Falon C Kalutantirige, Jinlong He, Lehan Yao, Stephen Cotty, Shan Zhou, John W Smith, Emad Tajkhorshid, Charles M Schroeder, Jeffrey S Moore, Hyosung An, Xiao Su, Ying Li, Qian Chen
Voids-the nothingness-broadly exist within nanomaterials and impact properties ranging from catalysis to mechanical response. However, understanding nanovoids is challenging due to lack of imaging methods with the needed penetration depth and spatial resolution. Here, we integrate electron tomography, morphometry, graph theory and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation to study the formation of interconnected nanovoids in polymer films and their impacts on permeance and nanomechanical behaviour. Using polyamide membranes for molecular separation as a representative system, three-dimensional electron tomography at nanometre resolution reveals nanovoid formation from coalescence of oligomers, supported by coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations...
April 11, 2024: Nature Communications