Various polycarbonate graft copolymers via diels–alder click reaction

In this work, we used Diels–Alder click reaction for the preparation of various types of aliphatic polycarbonates (PCs). We first prepared a novel anthracene‐functionalized cyclic carbonate monomer, anthracen‐9‐ylmethyl 5‐methyl‐2‐oxo‐1,3‐dioxane‐5‐carboxylate (2), followed by ring‐opening polymerization of this monomer to prepare PC with pendant anthracene groups (PC‐anthracene) using 1,8‐diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec‐7‐ene (DBU)/1‐(3,5‐bis(trifloromethyl)phenyl)‐3‐cyclohexylthiourea (TU) as the catalyst and benzyl alcohol as the initiator in CH₂Cl₂ at room temperature. Subsequently, the resulting PC‐anthracene (M_n,TDGPC = 6000 g/mol, M_w/M_n = 1.22) was grafted with a linear α‐furan protected‐maleimide terminated‐poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA‐MI) (M_n,GPC = 3100 g/mol, M_w/M_n = 1.31), or poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG‐MI) (M_n,GPC = 550 g/mol, M_w/M_n = 1.09), or a mixture of PMMA‐MI and PEG‐MI to yield well‐defined PC graft or hetero graft copolymers, PC‐g‐PMMA (M_n,TDGPC = 59000 g/mol, M_w/M_n = 1.22) or PC‐g‐PEG, or PC‐g‐(PMMA)‐co‐PC‐g‐(PEG) (M_n,TDGPC = 39900 g/mol, M_w/M_n = 1.16), respectively, using Diels–Alder click reaction in toluene at 110°C. The Diels–Alder grafting efficiencies were found to be over 97% using UV spectroscopy. Moreover, the structural analyses and the molecular weights of resulting graft copolymers were determined via ¹H NMR and triple detection GPC (TD‐GPC), respectively. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Strong formulations for the pooling problem

The pooling problem is a well-studied global optimization problem with applications in oil refining and petrochemical industry. Despite the strong NP-hardness of the problem, which is proved formally in this paper, most instances from the literature have recently been solved efficiently by use of strong formulations. The main contribution from this paper is a new formulation that proves to be stronger than other formulations based on proportion variables. Moreover, we propose a promising branching strategy for the new formulation and provide computational experiments confirming the strength of the new formulation and the effectiveness of the branching strategy.     

Metal hydrides as bi-functional catalysts for hydrogen generation and oxidation in reversible MH-air fuel cells

Two kinds of metal hydride alloys as the bi-functional catalyst concept for hydrogen generation and oxidation in hydrogen-diffusion electrodes were investigated. The AB₅-type hydride electrode shows much higher catalytic activities than the Zr-based AB₂-type hydride electrode. However, the activity of Zr-based hydride electrodes can be improved only after removal of zirconium oxides on surface by a 1.0 M HF solution. The experiments demonstrated that the both metal-hydride hydrogen-diffusion electrodes for cycles of hydrogen generation (12 h) and oxidation (12 h) had good stability under the current densities of 100 and 50 mA/cm², respectively. The results also showed that small amounts of oxygen below 500 ppm and moisture up to 145,000 ppm in the hydrogen gas have little effect on the activity. It indicated that the hydride alloys as the non-noble-metal bi-functional catalysts in a reversible MH-air fuel cell have potential applications.     

The demicellization of alkyltrimethylammonium bromides in 0.1 M sodium chloride solution studied by isothermal titration calorimetry

The demicellization of the cationic detergents dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide, tetradecyltrimetylammonium bromide, and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide was studied at temperatures between 20 and 60 degrees C in 0.1 M NaCl (pH 6.4) using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). We determined the critical micellization concentration (cmc) of the cationic detergents which show a minimum at temperatures between 20 and 34 degrees C. In accordance with the lengthening of the hydrophobic tail of the detergents the cmc decreases with increasing alkyl chain length. The thermodynamic parameters describing the changes of enthalpy (DeltaH(demic)), the changes of entropy (DeltaS(demic)) and the Gibbs free energy change (DeltaG(demic)) for demicellization were first obtained using the pseudophase-separation model. The aggregation number n at the cmc as well as the demicellization enthalpy, entropy and Gibbs free energy change were also calculated using a simulation based on the mass-action model. Furthermore, we investigated the demicellization of CTAB in deionized water in comparison to demicellization in sodium chloride solution to determine the influence of counter ion binding on the demicellization.     

Temperature-promoted large-volume solute enrichment in column-switching miniaturized liquid chromatography: determination of an antioxidant

A two-valve sub-ambient temperature-promoted reversed-phase packed-capillary liquid-chromatography column-switching system has been tailored for sensitive determination of hydrophobic compounds. Such compounds are not easily dissolved in solvent mixtures of non-eluting properties that traditionally are used for solute enrichment in reversed-phase liquid chromatography. Enrichment-column solute focusing of large sample volumes was promoted by use of sub-ambient temperatures only, allowing the use of sample solvents that were stronger or equal to the mobile phase solvent strength. Subsequent column switching and enrichment-column temperature increment provided efficient low-dispersion back-flushed enrichment-column solute desorption onto the analytical column, where the solute was subjected to temperature-programmed gradient action. The antioxidant, Irganox 1076 (octadecyl 3-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)propionate) extracted from low density polyethylene with 100% acetonitrile served as a hydrophobic model compound. The mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile containing 10 mM triethylamine and formic acid, and the 0.25 mm id enrichment-column and analytical column in lengths of 27 and 250 mm, respectively, were packed with 3.5 microm Kromasil C18 particles. Sample volumes of up to 500 microL were successfully focused on the enrichment column at 5 degrees C using loading flow rates of up to 40 microL min(-1) prior to temperature programming to 90 degrees C. The concentration limit of detection of Irganox 1076 was 6 ng mL(-1) when using an injection volume of 500 microL. The within-assay precision was in the range 3.5-6.8% (n = 6) while the between-day precision was 7.5% (n = 3) relative standard deviation. The method was linear within the investigated mass range 3-100 ng (R2 = 0.9993).     

A structural phase transition in squaric acid

Squaric acid (3,4-dihydroxy-3-cyclobutene-1,2-dione) is found to undergo a second order antiferrodistortive tetragonal to monoclinic phase transition at 97.7°C. The transition temperature for the fully deuterated compound is 243°C. The crystals are optically biaxial negative at room temperature, and the partial birefringence decreases with temperature as (n_z ? n_y)α(T_C ? T)^β, where β_H = 0.34 ± 0.02 and β_D = 0.37 ± 0.04.     

REITERATED HOMOGENIZATION OF NONLINEAR MONOTONE OPERATORS

61. IntroductionLet us consider the clajss of partial differential equations of the form--div(a.(x, Du.)) ~ f on fi, us E Wt,p(fl), (1.1)where a6 is increasingly oscillating as E -- 0, fi is an open bounded subset of R", 1 < p < cot1/p 1/q = 1 and f E W--"q(fl). The homogenization problem for (l.1) consists of the studyof the asymptotic behavior of solutions net as e - 0. In many important cases nE convergesweakly in WI'p(n) to the solution no of the homogenized problem--div(b(Duo)) = f …