Mesoporous materials are materials with high surface area and intrinsic porosity, and therefore have attracted great research interest due to these unique structures. Mesoporous titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is one of the most widely studied mesoporous materials given its special characters and enormous applications. In this article, we highlight the significant work on mesoporous TiO₂ including syntheses and applications, particularly in the field of photocatalysis, energy and biology. Different synthesis methods of mesoporous TiO₂—including sol–gel, hydrothermal, solvothermal method, and other template methods—are covered and compared. The applications in photocatalysis, new energy batteries and in biological fields are demonstrated. New research directions and significant challenges of mesoporous TiO₂ are also discussed.

Graphene oxide (GO), modified with anti-aging agent p-phenylenediamine (PPD), was added into nitrile rubber (NBR) in order to improve the thermo-oxidative stability of NBR. The modification of GO and the transformation of functional groups were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Mechanical performances of NBR composites before and after the thermo-oxidative aging were recorded. The results of dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) show an increased storage modulus (G’) and a decreased value of area of tan δ peak after introducing modified GO into NBR. It indicates that filler particles show positive interaction with molecular chains. The thermo-oxidative stability of composites was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Then, the thermo-oxidative aging kinetic parameters were obtained by the Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (FWO) equation. The results of aging tests show that the thermo-oxidative stability of rubber matrix increases obviously after introducing GO–PPD. In addition, mechanical properties (tensile strength and elongation at break) of both before and after aged NBR/GO–PPD composites were superior to that of NBR. This work provides meaningful guidance for achieving multifunction thermo-oxidative aging resistance rubber composites.

We report the correlation between glass stability, crystallization activation energy and the glass structure to one pure devitrite glass (Na₂Ca₃Si₆O₁₆), and two other glasses in which 4 mol% and 8 mol% of devitrite glass were replaced with TiO₂ (Dev, 4Ti and 8Ti, respectively).

Nucleation and crystallization of polyamide 12 (PA 12) have been systematically investigated by fast scanning calorimetry at non‐isothermal and isothermal conditions. The critical cooling rates of crystallization and crystal nucleation were determined as 300 and 10,000 K/s, respectively. Moreover, the half‐times of nucleation (t_1/2,nucl) and overall crystallization (t_1/2,cry) show monomodal and bimodal dependencies on the crystallization temperature. t_1/2,nucl has an approximate minimum value of about 0.0005 s at 333 K, which is about 10–20 K above the glass transition temperature, and t_1/2,cry has two minima of about 0.05 and 0.8 s at about 333 and 383 K, respectively. Comparing the crystallization behavior of PA 12 with other polyamides, the activation energy for crystallization increases and the energy barrier of short‐range diffusion decreases with the increase of the amide‐group density in the chains.

A chip-based fast scanning calorimeter (FSC) is used as a fast hot-stage in an atomic force microscope (AFM). This way, the morphology of materials with a resolution from micrometers to nanometers after fast thermal treatments becomes accessible. An FSC can treat the sample isothermally or at heating and cooling rates up to 1 MK/s. The short response time of the FSC in the order of milliseconds enables rapid changes from scanning to isothermal modes and vice versa. Additionally, FSC provides crystallization/melting curves of the sample just imaged by AFM. We describe a combined AFM-FSC device, where the AFM sample holder is replaced by the FSC chip-sensor. The sample can be repeatedly annealed at pre-defined temperatures and times and the AFM images can be taken from exactly the same spot of the sample. The AFM-FSC combination is used for the investigation of crystallization of polyamide 66 (PA 66), poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK), poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) and poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL).