New enantiomeric polylactide-block-poly(butylene succinate)-block-polylactides: syntheses, characterization and in situ self-assembly

In situ self-assemblies of new biodegradable triblock PLLA-b-PBS-b-PLLA and PDLA-b-PBS-b-PDLA have been investigated in acetonitrile solution. At first, two series of PLLA-b-PBS-b-PLLA and PDLA-b-PBS-b-PDLA, respectively denoted as the P and Q triblock copolyester series, were prepared with fixed PBS block ((overline) M(n,NMR) = 6.9 kDa) and diverse enantiomeric PLLA/PDLA blocks. Further, their chemical structures and thermal properties were characterized by means of titration, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), polarimeter, wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and thermal analytical instruments. When mixing the synthesized enantiomeric copolyester pairs denoted as P(1)/Q(1) - P(8)/Q(8) in acetonitrile solution at 60 degrees C, in situ self-assemblies were found to happen for the P(4)/Q(4) to P(8)/Q(8) pairs, bearing longer enantiomeric PLA block lengths. DSC and WAXD analysis of the self-assembled microparticles demonstrated that PLLA/PDLA racemic crystals were formed for the P(5)/Q(5) - P(8)/Q(8) systems, as evidenced by their melting points over 200 degrees C, and a new X-ray diffraction peak detected at 2theta = 11.8 degrees . Moreover, morphological studies by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated the formation of disk- or platelet-like microparticles. It was noted that the diameters of the microparticles self-assembled in situ decreased from 1.28-1.50 mum down to 480-660 nm, through tailoring the enantiomeric PLA block length. Other factors, such as a central PBS block, the enantiomeric block length and the preparation conditions were suggested to play important roles in the in situ self-assembly of these enantiomeric triblock copolyesters. These results provide a facile way to self-assemble hydrophobic, biodegradable microparticles, through tuning the important van der Waals stereocomplexation interactions between two enantiomeric blocks in solution.     

Electrical characterization of strontium tartrate single crystals

The a.c. and d.c. conductivity of SrC₄H₄O₆·3H₂O are measured and are found to lie between usual conductivities of semiconductor and insulator. Temperature dependence of d.c. conductivity shows intrinsic conduction, which is confirmed by the slope of versus data. Due to application of thermal energy, noticeable conductivity peaks imply liberation of water molecules during dehydration and the formation of strontium oxalate. The conductivity plot has a nature similar to the intrinsic-to-extrinsic transition found in normal semiconductors. There occurs Efros hopping conduction in our samples.     

Degenerate ground state in a mesoscopic YBa2Cu3O(7-x) grain boundary Josephson junction

We have measured the current-phase relationship I(varphi) of symmetric 45 degrees YBa2Cu3O7-x grain boundary Josephson junctions. Substantial deviations of the Josephson current from conventional tunnel-junction behavior have been observed: (i) The critical current exhibits, as a function of temperature T, a local minimum at a temperature T*. (ii) At T approximately T*, the first harmonic of I(phi) changes sign. (iii) For T相似文献   

On the numerical inversion of the Laplace transform by the use of an optimized Legendre polynomials

A method for inverting the Laplace transform is presented, using a finite series of the classical Legendre polynomials. The method recovers a real valued function f(t) in a finite interval of the positive real axis when f(t) belongs to a certain class and requires the knowledge of its Laplace transform F(s) only at a finite number of discrete points on the real axis s>0. The choice of these points will be carefully considered so as to improve the approximation error as well as to minimize the number of steps needed in the evaluations. The method is tested on few examples, with particular emphasis on the estimation of the error bounds involved.     

Structural,magnetic and electrical properties of Co1−xZnxFe2O4 synthesized by co-precipitation method

Nanoparticles of Co_1−xZn_xFe₂O₄ with stoichiometric proportion (x) varying from 0.0 to 0.6 were prepared by the chemical co-precipitation method. The samples were sintered at 600 °C for 2 h and were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), low field AC magnetic susceptibility, DC electrical resistivity and dielectric constant measurements. From the analysis of XRD patterns, the nanocrystalline ferrite had been obtained at pH=12.5–13 and reaction time of 45 min. The particle size was calculated from the most intense peak (3 1 1) using the Scherrer formula. The size of precipitated particles lies within the range 12–16 nm, obtained at reaction temperature of 70 °C. The Curie temperature was obtained from AC magnetic susceptibility measurements in the range 77–850 K. It is observed that Curie temperature decreases with the increase of Zn concentration. DC electrical resistivity measurements were carried out by two-probe method from 370 to 580 K. Temperature-dependent DC electrical resistivity decreases with increase in temperature ensuring the semiconductor nature of the samples. DC electrical resistivity results are discussed in terms of polaron hopping model. Activation energy calculated from the DC electrical resistivity versus temperature for all the samples ranges from 0.658 to 0.849 eV. The drift mobility increases by increasing temperature due to decrease in DC electrical resisitivity. The dielectric constants are studied as a function of frequency in the range 100 Hz–1 MHz at room temperature. The dielectric constant decreases with increasing frequency for all the samples and follow the Maxwell–Wagner's interfacial polarization.     

Remediation of <Superscript>137</Superscript>Cs radionuclide in nuclear waste effluents by polymer composite: adsorption kinetics,isotherms and gamma irradiation studies

Polypyrrole is incorporated with activated carbon in large size dopant solution and investigated for ¹³⁷Cs removal studies. Adsorption experiments showed optimum conditions within 240 min contact time, pH 6, 0.2 g adsorbent and?≤?100 mg/l adsorbate dose, respectively, while the kinetic data followed pseudo-first-order model. Isotherm data were reproducible by the Langmuir isotherm yielding 23 mg/g maximum sorption capacity. Regeneration of adsorbent was attempted and indicated promising results within three cycles. The surface behavior has also been examined and revealed a well-ordered structure under gamma irradiation. This is a cheap adsorbent to consider and has also proven to possess higher sorption capacity than most highly-cost inorganic materials in use.     

A numerical solution of a two-dimensional IHCP

In this paper, we will first study the existence and uniqueness of the solution of a two-dimensional inverse heat conduction problem (IHCP) which is severely ill-posed, i.e., the solution does not depend continuously on the data. We propose a stable numerical approach based on the finite-difference method and the least-squares scheme to solve this problem in the presence of noisy data. We prove the convergence of the numerical solution, then to regularize the resultant ill-conditioned linear system of equations, we apply the Tikhonov regularization 0th, 1st and 2nd method to obtain the stable numerical approximation to the solution. The stability and accuracy of the scheme presented is evaluated by comparison with the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) method.     

Stability-Indicating LC Method for Assay of Cholecalciferol

This paper discusses the development of a stability-indicating reversed-phase LC method for analysis of cholecalciferol as the bulk drug and in formulations. The mobile phase was acetonitrile–methanol–water 50:50:2 (v/v). The calibration plot for the drug was linear in the range 0.4–10 μg mL⁻¹. The method was accurate and precise with limits of detection and quantitation of 64 and 215 ng, respectively. Mean recovery was 100.71%. The method was used for analysis of cholecalciferol in pharmaceutical formulations in the presence of its degradation products and commonly used excipients.