Synthesis and photochemical properties of novel pentamethylated norbornadiene containing polyimides

A novel pentamethylated norbornadiene (NBD) based dianhydride, α,α′‐bis‐(3,4,5,6,7‐pentamethylcyclopenta‐2,4‐dienyl)meta‐xylene‐1,2‐dianhydride (3), was prepared from α,α′‐bis‐(pentamethylcyclopentadienyl)meta‐xylene (1) and acetylene dicarboxylic acid. The bis‐adduct formed via Diels–Alder reaction afforded tetra‐acid (2), which was chemically cyclodehydrated to lead the targeted dianhydride (3). New polyimides containing NBD moieties in the main chain were prepared from the dianhydride monomer (3) and various aromatic diamines. The chemical structure of the polymers was confirmed by both ¹H and ¹³C NMR analysis. Their Molecular weights were also measured by SEC. All of these polyimides are soluble at room temperature in common organic solvents, such as chloroform, dichloromethane, THF, DMSO, DMF, and NMP, and show good thermal stabilities. The photochemical isomerization of the NBD into quadricyclane (QC) was investigated by UV/vis spectrophotometry from polymer films using visible sunlight as irradiation source. It was found that the kinetic rate of the conversion NBD‐QC which proceeded smoothly is a first kinetic order. The stored energies released by the transformation of QC groups into NBD ones of the irradiated polymer films were also evaluated by DSC measurement and were found to be around 90 kJ mol^?1. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011     

Generating functional for mesonic ChPT with virtual photons in a general covariant gauge

The European Physical Journal A - The divergent part of the one-loop effective action in Chiral Perturbation Theory with virtual photons has been evaluated in an arbitrary covariant gauge. The...     

Polypropylene ionic thermoplastic elastomers: Synthesis and properties

Polypropylene ionic thermoplastic elastomers have been prepared by melt radical grafting of maleic anhydride onto polypropylene in the presence of N-bromosuccinimide followed by neutralization of the resulting elastomeric grafted polypropylene using sodium salts. Sodium hydroxide and sodium acetate were compared in aqueous solution, as anhydrous or hydrated powders. The neutralization reaction was followed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, allowing the development of a method to determine the effective neutralization degree. Important physical changes were recorded upon neutralization. Especially thermal stability, shear storage modulus and complex viscosity in the flow region were largely increased as a function of the neutralization degree.     

Carboxylate clays: A model study for polypropylene/clay nanocomposites

Sodium-montmorillonite was intercalated by carboxylate salts to prepare carboxylate clays. The intercalation of sodium acetate doubles the clay basal spacing and no degradation of the carboxylate clay is noticed in the extrusion temperature range. These carboxylate clays were used to synthesize polypropylene-graft-maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA)/clay nanocomposites. Nanocomposites were also produced by a one-pot process using in situ prepared carboxylate clay. The carboxylate salts within the clay layers partially neutralize the maleic anhydride groups of the PP-g-MA matrix, in situ during the melt compounding. The ionic groups of the partially neutralized polymer offer favourable interactions with the clay, hence reinforcing the interfacial bond between the polymer and the clay and improving the composite properties. The use of carboxylate clay clearly improves the clay dispersion into the PP-g-MA matrix and improves the nanocomposite’s thermal and rheological properties.     

Mechanistic pathways for the reaction of quercetin with hydroperoxy radical

The extensive theoretical study of the interaction of one of the most abundant and reactive flavonols, quercetin, with hydroperoxy radical (HOO·), using the M052X/6-31 + Gd, p level of theory, was performed. Results indicating that quercetin is not a planar molecule are in accord with the X-ray analysis. The applied method successfully reproduces the bond dissociation enthalpy, and reveals that the reaction of quercetin with the hydroperoxy radical is governed by a hydrogen atom transfer mechanism. It is confirmed that the 3′OH and 4′OH are the most reactive sites, and that the reaction in the 3′OH position is faster than that in the 4′OH position.     

Dark solitons in mode-locked lasers

Dark soliton formation in mode-locked lasers is investigated by means of a power-energy saturation model that incorporates gain and filtering saturated with energy, and loss saturated with power. It is found that general initial conditions evolve (mode-lock) into dark solitons under appropriate requirements also met in experimental observations. The resulting pulses are essentially dark solitons of the unperturbed nonlinear Schr?dinger equation. Notably, the same framework also describes bright pulses in anomalous and normally dispersive lasers.     

On q-Deformed $${{\mathfrak{gl}}_{\ell+1}}$$-Whittaker Function III

In this paper, we identify q-deformed \mathfrakgl_l+1{\mathfrak{gl}_{\ell+1}}-Whittaker functions with a specialization of the Macdonald polynomials. This provides a representation of q-deformed \mathfrakgl_l+1{\mathfrak{gl}_{\ell+1}}-Whittaker functions in terms of the Demazure characters of affine Lie algebra [^(\mathfrakgl)]_l+1{\widehat{\mathfrak{gl}}_{\ell+1}}. We also define a system of dual Hamiltonians for q-deformed \mathfrakgl_l+1{\mathfrak{gl}_{\ell+1}}-Toda chains and give a new integral representation for the q-deformed \mathfrakgl_l+1{\mathfrak{gl}_{\ell+1}}-Whittaker functions. Finally, we represent the q-deformed \mathfrakgl_l+1{\mathfrak{gl}_{\ell+1}}-Whittaker function as a matrix element of a quantum torus algebra.     

Braided differential operators on quantum algebras

We propose a general scheme of constructing braided differential algebras via algebras of “quantum exponentiated vector fields” and those of “quantum functions”. We treat a reflection equation algebra as a quantum analog of the algebra of vector fields. The role of a quantum function algebra is played by a general quantum matrix algebra. As an example we mention the so-called RTT algebra of quantized functions on the linear matrix group GL(m)$GL\left(m\right)$. In this case our construction essentially coincides with the quantum differential algebra introduced by S. Woronowicz. If the role of a quantum function algebra is played by another copy of the reflection equation algebra we get two different braided differential algebras. One of them is defined via a quantum analog of (co)adjoint vector fields, the other algebra is defined via a quantum analog of right-invariant vector fields. We show that the former algebra can be identified with a subalgebra of the latter one. Also, we show that “quantum adjoint vector fields” can be restricted to the so-called “braided orbits” which are counterparts of generic GL(m)$GL\left(m\right)$-orbits in gl^∗(m)$g{l}^{\ast }\left(m\right)$. Such braided orbits endowed with these restricted vector fields constitute a new class of braided differential algebras.