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In order to develop polymer electrolyte for lithium/sulfur batteries, highly microporous P(VdF-HFP) membranes were prepared by phase inversion method. Porous structure was controlled by extracting NMP with mixture of deionized water and methanol. Porous structure of the membranes was observed with SEM. Polymer electrolytes were prepared by soaking the porous membranes in 1M . The ionic conductivity of polymer electrolyte was found to be at high as when the polymer membrane extracted by methanol was used. The microporous polymer electrolyte optimized in this work displayed high ionic conductivity, uniform pore size, low interfacial resistance and stable ionic conductivity with storage time. The ionic conductivity of polymer electrolytes was measured with various lithium salts, and the conductivity showed at room temperature when was used as a lithium salt.

All solid Li/Ni3S2 cells were assembled with a novel solid polymer electrolyte cured via in-situ chemical cross-linking with siloxane acrylate. Several ether plasticizers with various chain lengths were used to optimize the cycling property of Li/ Ni3S2 cell. The Li/ Ni3S2 cell containing the Triethylene glycol dimethyl ether as plasticizer show optimum first charging-discharge and cycling performance, that capacity still maintain 413.32 mAh/g after 20 cycles.

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The 3rd International Symposium on Functional Materials 2009 (ISFM 2009) and its preconference, Advances in Functional Materials 2009 (AFM 2009), were successfully held in the Republic of Korea from 15–18 June 2009 and in the People's Republic of China from 8–12 June 2009, respectively. The two conferences attracted over 300 oral and poster presentations from over 12 countries including Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, India, Israel, Korea, The Netherlands, Thailand, the UK and the USA. In the two conferences, eight keynote lectures were delivered by S Miyazaki, S A Akbar, D J Singh, C Suryanarayana, M~Greenblatt, H Zhang, T Sato and J Ding. This topical issue of Physica Scripta contains papers presented at the ISFM 2009 and AFM 2009. Keyan Li from Dalian University, People's Republic of China, presents some empirical formulae to estimate the elastic moduli of rocksalt-, zincblende- and chalcopyrite-structured crystals, on the basis of electronegativities of bonded atoms in the crystallographic frame. Min-Jung Kim from Hanyang University, Korea, reports on the preparation and characterization of carboxyl functionalization of magnetite nanoparticles for oligonucleotide immobilization. F Yan from the National University of Singapore studies the fabrication of Bi(Fe0.5Sc0.5)O3–PbTiO3 (BSF–PT) thin films by pulsed laser deposition, and the enhanced magnetic moment with respect to BiFeO3–PbTiO3. Dong-Gil Lee from Pusan National University, Korea, reports on the sterilization of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli using nanofiber TiO2 films prepared by the electrostatic spray method. Sang-Eun Park from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology reports on the study of encapsulated Fe3O4 nanoparticles with a silica thin layer with a reversible capacity of about 363 mAhg-1. Other researchers report on many other exiting achievements in the fields of ferromagnetic materials, magneto-optical materials, thermoelectric materials, shape memory materials, fuel-cell and battery materials, and other related advanced functional materials. The 4th International Symposium on Functional Materials 2011 (ISFM 2011) will be held in Sendai, Japan, from 2–6 August 2011 just before the Sendai Tanabata Festival. Its preconference (AFM 2011) will be held at Jeju Island, Korea, just before ISFM 2011. We look forward to meeting you in Jeju and Sendai.