Maleic Anhydride Copolymer Aerogel with Photoluminescence Characteristics and Its Application in Phase Change Energy Storage

Traditional photoluminescence materials are usually inorganic mixtures of rare earth ions and heavy metal ions as activators, or organic macromolecules with rigid planes and π - electron conjugation systems. However, the scarcity of heavy metal/rare earth resources, biological toxicity, and aggregation induced fluorescence quenching effects of organic macromolecules often limit the application of traditional luminescent materials in many fields such as biomedicine. Therefore, the research team prepared a series of maleic anhydride alternating copolymers with aggregation induced luminescence properties through self stable precipitation polymerization.<br/>These polymers can also be further controlled by molecular structure to obtain photoluminescent copolymers with special properties. We have developed applications in fields such as anti-counterfeiting fibers and light conversion films based on the special properties of these materials. In the latest work, a new type of polymer aerogel, which can be repeatedly reshaped and reused, has been synthesized and prepared. We use the maleic anhydride group in the molecular chain to carry out functional modification, and then through freeze drying and heat treatment, to prepare hydrophobic polymer (SMI) aerogel, which has high heat resistance and excellent performance. The glass transition temperature and initial decomposition temperature can reach 247 °C and 307.6 °C, respectively. In addition, SMI aerogels also have aggregation induced emission (AIE) Properties. In particular, it is worth emphasizing that it has excellent recoverability, because almost 100% of aerogels can be converted back to be re soluble in ammonia and used for the re preparation of aerogels. Based on its super lipophilicity, we also prepared two kinds of recyclable phase change composite (PCM) aerogels, which can achieve efficient energy storage and cold storage performance. Only 10g PCCM can keep 10ml ethanol solution at 0 °C for 2 hours. More importantly, this PCCM can also achieve recycling and recycling, meeting the needs of environmental protection and resource reuse. Meanwhile, the aggregation induced luminescence properties possessed by this material can be used for temperature detection.