We report herein a facile approach of fabricating fluorescent supraballs from CdTe nanocrystals (NCs)-loaded acrylosilane microemulsion by a simple microfluidic strategy. Initially, core–shell acrylosilane microemulsion with poly(methylmethacrylate-co-butylacrylate-co-vinyltri(isopropoxy)silane) (poly (MMA-co-BA-co-VPS)) as the core and poly(methylmethacrylate-co-butylacrylate-co-vinyltri(isopropoxy)silane-co-acrylamide) (poly(MMA-co-BA-co-VPS-co-AM)) as the shell were synthesized by differential microemulsion polymerization. Subsequently, CdTe NCs were assembled with these acrylosilane microemulsion particles in the presence of N′-(ethylcarbonimidoyl)-N, N-dimethylpropane-1, 3-diaminemonohydrochloride. Eventually, we fabricated uniformly distributed fluorescent supraballs using the as-prepared CdTe-loaded acrylosilane microemulsion as the discontinuous phase, and methylsilicone oil as the continuous phase by means of a microfluidic device. These fluorescent supraballs display unique colors and favorable fluorescence, which might be useful in optoelectronic applications, such as fluorescent switches, light-emitting diode displays, and illuminations.

We report the rapid synthesis of hydrogels with interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) by frontal polymerization (FP). Appropriate amounts of diacetone acrylamide (DAAM), N-methylolacrylamide (NMA), thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), N,N′-methylenebisacrylamide (MBAA), and ammonium persulfate (APS)/N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) were mixed together at ambient temperature. FP was initiated by transitorily heating the upper side of the reactants, and poly(DAAM-co-NMA)/TPU IPN hydrogels were obtained within minutes. The preparation parameters were thoroughly investigated. Moreover, we investigated the morphology, swelling capacity, chemical structure and the mechanical properties of poly(DAAM-co-NMA)/TPU IPN hydrogels, along with those of poly(DAAM-co-NMA) hydrogels without IPN structure for comparison. Interestingly, the mechanical strength of poly(DAAM-co-NMA)/TPU IPN hydrogels is notably improved in comparison with that of poly(DAAM-co-NMA) hydrogels. The results indicate that the IPN structure endows hydrogels with high mechanical strength, and FP can be applied as an alternative means for synthesis of IPN hydrogels with additional advantages of speed and efficiency.

We report herein the facile synthesis of CdTe/montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposite films via charge–charge interactions between the CdTe quantum dots (QDs) and MMT platelets. Firstly, negatively charged CdTe QDs were prepared with the use of thioglycolic acid (TGA) as ligand. Then hybrid of the as-prepared TGA-stabilized CdTe QDs with sodium montmorillonite (Na-MMT) and cetyltrimethylammonium-modified montmorillonite (CTA-MMT), respectively, afforded novel CdTe/MMT nanocomposite films. The structure and optical properties of CdTe/MMT nanocomposite films were thoroughly investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM), ultraviolet transmittance reflection and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. Results showed that CdTe/(CTA-MMT) nanocomposite films exhibited highly enhanced PL intensity compared with CdTe/(Na-MMT) nanocomposite films. More importantly, CdTe QDs in CdTe/(CTA-MMT) nanocomposite films well maintained PL properties even after thermal annealing at 100 °C for 10 h.