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The development of robust and bioinspired adhesives with excellent performances including fast gel time, low cost, good adhesion strength and stability, and excellent solvent and temperature resistance against harsh environment is urgent for practical applications. In this paper, kinds of natural polyphenolic adhesives have been successfully fabricated via the multiple polyphenol-diisocyanate cross-linking (PDC) reactions between natural polyphenols (extracts) and diisocyanate molecules. Under heating, as-prepared adhesives could effectively adhere onto a wide range of substrates (i.e. PTFE, PET, PMMA, Al, Cu, paper, glass, wood) through hierarchical interactions. Moreover, these adhesives exhibited great adhesion stability against complex solvents and low-temperature environments, whose adhesion strength could remain unchanged after soaking solvents after 30 days, which was conducive to their potential applications in industry and chemical fields, including petroleum, wood, metal, glass, plastics, and rubber adhesion. We believed that this work would provide new strategies towards the preparation of robust adhesives with excellent resistant against various solvents and low temperature for many fields by using naturally occurring building blocks. Natural polyphenolic adhesives were successfully fabricated via the multiple polyphenol-diisocyanate cross-linking (PDC) reactions between natural polyphenols (extracts) and diisocyanate molecules. Under heating, as-prepared adhesives could effectively adhere to a wide range of substrates (i.e. PTFE, PET, PMMA, Al, Cu, paper, glass, wood) through hierarchical interactions. Moreover, these adhesives exhibited great adhesion stability against complex solvents and low-temperature environments, and the adhesion strength could even remain unchanged after soaking solvents after 30 days. [Display omitted] • Natural polyphenolic adhesives were successfully fabricated. • As-prepared adhesives could effectively adhere to various substrates. • These adhesives exhibited great solvents and low-temperature resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although tremendous efforts have been devoted to manganous oxide (MnO)-based hybrid electrode materials, the rational design and facile preparation of high-performance MnO hybrid supercapacitors are still full of challenges, due to the inevitable agglomeration and limited stability of MnO within carbon matrixes. In this work, we developed a direct one-pot polymerization method to synthesize a series of Mn ion doped polylevodopa [P(L- DOPA)] synthetic melanin nanoparticles (Mn@SMNPs) for further transforming into small-sized hybrid carbon nanoparticles (MnO@CNPs, 20–80 nm) consisting of many stable Mn-related chemical bindings (C–N–Mn). The obtained MnO@CNPs electrode materials with physically spatial protection and well distribution of MnO could display high specific capacitance values (e.g., 545 F g−1 at 0.5 A g−1 in 6 M KOH electrolyte) within a wide operation voltage of 1.3 V. This work will continue to provide an inspiration towards the fabrication of the next-generation of high-performance synthetic melanin-based energy storage materials and devices. [Display omitted] ● MnO@CNPs were prepared through a facile one-pot fabrication strategy with small size and high MnO doping content. ● The obtained MnO@CNPs with physically protection showed a well distribution of MnO. ● The stable C–N–Mn chemical binding structure facilitates the stabilization of MnO during the charging and discharging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal-phenolic networks (MPNs) which integrate the benefits from natural phenolic molecules and metal ions have widely emerged as versatile coating materials in various fields. Although a wide range of MPN utilizations from biomedicine to environment has been well documented, the use of MPNs in the field of flame retardant is still in the infancy. To achieve this goal, tannic acid (TA)-FeIII MPNs as highly efficient and green flame retardant was designed to coating on the surfaces of polyurethane (PU) foams. Due to the excellent carbonization, superior free radical scavenging ability of TA, and condensed-phase action provided by FeIII for catalysing the charring process during combustion, the MPNs coated PU foams could achieve promising flame retardancy performances. Further investigations also indicated that the coated TA-FeIII MPN could successfully inhibit the release rate and total amount of heat and smoke, and the volatilization of harmful gases during the combustion process had also been successfully reduced. This study illustrates a promising and green strategy towards the surface engineering of many substrates by MPNs coating for flame-retardant applications. [Display omitted] • An efficient and green strategy for preparing flame-retardant coatings using metal-phenolic networks. • Excellent carbonization and superior free radical scavenging ability leading promising flame retardancy performances. • The simple surface modification well preserving the mechanical properties of composite materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar steam generation is an emerging strategy for water desalination using renewable solar energy and seawater resources. In order to convert solar energy into heat for seawater evaporation, we developed a bi-layered structure composite for high-efficient solar evaporation based on photothermal-enhanced arginine-doped polydopamine (APDA) and raw wood, which are biodegradable and sustainable. Note that the APDA coating layer exhibited improved optical absorption and photothermal conversion ability compared with conventional polydopamine (PDA) coating on account of the construction of donor-acceptor pairs within the APDA microstructure system. Density functional theory (DTF) calculation further confirmed that the energy bandgap of APDA could be narrowed though donor-acceptor microstructures and then enhanced the absorption spectrum. The resulting APDA-wood composite performed a solar vapor generation efficiency of ~77% on the condition of 1 sun illumination. The water evaporation process was quite stable over 100 cycles and the metal ions in seawater were almost eliminated after desalination. This amino acid-initiated cost-effective and facile coating method provided new opportunities to fabricate photothermal-enhanced coating materials for solar evaporation applications. Image 1 • APDA is prepared with improved light absorption and total photothermal effect. • Donor-acceptor microstructures within the APDA system could decrease the bandgap. • APDA-wood composite is fabricated for efficient solar steam generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]