The structure evolution and deformation behavior of tenter-frame biaxially oriented polyethylene (TF-BOPE) films were investigated in this study. For sequential biaxial stretching, the original spherulites were broken into small pieces, and the fibrillar structure simultaneously formed during the machine direction (MD) stretching. Subsequently, the single fibrils were pulled away, and some fine fibrils developed via partial melting–recrystallization or lamellar rearrangement during the transverse direction (TD) stretching, which leads to the formation of the vein structure and nanosized fiber-like network. For simultaneous biaxial stretching, the fractured lamellae and the newly formed crystals were evenly distributed in the MD-TD plane like an isotropous fibrillar network. Moreover, compared with the unstretched sample, both films could achieve up to about 2 times the tensile modulus and 4.5 times the tensile strength and also exhibited the superior optical property.

Glucose is an ideal fuel for fuel cells because it is abundant in nature, renewable, non-toxic and easy to produce. Glucose fuel cells using enzymes and microbes as the catalysts are limited by their very poor performance and rather short durability. In this work, a direct oxidation glucose fuel cell using an anion-exchange membrane and three-dimensional structural Au/Ni foam electrodes is developed. The effects of the concentration of glucose and KOH and operation temperature on the fuel cell performance are investigated. The results show that this type of direct oxidation glucose fuel cell with a relatively cheap membrane and non-platinum catalysts can produce a maximum power density of 26.6 mW cm⁻² at a current density of 89 mA cm⁻² with 0.5 M glucose and 6 M KOH at a temperature of 70 °C, which is favorable for large-scale use. The high performance of the fuel cell is attributed mainly to the increased kinetics of both the glucose oxidation reaction and oxygen reduction reaction, rendered by a better electrocatalytic activity of the Au/Ni foam and higher operating temperature.

Polyamide thin film composite (TFC) reverse osmosis (RO) membranes were prepared in this study.

Hydrophilicity is improved without altering the original morphology and thickness of RO membranes after modification.