Aerogels with a Nanoporous Host Crystalline Phase

High-porosity syndiotactic polystyrene aerogels characterized by nanofibrils that give rise to a microporous cryst. d-phase (see Figure) present a high sorption capacity for volatile org. compds. at low concns., typical of the d-phase, as well as high sorption kinetics, typical of aerogels. These sorption properties make these new aerogels very promising for industrial applications in chem. sepns. and water purifn

Spectrally Efficient DMT Transmission over 40 km SMF Using an Electrically Packaged Silicon Photonic Intensity Modulator

We demonstrate a record-high spectral efficiency (5b/s/Hz) DMT transmission by using a fully electrically-packaged silicon photonic intensity modulator. We transmit over a 40-km single mode fibre link at a rate of 49.6 Gb/s without the need for any dispersion compensation

Monolithic aerogels based on poly(2,6-diphenyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) and syndiotactic polystyrene

Molecular sorption behavior of amorphous and semicrystalline samples based on poly(2,6-diphenyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPPO) has been compared. Fully amorphous PPPO powders, as obtained by supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) extraction of concentrated solutions, present uptake of pollutants much higher than for commercial sorbent materials based on semicrystalline PPPO (Tenax TA). Robust monolithic aerogels with good handling characteristics can be easily obtained by solvent extraction by scCO2 from gels including PPPO blends with syndiotactic polystyrene (s-PS). These monolithic PPPO/s-PS aerogels present many advantages as sorbent materials with respect to both amorphous and semicrystalline PPPO powders. In fact, besides the obvious advantages in terms of easier and safer handling, the new monolithic aerogels present higher surface areas and equilibrium guest uptakes