Thermal degradation behaviour of novel wholly para-oriented aromatic polyamide-hydrazides containing sulfone-ether linkages

Thermal stability and degradation behaviour of a series of novel wholly para-oriented aromatic polyamide-hydrazides containing flexibilising sulfone-ether linkages in their main chains have been investigated in nitrogen and in air using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetry (TG), infrared spectroscopy (IR) and elemental analysis. All of these polymers have similar structural formula except for the presence of sulfone, ether, or sulfone-ether linking groups between appropriate aromatic nuclei in their main chains. The influence of incorporation of these linkages on the thermal stability and degradation behaviour of these polymers has also been studied. The polymers were prepared by a low temperature solution polycondensation reaction of 4-amino-3-hydroxybenzhydrazide (4A3HBH) and an equimolar amount of either 4,4′-sulfonyl dibenzoyl chloride (SDBC), 4,4′-[sulfonyl bis (1,4-phenylene)dioxy] dibenzoyl chloride (SODBC), 4,4′-[sulfonyl bis (2,6-dimethyl- 1,4-phenylene)dioxy] dibenzoyl chloride (4MeSODBC), or 4,4′-(1,4-phenylenedioxy)dibenzoyl chloride (ODBC) in anhydrous N,N-dimethyl acetamide (DMAc) as a solvent at −10 °C. A related polyamide-hydrazide without the flexibilising linkages is also investigated for comparison. It was synthesized from 4A3HBH and terephthaloyl chloride (TCl) by the same synthetic route. The results clearly reveal that these polymers are characterized by high thermal stability. Their weight loss occurred in three distinctive steps. The first was small and was assigned to the evaporation of absorbed moisture. The second was appreciable and was attributed to the cyclodehydration reaction of the o-hydroxy polyamide-hydrazides into the corresponding poly (1,3,4-oxadiazolyl-benzoxazoles) by losing water. This is not a true degradation, but rather a thermo-chemical transformation reaction. The third was relatively severe and sharp, particularly in air, and corresponded to the decomposition of the resulting poly(1,3,4-oxadiazolyl-benzoxazoles). There is a slight shift of the decomposition temperature of these polymers to a lower temperature as the sulfone-ether linkages were introduced into the polymer chains. The decomposition seems to start by breaking the sulfonyl groups as confirmed from DSC measurements. The results also indicate that the incorporation of the flexibilising linkages into the polymer main chains did not seem to significantly influence the thermal stability of these polymers in comparison with that of the polymer free from these linkages.     

Thermal degradation behaviour of poly(vinyl chloride) in the presence of poly(N′-acryloyl benzhydrazide)

The thermal degradation behaviour of poly(vinyl chloride), PVC, in the presence of poly(N′-acryloyl benzhydrazide), PABH, has been studied using continuous potentiometric determination of the evolved hydrogen chloride gas from the degradation and by measuring the extent of discoloration of the degraded samples. Blending this polymeric additive with dibasic lead carbonate, DBLC, reference stabilizer in different ratios had synergistic effects on both the thermal stability and the extent of discoloration of PVC.     

Stability analysis of a stochastic delayed SIR epidemic model with general incidence rate

In this paper, a stochastic delayed epidemic model with a generalized incidence rate is proposed and discussed. The positivity of solutions is established. A linearized form of the model is given and the stability conditions of the endemic equilibrium are obtained by using the technique of Lyapunov functionals.     

Surface Sol–gel Synthesis of Ultrathin Titanium and Tantalum Oxide Films

TiO₂, Ta₂O₅, and mixed TiO₂/Ta₂O₅ ultrathin films were grown layer-by-layer using a surface sol–gel deposition technique. The technique allows one to prepare smooth films of mixed composition with ångstrom-level control of thickness. The thickness increases per adsorption/hydrolysis cycle were 4.5, 2.1, and 2.5, respectively, for TiO₂, Ta₂O₅, and mixed TiO₂/Ta₂O₅ (1.6sol;1) films. By combining X-ray diffraction and ellipsometric analysis, it was determined that the as-deposited TiO₂ films are less dense than bulk TiO₂, and do not adhere persistently to Si/SiO₂ or Au/2-mercaptoethanol substrates. These green films were annealed at 400°C to produce denser and highly adherent films. Patterning the surface by microcontact printing of siloxane polymer thin films allows one to prepare patterned sol–gel oxide thin films.     

Magnetic impact on heat and mass transfer utilizing nonofluid in an annulus between a superellipse obstacle and a cavity with periodic side-wall temperature and concentration

The magnetic impacts upon the transport of heat and mass of an electrically conducting nanofluid within an annulus among an inner rhombus with convex and outer cavity with periodic temperature/concentration profiles on its left wall are assessed by the ISPH method. The right wall has ${T}_{c}$ and ${C}_{c},$ flat walls are adiabatic, and the temperature and concentration of the left wall are altered sinusoidally with time. The features of the heat and mass transfer and fluid flow through an annulus are assessed across a wide scale of Hartmann number $Ha,$ Soret number $Sr,$ oscillation amplitude $A,$ Dufour number $Du,$ nanoparticles parameter $\phi ,$ oscillation frequency $f,$ Rayleigh number $Ra,$ and radius of a superellipse $a$ at Lewis number $Le=20,$ magnetic field's angle $\gamma =45^\circ ,$ Prandtl number ${\Pr }=6.2,$ a superellipse coefficient $n=3/2,$ and buoyancy parameter $N=1.$ The results reveal that the velocity's maximum reduces by $70.93 \% $ as $Ha$ boosts from 0 to 50, and by $66.24 \% $ as coefficient $a$ boosts from $0.1$ to $0.4.$ Whilst the velocity's maximum augments by $83.04 \% $ as $Sr$ increases from 0.6 to 2 plus a decrease in $Du$ from 1 to 0.03. The oscillation amplitude $A,$ and frequency $f$ are significantly affecting the nanofluid speed, and heat and mass transfer inside an annulus. Increasing the parameters $A$ and $f$ is augmenting the values of mean Nusselt number $\overline{Nu}$ and mean Sherwood number $\overline{Sh}.$ Increasing the radius of a superellipse $a$ enhances the values of $\overline{Nu}$ and $\overline{Sh}.$     

Ultrathin anisotropic films assembled from individual single-walled carbon nanotubes and amine polymers

Oxidized individual single-walled carbon nanotubes and amine polymers have been assembled into 11-32-nm-thick well-ordered conductive films. The films show highly anisotropic electrical conductivity, which is dominated by the nanotubes in the horizontal plane and by polymer-mediated tunneling in the vertical direction. The ratio of the "along" to "across" conductivity is approximately 10(3). The subnanometer thick polymer layers interleaved with monolayers of nanotubes show conductivity several orders of magnitude higher than films of pristine polymers.     

Light-to-chemical energy conversion in lamellar solids and thin films

Photocatalytic water splitting by visible light is one of the most difficult and persistent challenges in chemistry. This Forum Article reviews progress in this field, focusing on efforts made in our laboratory to control electron- and energy-transfer reactions, and catalytic hydrogen and oxygen evolution, in lamellar solids and thin films.     

g-natural symmetries on tangent bundles

The study of symmetries is a well known research topic in differential geometry with relevant physical interpretations. Given a Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$, we consider pseudo-Riemannian g-natural metrics G on its tangent bundle $TM$ and characterize conformal, homothetic and Killing vector fields of $(TM,G)$ obtained from natural lifts of vector fields of M.