regulated strategy exhibited significantly enhanced melt strength and improved crystallization behavior, which may broaden its applicability in processing‐related applications.

The crystallization kinetics of picromerite play a crucial role in optimizing the fertilizer quality. This study developed a crystallization kinetics model of picromerite. Results show that increasing temperature mainly leads to higher supersaturation, which, in turn, enhances both nucleation and growth rates, with significant improvements in crystal size and uniformity. Higher stirring speed was found to have positive effects on crystal nucleation and growth rate. The decrease in supersaturation leads to the diminution of the driving force for crystallization and the gradual decline in crystallization. The study provides a comprehensive analysis of the relationships between these crystallization conditions and the resultant crystal properties.

Effects of crystal orientation and strain rate on strain hardening behavior and mechanical property in TRC-ZA21 magnesium alloy

In the production of monocrystalline silicon ingots with Czochralski (CZ) method, silicon seeds largely determine pulling success rate and the weight baring capacity of the dash necks. In this study, high-interstitial oxygen (HO) content silicon seeds were applied to CZ single-crystal growth to enhance mechanical robustness and suppress dislocation formation during 10-inch ingot production. Photoluminescence (PL), microscopic, and 3D X-Ray CT analyses revealed that HO seeds exhibited significantly fewer dislocations and microdefects after the seeding process compared to common seeds, confirming their superior resistance to thermal shock. 0.059° left shift in X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) pattern peak indicates oxygen can cause lattice expansion. Mechanical simulations and Vickers hardness indentation test indicated that interstitial oxygen increases lattice rigidity via a pinning effect, improving toughness (KIC increased 8.8%) despite reduced thermal conductivity (thermal stress increased 1.4%). Four-point bending tests further demonstrated that as interstitial oxygen concentration increased from 8 to 16 ppma, bending and shear strengths rose by 11.6% and 11.1%, respectively. During the necking process, oxygen content in HO seeds rapidly decreased from 17.56 ppma to 3.87 ppma within 10 mm, enabling earlier neck thinning without affecting the head oxygen level of the ingot. In industrial-scale experiments, 10-inch ingots grown from HO seeds achieved crystallization rates of 85–87%—roughly twice those obtained with common seeds—and a 4.3% average increase in output yield, which can bring over 80,000 USD benefit for 1 GW brick production. Furthermore, a 3800 mm-long, 10-inch ingot with a 6.72 mm neck was successfully grown using HO seeds, demonstrating their strong dislocation-suppression capability and potential for high-yield, large-scale stable CZ silicon production.

Manipulation of kinetic pathways is essential to self-assemble nanoparticle building blocks into complex ordered structures, as the emergence of intermediate metastable states could either facilitate or hinder crystallization of the target lattice. Molecular simulations and Markovian and transition state theory are used to validate our conjecture that intermediary mesophases, with partial but long-range translational or orientational structural ordering, accelerate crystallization kinetics from the disordered structure. Using four representative models, two lyotropic single-component and two thermotropic binary mixture systems, we demonstrate that mesophases with intermediate entropies, such as nematic fluid, rotator solid, and microsegregated mesophases, speed up the overall crystallization rate. This enhancement occurs by effectively splitting a larger isotropic-to-crystal free energy barrier into two smaller barriers corresponding to isotropic-to-mesophase and mesophase-to-crystal transitions, with mesophase "bulk" macrostates being kinetically more favorable than microscopic fluctuations. The single-step isotropic-to-crystal transition occurs through a composite-cluster pathway that includes mesophase microdomains; an isotropic-crystal interfacial energy greater than or comparable to the sum of the isotropic-mesophase and mesophase-crystal interfacial energies is associated with enhanced two-step crystallization rate. Overall, our findings validate the conjecture, which offers additional guidance for selecting nanoparticle designs and conditions that promote efficient crystallization pathways.

In the present work, we present a two-dimensional soft sphere granular system, with inclination, that models the transition from an amorphous solid to the crystalline phase by shear cycles induced by cyclic deformations of the boundary. To simulate an effective temperature, the system is subjected to vibration. Under these conditions, the system exhibits a controlled transition to hexagonal order, where the crystallization rate and extent depend critically on the shear frequency. The study focuses on the analysis of the effect of the shear frequency in phase change, and introduces a dimensionless shear frequency $$\tilde{f} = f_s \tau _r$$, where $$\tau _r = \sqrt{m/k}$$ is the intrinsic relaxation timescale of the particles, to identify the regimes in which mechanical annealing is effective. The soft granular particles used are polyacrylamide hydrogel spheres, with an estimated Young’s modulus of the order of $$10^4$$ Pa, consistent with previous measurements for single-network polyacrylamide gels. Hexagonal order is measured in terms of the sixth-bond orientational order parameter $$\psi '_{6}$$. By following the temporal evolution of this parameter, we find that low shear frequencies on the order of $$10^{-3}$$ Hz (i.e., $$\tilde{f} \ll 1$$) favor the growth of hexagonal grains, while higher frequencies tend to reduce hexagonal order, leading to an unstable structure. Additionally, we characterize particle dynamics through autocorrelation measurements in the time series of $$\psi '_{6}$$ using Fourier spectral analysis (FA). For all cases with non-zero shear frequency, the power spectra follow a power law, $$P(f) \propto 1/f^{\beta }$$ with $$\beta > 1$$, indicating non-stationarity. In contrast, for the static (0 Hz in shear frequency) case, the power spectrum is flat ($$\beta \approx 0.04$$), suggesting stationary white noise behavior in the time series.