Surface wetting behavior of the poly(styrene-b-isoprene-b-styrene) triblock copolymer with different chemical structures of the polyisoprene block chain

The relationship between the chemical structure of a block copolymer and its surface structure and properties is very important for the careful design of its outer surface layer. For this paper, a series of poly(styrene-b-isoprene-b-styrene) triblock copolymers (SIS), with different chemical structures in the polyisoprene block chain, were synthesized by anionic polymerization and their dynamic wetting behaviors were investigated. The dynamic contact angles of the polyisoprene homopolymer (PI) and the SIS were almost the same when the PI and the corresponding block in the SIS had similar chemical structures. The receding contact angle (θ_r) of SIS depended on the microstructure of the PI block chain, however, the advancing contact angles (θ_a) were almost the same regardless of the PI’s chemical structures. The receding contact angle (θ_r) of SIS containing 3,4-PI was far higher than that of SIS with 1,4-PI. Meanwhile, it gradually approached that of SIS with 1,4-PI as the of 3,4-PI content decreased or as the local temperature increased. Contact angle measurement is one of the most sensitive methods for providing information on the outer few angstroms of a polymer’s surface. Therefore, by designing SIS with different chemical structures in the PI block, it was confirmed that the properties and structure of the outermost layer of the SIS were controlled primarily by the PI block’s chemical structure. This demonstrates the possibility to modulate the surface structure and properties of SIS by adjusting the chemical structure of polyisoprene segment.     

The wettability of polytetrafluoroethylene and polymethylmethacrylate by aqueous solutions of Triton X-100 and propanol mixtures

Measurements of advancing contact angles (θ) were carried out for aqueous solutions of Triton X-100 (TX-100) and propanol mixtures at constant TX-100 concentration equal to 1 × 10⁻⁷, 1 × 10⁻⁶, 1 × 10⁻⁵, 1 × 10⁻⁴, 6 × 10⁻⁴ and 1 × 10⁻³ M, respectively, on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polymethyhmethacrylate (PMMA). Using obtained results the changes of cosθ and adhesional tension against surface tension of all series of aqueous solutions of TX-100 and propanol mixtures (γ_LV) for PTFE and PMMA surfaces were shown. On the basis of these changes it was deduced that adsorption of TX-100 and propanol mixtures at PTFE-solution and solution-air interfaces is the same but the adsorption of TX-100 and propanol mixtures at solution-air interface is considerably higher than at PMMA-solution one. In the case of PTFE this conclusion was confirmed by relationship between cosθ and the reciprocal of the surface tension of solution. Extrapolation of the relationships between cosθ and/or adhesional tension and the surface tension of solutions to the points corresponding to the cosθ = 1 and adhsional tension equal to the surface tension of solution, the critical surface tension of PTFE and PMMA wetting was determined. The average values of critical surface tension of wetting determined from these relationships for PTFE are lying in the range of its surface tension values determined from contact angles of different kinds of liquids, which can be find in the literature, but for PMMA are considerably lower than the surface tension. The double value of the critical surface tension of PTFE wetting is equal to adhesion work of the solution to its surface and for PMMA there is not any correlation between these magnitudes.Using the measured values of the contact angles and Young equation the PTFE(PMMA)-aqueous solution interfacial tension was determined. The interfacial tension values of PTFE-aqueous solution were also calculated from the Fainerman and Miller equation in which the correcting parameter of nonideality of the surface monolayer was introduced and compared to those obtained from Young equation. From this comparison it results that the changes of PTFE-solution interface tension as a function of propanol concentration can be described by the Fainerman and Miller equation.     

Modification of wetting properties of CR39 by plasma source ion implantation

Plasma source ion implantation (PSII), a hybrid implantation technique between ion beams and immersion plasmas has been used to modify CR39 surfaces for improved wettability providing both advancing (θ_a) and receding (θ_r) contact angles below 5°. The modifications brought to the polymer surface structure have been characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and its combination with chemical derivatization (CD-XPS). Oxygen desorption has been observed in spite of the very hydrophilic surfaces. C_1s XPS peak has been displaced toward greater energies, while the opposite has been found for O_1s, both involving new components and strong modifications after ion implantation treatment. Strong evidences about the formation of new chemical functions, like OOH, COOH and CC, have been found and have provided an explanation for the increased wettability.     

Dynamic wettability of wood surface modified by acidic dyestuff and fixing agent

Acidic dyestuffs can bring brilliant colors to the wood and fixing agents can avoid the color loss. They could change the surface wettability of wood, which impact the gluing process of veneers. In condition of the higher moisture content of wood, the rare veneers, the veneers dyed by acidic dyestuffs and the dyed veneers fixed by Chitosan were glued respectively by one-component wet-curing isocyanate adhesive and the contact angles (θ) of the different gluing interfaces were measured. The dynamic wettability of these gluing interfaces was characterized by both the contact angle θ and the spreading-penetration parameter (K) calculated by θ. The results showed that the θ-values decreased significantly with the extension of time and the initial contact angles (θ_i) decreased with the moisture contents of veneers increasing, but the variation of the balance contact angles (θ_e) was reversed with θ_i. When the moisture contents of veneers were same, the variation of θ of the rare veneers was minimal and the variation of θ of the fixed veneers was maximal. The K-values of these gluing interfaces all decreased significantly with the moisture contents of veneers increasing, but the variations of K were different. The wetting model describing the dynamic wetting process was established on the basis of these variations.     

Study of inclusive neutral current interactions of neutrinos and antineutrinos

We report on results from a study of hadron-energy distributions for ν and $\text{ν}$ inclusive neutral current interactions. There is no significant variation of the neutral to charged current total cross-section ratios R_ν and $\text{R}\text{ν}$ with neutrino energy. The space-time structure of neutral currents is dominated by V?A, with a significant admixture of V+A. The Weinberg-Salam model is in agreement with all data if sin²θ_w=0.24±0.02.     

Changes in wetting and energetic properties of glass caused by deposition of different lipid layers

An investigation of wetting and energetic properties of different lipid layers deposited on the glass surface was carried out by contact angles measurements and determination of the apparent surface free energy. The topography of the lipid layers was also determined with the help of atomic force microscopy (AFM). Two synthetic phospholipids were chosen for these studies, having the same phosphatidylcholine headgroup bound to the apolar part composed either by two saturated chains (1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospshocholine - DPPC) or two unsaturated chains (1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine - DOPC) and one lipid (1,2,3-trihexadecanoyl-sn-glycerol - tripalmitoylglycerol - TPG). The lipid layers, from the 1st to the 5th statistical monolayer, were deposited on the glass surface from chloroform solutions by spreading.The apparent surface free energy of the deposited layers was determined by contact angles measurements (advancing and receding) for three probe liquids (diiodomethane, water, and formamide), and then two concepts of interfacial interactions were applied. In the contact angle hysteresis approach (CAH) the apparent total surface free energy was calculated from the advancing and receding contact angles and surface tension of probe liquids. In the Lifshitz-van der Waals/acid-base approach (LWAB) the total surface free energy was calculated from the determined components of the energy, which were obtained from the advancing contact angles of the probe liquids only. Comparison of the results obtained by two approaches provided more information about the changes in the hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity of the layers depending on the number of monolayers and kind of the lipid deposited on the glass surface.It was found that the most visible changes in the surface free energy took place for the first two statistical monolayers irrespectively of the kind of the lipid used. Additionally, in all cases periodic oscillations from layer-to-layer in the lipid surface free energy were observed. The changes in the surface free energy correlated with those in the topography and roughness of lipid layers.     

Rigorous absolute bounds for pion-pion scattering (1). Solving a first extremum problem

This paper is the first of a series of three where we reconsider the derivation of rigorous absolute bounds for strong interactions. It is devoted to the solution of a preliminary extremum problem. From the knowledge, at a given physical energy s and unphysical angle cos θ₀ > 1, of the absorptive part A (s, cos θ₀) of the elastic scattering amplitude for two spinless particles, we find, by exploiting the unitarity condition, the least upper bound of the modulus |F(s, cos θ₁)| of the scattering amplitude for the same energy s and various angles θ₁. Upper (but not least upper) bounds given by previous authors are numerically compared with ours.     

On the energy spectrum of excitations in type-II superconductors

The quasi-classical approximation has been applied in order to study the energy spectrum of the bound excitations with the radial quantum number n≠0 in the isolated vortex line core in a pure type-II superconductor. The qualitative estimations of the number of levels and the numeric calculations of the spectrum for the special form of potentials A_θ(r) and Δ(r) have been made.     

The wettability of polytetrafluoroethylene and polymethylmethacrylate by aqueous solutions of Triton X-100 and short chain alcohol mixtures

Measurements of advancing contact angles (θ) were carried out for aqueous solutions of Triton X-100 (TX-100) and methanol and ethanol mixtures at constant TX-100 concentration equal to 1 × 10⁻⁷, 1 × 10⁻⁶, 1 × 10⁻⁵, 1 × 10⁻⁴, 6 × 10⁻⁴ and 1 × 10⁻³ M, respectively, on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA). Using measured contact angle values the relationships between cos θ, adhesion tension and surface tension of the solutions were determined, and on their basis the critical surface tension of PTFE and PMMA wetting was calculated. The obtained average value of the critical surface tension of PTFE wetting is lying in the range of the PTFE surface tension values which can be found in the literature, while for PMMA it is even lower than the Lifshitz-van der Waals component of its surface tension. From the relationship between the adhesion and surface tension and Lucassen-Reynders equation it results that in the case of PTFE the adsorption at the PTFE-solution and solution-air interfaces is the same, which was confirmed by a linear relationship between the cos θ and 1/γ_LV and intercept on cos θ axis equal to −1. However, for PMMA the adsorption of the surface active agents at solution-air interface is higher than at PMMA-solution. Using the values of the contact angle the values of the adhesion work of solution to the PTFE and PMMA surface were also determined, which are constant for PTFE, but for PMMA decrease with alcohol concentration increase. Next, using the contact angle values in the Young equation, the PTFE(PMMA)-solution interface tension was also calculated. The obtained values of PTFE-solution interface tension were compared with those evaluated from the Szyszkowski, Connors and Fainerman and Miller equations, and good agreement between these values was observed for all series of TX-100 and alcohol mixtures at a low alcohol concentration.     

Electronic structure characteristic of carbon nanotubules

Electronic structure near the Fermi energy of single-shell carbon nanotubules has been studied within the framework of the tight-binding approximation. The electronic density of states (DOS) of tubules shows a structure consisting of many spike-like peaks. An analytical expression in a π-electron model is derived which predicts not only the energy gap (E _g ) of semiconducting tubules, but also the energy positions of those spike-like peaks in the π-DOS near the Fermi energy in any tubule. The limitation of the π-electron model in tubules is discussed by investigating the effect of σ-πmixing. The position of σ component edge in the DOS is also investigated as a function of tubule radius (R) and chiral angle (θ). It is found that this edge energy is very sensitive to θ and largely changes with R, because the dominant contribution of θ to its change is given by g(θ)/R in contrast to f(θ)/R ² for E _g .     

Controllable wettability of poly(ethylene terephthlate) film modified by oxygen combined inductively and capacitively coupled radio-frequency plasma

Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) film was modified by using oxygen combined inductively coupled radio-frequency plasma (ICP) and capacitively coupled radio-frequency plasma (CCP) at the radio-frequency (RF) power of 200 W and 100 W, respectively, for a treatment time up to 300 s. The RF plasma modification under the combined ICP and CCP mode with the controllable oxygen plasma density and oxygen ion-flux energy significantly improved the wettability of PET film, due to the creation of the polar functional groups containing oxygen, such as C-O and O-CO, and the increase of the surface roughness. At a low surface roughness, the polar functional groups on the PET film affected both the advancing contact angles and receding contact angles. When the surface roughness increased over a threshold, the advancing contact angles mainly depended on the polar functional groups, and the receding contact angles were particularly dependent on the surface roughness. Therefore, the controllable advancing contact angles and receding contact angles on the plasma-modified PET film were independently determined by plasma functionalization and plasma etching under the combined ICP and CCP mode.     

The analyzing power Ay(θ) for the 9Be(p, n)9B reaction from 8 TO 15 MeV

The analyzing power A_y(θ) for the ⁹Be(p, n)⁹B reaction was measured at seven energies between 8.1 to 15.0 MeV for reaction angles between 0° and 100° (c.m.). The A_y(θ) values are predominantly negative and exhibit a smooth variation with energy. The significance of these results in Lane optical- model calculations for the ⁹Be + nucleon system and in comparisons between the observables P^y(θ) and A_y(θ) is indicated.     

Elastic scattering of polarized deuterons by protons at intermediate energies

The tensor analyzing power T₂₀(θ) in dp backward scattering has been measured at or near center-of-mass angle θ = 180° in the energy range 0.3–2.3 GeV. A pronounced structure is observed around T_d = 0.5 GeV which is explained by a predominant one-neutron-exchange mechanism. Other structures appear around 1 GeV and higher. They are not explained by calculations which include Δ-excitations in intermediate states. In addition, full angular distributions of vector A_y and tensor A_yy analyzing powers and differential cross sections have been obtained at 1.2 GeV and limited angular ranges explored at 0.5 GeV (back angles) and 1.6 GeV (forward angles).     

Universality in the dependence of the drop contact angle on liquid-solid interactions and temperature obtained by the density functional theory

A nonlocal density functional theory is employed to calculate the contact angles of nano- and macrodrops on smooth solid surfaces in wide ranges of temperature and parameters of the Lennard-Jones potentials representing the fluid-fluid and fluid-solid interactions. For both types of drops, simple linear dependencies of the contact angle on the fluid-solid energy parameter ? _fs was found for various temperatures and hard core fluid-solid parameters σ _fs . Expressions are suggested that relate the contact angle θ to the parameters of the interaction potentials and temperature. The most intriguing feature was that for each considered σ _fs there is a value ? _fs ⁰ of ? _fs for which the contact angle θ = θ ₀ becomes independent of temperature and of σ _fs . It is shown that ? _fs = ? _fs ⁰ divides the materials for which θ increases from those for which θ decreases with increasing temperature.     

Modules Over the Noncommutative Torus and Elliptic Curves

Using the Weil–Brezin–Zak transform of solid state physics, we describe line bundles over elliptic curves in terms of Weyl operators. We then discuss the connection with finitely generated projective modules over the algebra A _θ of the noncommutative torus. We show that such A _θ -modules have a natural interpretation as Moyal deformations of vector bundles over an elliptic curve E _τ , under the condition that the deformation parameter θ and the modular parameter τ satisfy a non-trivial relation.     

Franck-Condon factors and R-centroids for the BΣ → AΠ band system of CN

Franck-Condon factors and R-centroids for the transition from the B²Σ electronic state of CN to the A²Π state have been calculated. The validity of the Morse potential energy function for this system has been studied by using the calculated values of α_e. Also, the ratios 〈rⁿ〉/〈rⁿ⁻¹〉 have been obtained to check the applicabili ty of the R-centroid approximation.     

Courbure de la frontière d'une zone sèche dans un film en écoulement

We study experimentally the shape of dry patches inside a film flowing along an inclined plane at relatively high value of the contact angle θ. Their radius of curvature R near apex, is given by R/l_c∼l_cV_c/(Γ sinα)−F(α,θ), where Γ is the flow rate per unit length, α the plate slope, and F(α,θ) is a correction that increases with θ and decreases with α (l_c and V_c are the capillary length and the capillary velocity). A simple model allows us to recover this correction and also the existence of a critical flow rate above which dry patches disappear.     

Higher order field equations II; Limit properties of green's functions

In a previous paper wave propagation was studied according to a sixth-order partial differential equation involving a complex mass M. The corresponding Yang-Feldman integral equations (indicated as SM-YF-equations), were formulated using modified Green's functions G^M_R(x) and G^M_A(x), which then incorporate the partial differential equation together with certain boundary conditions. In this paper certain limit properties of these modified Green's functions are derived: (a) It is shown that for |M| → ∞ the Green's functions G^M_R(x) and G^M_A(x) approach the Green's functions Δ_R(x) and Δ_A(x) of the corresponding KG-equation (Klein-Gordon equation). (b) It is further shown that the asymptotic behaviour of G^M_A(x) and G^M_A(x) is the same as of Δ_R(x) and Δ_A(x) - and also the same as for D_R(x) and D_A(x) for t→ ± ∞, where D_R and D_A are the Green n's functions for the KG-equation with mass zero. It is essential to take limits in the sense of distribution theory in both cases (a) and (b). The property (b) indicates that the wave propagation properties of the SM-YF-equations, the KG-equation with finite mass and the KG-equation with mass zero are closely related in an asymptotic sense.     

The analyzing power for neutron scattering from 9Be at 9 to 17 MeV

Time-of-flight techniques were used to measure the analyzing power for the scattering of neutrons from ⁹Be at energies from 9 to 17 MeV. Because of the high nuclear density of beryllium, particular attention was paid to finite-geometry and multiple-scattering effects. For representing the data, an unusual method of Legendre-coefficient analysis was used to establish the smooth energy dependence of both the cross section σ(θ) and the analyzing power A_y(θ). Spherical optical-model calculations were able to describe the σ(θ) and A_y(θ) data simultaneously, but only after the introduction of an imaginary spin-orbit potential W_s.o.(r). The geometry of the W_s.o.(r) term was found to be the same as that of the surface-peaked imaginary central potential. Coupledchannels calculations using a quadrupole-deformed rotational model built on the $\text{3}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}$ ground state were able to describe inelastic scattering to the $\text{5}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}$ and $\text{7}\text{2}{}^{\mathrm{?}}$ excited states, but also required a W_s.o.r potential.