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Commercial ethylene vinyl acetate co-polymer (EVA) foam is already an important part of everyday life thanks to its weather resistance and stability. However, the large amount of inorganic fillers present in commercial EVA foams is the main obstacle to their full carbon recovery. In this work, high-performance ethylene-acrylic ester-glycidyl methacrylate/EVA-bamboo powder (EGMA/EVA-BP) composite foams with multiple cross-linked network structures were successfully prepared by introducing a bio-based filler, BP, and using EGMA as a partial replacement of the foaming matrix. Influenced by the multiple cross-linked networks, the EGMA/EVA-BP foam shows increased strength and toughness. Compared with EVA foams, the stability of EGMA/EVA-BP foam is greatly improved by the introduction of BP and dispersion of EGMA, with tensile toughness and compressive modulus reaching 7.20 kN/[m.sup.3] and 1.05 MPa. Meanwhile, the EGMA/EVA-BP foam still retains the advantages of light weight (density of 0.175 g/[cm.sup.3]), high resilience (52%) and good thermal stability and durability (more than 400 cycles at 20% compression). In particular, BP enables the foam fully carbon-degradable, making it easier to achieve sustainability in commercial polymer foams. This cost-effective strategy offers an easily scalable solution for high-performance, eco-friendly commercial foam production. Highlights * Bio-based bamboo powder reinforces the foam to improve strength and toughness. * Multi-crosslinking network design improves foam stability. * Lightweight, flexible, and durable foam. * Eco-friendly foam: combination of renewable energy and advanced polymers. KEYWORDS biobased filler, EGMA foam, full carbon degradability, multiple crosslinked network, 1 | INTRODUCTION Polymer foams with a porous structure offer a number of advantages, including light weight, vibration resistance, energy absorption, thermal insulation, and protection. (1-4) As a result, they [...]

Conductive composites have attracted much attention due to its high conductivity, stretchability, and sensitivity. However, designing conductive composites with relatively stable conductivity under 100% deformation using simple methods remains a challenge. In this work, we employ a simple and straightforward approach to prepare a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) solution. Based on the conductivity-optimized PEDOT:PSS (5.95 S/cm), it was combined with carboxylated acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber latex (XNBRL) to make a flexible conductive material with a unique bottom-deposited structure. The incorporation of PEDOT:PSS establishes an interconnected conductive network within the XNBR, enhancing both the tensile strength (from 0.31 to 1.24 MPa) and conductivity of the composites. Remarkably, even at 100% strain, the resistance change ([DELTA]R/[R.sub.0]) in the composite remains minimal ( Highlights * A simple method to increase the electrical conductivity of aqueous PEDOT:PSS. * Flexible conductive composite with a small change in AR/R0. * Enables rigid PEDOT to be used in stretchable electronic devices. * Construction of 3D conductive network and bottom deposition structure. KEYWORDS conductive network, electrical properties, mechanical properties, PEDOT:PSS, XNBRL, 1 | INTRODUCTION Conductive composites have been widely applied in the fields of human motion detection, (1) intelligent robot, (2) electronic skin, (3) and human-machine interfaces (4,5) because of its [...]

The bidirectional uncertainty of source and load creates scarcity in the reserve resources of the distribution network. Therefore, it is highly significant for the safe and economic operation of the system to harness spare energy storage capacity from prosumers to provide reserves. This paper proposes a bi-layer optimal scheduling model of "distribution network–prosumer group–prosumer" that considers the flexible reserve resources of a prosumer. The upper layer is the "distribution network–prosumer group" optimization model, in which the distribution network sets the electricity price and reserve price according to its own economic benefit and sends it to the prosumer group and guides it to participate in the scheduling of the resources of the prosumer. The lower layer is the "prosumer group–prosumer" optimization model, where the prosumer group incentivizes the prosumer to adjust its energy storage charging and discharging plans through prices and mobilize its own resources to provide flexible reserve resources. The results show that the optimal method proposed in this paper can fully utilize flexible reserve resources from prosumers, improve the economy of distribution network operations, and reduce the pressure of providing reserves using the upper grid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible strain sensors are attracting attention in areas such as medical monitoring sensing and rehabilitation therapy monitoring due to their powerful ability to sense, process, transmit and display complex information. However, it is an urgent challenge to realize the trade‐off between excellent performances such as high sensitivity, high linearity, wide strain sensing range and high durability. Herein, we prepare stretchable conductive composites with wrinkle composite micro‐crack structure by combining carboxystyrene butadiene rubber (XSBR) layer and carboxymethyl cellulose@Ag nanowire‐CNTs (CMC@AgNWs‐CNTs) conductive layer. Based on interfacial interactions, it can be adapted to different needs by adjusting the thickness of the strain sensing layer. When the thickness of the strain sensing layer is 4 μm, the strain sensor has a wide sensing range (strain capacity up to 300%) and high sensitivity (strain sensing factor of 484). At a thickness of 8 μm, the strain sensing performance exhibits a wide strain range, high linear fit and good cyclic stability. This work provides a new research idea to improve the comprehensive performance of flexible strain sensors and the contradiction between wide sensing range, high sensitivity and high linearity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An enzyme cascade system including glucose oxidase (GOx) and iron porphyrin (DhHP‐6) is encapsulated in a metal–organic framework called zeolitic imidazolate framework‐8 (ZIF‐8) through one‐step facile synthesis. The composite (GOx&DhHP‐6@ZIF‐8) is then used to initiate oxygen‐tolerant reversible addition‐fragmentation chain‐transfer polymerization for different methacrylate monomers, such as 2‐diethylaminoethyl methacrylate, 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate, and poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate (Mn = 500 g mol−1). The composite shows the robustness toward solvent and temperatures, all polymerizations using above monomers and catalyzing by GOx&DhHP‐6@ZIF‐8 exhibits high monomer conversion (>85%) and narrow molar mass dispersity (<1.3). Besides, acrylic and acrylamide monomers such as 2‐hydroxyethyl acrylate and N,N‐dimethylacrylamide are also carried to demonstrate the broad applicability. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance characterization and chain extension experiments confirm the retaining end groups of the resultant polymers, which is a significant feature of living polymerization. More importantly, the process of recycling the composite through a centrifuge is simplistic, and the composite still maintains similar activity compared to the original composites after five times. This low‐cost and easily separated composite catalyst represents a versatile strategy to synthesize well‐defined functional polymers suitable for industrial‐scale production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In actual production processes, pure ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) foams have a high shrinkage rate, and the foaming matrix is prone to plastic deformation, even causing the collapse of bubbles. This limits the further application of EVA foams. In this study, we incorporated styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and butadiene rubber (BR) into EVA to improve the mechanical properties and dimensional stability of EVA composite foams without sacrificing their low-density characteristics of low density. We used a melting index meter, rotorless vulcanizing meter and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) to characterize the changes in viscosity and energy storage modulus of the composite matrix. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to study the microscopic morphology of foams. The mechanical properties test results showed that the addition of SBR reduced the density of EVA/SBR/BR composite foams, and the addition of BR improved the mechanical properties and dimensional stability of the foams. By combining the advantages of both, the density of products is comparable to pure EVA, the tensile strength and the compressive strength are increased by 11% and 6.3% relative to pure EVA, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]