New Effects in the Poly-N-Vinylcaprolactam/Titanium(IV) Oxides Nanocomposite System and Their Nature

Nanocomposites based on poly-N-vinylcaprolactam (PVC), characterized by different drying temperatures of aqueous PVC solution at 25°С (PVC25) and 40°С (PVC40), with titanium(IV) oxide nanoparticles (TONs) (η-phase (TP: TiO_{2 – x} · mH₂O) with a superstructure to the anatase structure and ordered solid solution with partial replacement of oxygen atoms in the η-phase with peroxo group O ₂ ^2– (PP: TiO _x (O₂)_{2 – x} · nH₂O)) have been obtained for the first time and characterized by X-ray diffraction and IR spectroscopy. It is found that a common feature of TP/PVC and PP/PVC obtained by dry mixing and grinding is the decrease in the number of water molecules for TP and PP in the interlayer space of the structure and their attachment to the PVC amide groups; the differences are related to the specificity of PVC behavior in these systems: mechanodestruction of PVC in PP/PVC40 and different numbers of water molecules in PVC25 and PVC40.     

An approach of dynamic mesh adaptation for simulating 3‐dimensional unsteady moving‐immersed‐boundary flows

In this paper, we present an approach of dynamic mesh adaptation for simulating complex 3‐dimensional incompressible moving‐boundary flows by immersed boundary methods. Tetrahedral meshes are adapted by a hierarchical refining/coarsening algorithm. Regular refinement is accomplished by dividing 1 tetrahedron into 8 subcells, and irregular refinement is only for eliminating the hanging points. Merging the 8 subcells obtained by regular refinement, the mesh is coarsened. With hierarchical refining/coarsening, mesh adaptivity can be achieved by adjusting the mesh only 1 time for each adaptation period. The level difference between 2 neighboring cells never exceeds 1, and the geometrical quality of mesh does not degrade as the level of adaptive mesh increases. A predictor‐corrector scheme is introduced to eliminate the phase lag between adapted mesh and unsteady solution. The error caused by each solution transferring from the old mesh to the new adapted one is small because most of the nodes on the 2 meshes are coincident. An immersed boundary method named local domain‐free discretization is employed to solve the flow equations. Several numerical experiments have been conducted for 3‐dimensional incompressible moving‐boundary flows. By using the present approach, the number of mesh nodes is reduced greatly while the accuracy of solution can be preserved.     

Photoelastic analysis of edge residual stresses in glass by the automated tint plate method

Experimental Techniques - The analysis of residual stress in glass is usually carried out by means of photoelastic methods. This article considers the automation of the white light photoelastic...     

Fabrication of Microporous Metal–Organic Frameworks in Uninterrupted Mesoporous Tunnels: Hierarchical Structure for Efficient Trypsin Immobilization and Stabilization

Hierarchically porous metal–organic frameworks (HP-MOFs) are promising in various applications. Most reported HP-MOFs are prepared based on the generation of mesopores in microporous frameworks, and the formed mesopores are connected by microporous channels, limiting the accessibility of mesopores for bulky molecules. A hierarchical structure is formed by constructing microporous MOFs in uninterrupted mesoporous tunnels. Using the confined space in as-prepared mesoporous silica, highly dispersed metal precursors for MOFs are coated on the internal surface of mesoporous tunnels. Ligand vapor-induced crystallization is employed to enable quantitative formation of MOFs in situ, in which sublimated ligands diffuse into mesoporous tunnels and react with metal precursors. The obtained hierarchically porous composites exhibit record-high adsorption capacity for the bulky molecule trypsin. The thermal and storage stability of trypsin is improved upon immobilization on the composites.