Stability of vinylidene chloride copolymers containing 4-vinylpyridine units

Vinylidene chloride copolymers are prominent in the barrier plastic packaging industry. These materials display excellent barrier to the transport of oxygen (and other small molecules) as well as flavor and aroma molecules. However, they suffer from a propensity to undergo degradative dehydrochlorination at process temperatures. To scavenge hydrogen chloride formed and prevent its interaction with the metallic components of process equipment, a passive base is usually included as an additive prior to processing. The base is most often an inorganic oxide or salt. These may negatively impact the properties of the polymer, particularly as a film. An organic base that could be covalently incorporated into the copolymer might display better behavior. Accordingly, a series of copolymers containing low levels of 4-vinylpyridine (0.05–3 mole%) have been prepared, characterized, and examined by thermogravimetry to assess thermal stability. In all cases, polymers containing 4-vinylpyridine units are less stable than the polymer containing none of this comonomer. Clearly, the pyridine moiety is a sufficiently strong base to promote E2 elimination of hydrogen chloride to generate dichlormethylene units in the mainchain from which thermal degradation may be initiated.     

CONTROLLING THE 3D NANOSCALE ORGANIZATION OF BULK HETEROJUNCTION POLYMER SOLAR CELLS

  In this study, the three dimensional nanoscale organization in the photoactive layers of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and a methanofullerene derivative (PCBM) is revealed by transmission electron tomography. After annealing treatment, either at elevated temperature or during slow solvent evaporation, nanoscale interpenetrating networks are formed with high crystalline order and favorable concentration gradients of both components through the thickness of the photoactive layer. Such a tailored morphology accounts for the considerable increase of the power conversion efficiency in corresponding solar cell devices.     

Surfaces Decorated with Polymeric Nanocompartments for pH Reporting

Here we present a novel active surface that demonstrates pH responsiveness and can be used as a platform for designing ‘smart labels’. To generate our active surfaces, we immobilized polymer nanocompartments onto glass surfaces using thiol–ene chemistry. Prior to surface attachment, a pH responsive model dye was encapsulated within nanocompartments at two different pH values. We confirmed the attachment and distribution of dye‐loaded polymersomes and established the pH responsiveness of the active surface construct. The strategy presented here was carefully chosen to obtain small sized functional surfaces from commercially available materials that can be easily integrated into intelligent packaging systems. The ability to miniaturize such smart labels, while still being able to detect their response to the environment, is a crucial step towards developing active surfaces suitable for food packaging applications.     

Utilization of TXRF analytical technique in order to improve front-end semiconductor processing

In this paper, we summarize how the introduction of in-line TXRF monitoring provides detailed analytical information on aluminum, titanium and molybdenum contamination levels in order to improve several process steps from front-end processing, minimize product yield loss and make it possible to successfully manufacture multiple products and process geometries in the same fabrication platform.     

Interface features of ultrasonic flip chip bonding and reflow soldering in microelectronic packaging

Ultrasonic features in the bonding area are of interest for researchers in the field of microelectronic packaging. In this study, the interface characteristics of bonding were examined using an XD7100 X‐ray instrument and a transmission electron microscope (TEM). It was seen that bubbles were usually detected at the interfaces of the reflow‐soldered flip chip (FC), but they were not found at the interfaces of ultrasonically formed FC, and so ultrasonic FC bonding is more reliable than reflow soldering. The strong mechanical effect of ultrasonic vibration activates the dislocations in the crystalline metal lattice. Dislocation diffusion is more prominent than crystal diffusion when the temperature is relatively low during ultrasonic bonding, and therefore the processes of ultrasonic bonding enhance by several orders of magnitude. This indicates that the mechanism of ultrasonic bonding is different from the melting mechanism of reflow soldering. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Properties of nitrocellulose‐coated and polyethylene‐laminated chitosan and whey films

Chitosan (chitosan acetic acid salt) and whey (65% protein) films were coated with a nitrocellulose lacquer or laminated with polyethylene to enhance their water resistance and gas barrier properties in humid environments. The barrier properties were measured by the Cobb₆₀ test and water‐vapor (100% relative humidity) transmission and oxygen (90% relative humidity) permeability tests. Mechanical properties were obtained with tensile tests. Packaging properties were studied with crease and folding tests. The Cobb₆₀ test revealed that the coated films were resistant to liquid water, at least for a short exposure time, if the coating thickness was at least 10–17 μm. Water‐vapor transmission rates comparable to those of polyethylene‐laminated films were obtained for coated chitosan at a coating thickness of 5–7 μm. The coated films possessed low oxygen permeability despite the high humidity. Coated films dried for 3 weeks showed oxygen permeabilities at 90% relative humidity that were similar to values for dry ethylene‐co‐vinyl alcohol at 0% relative humidity. The lacquer partly penetrated the whey films, and this led to excellent adhesion but poor lacquer toughness. The lacquer coating on chitosan was tougher, and it was possible to fold these films 90° without the coating fracturing if the coating thickness was small. The coated whey films were readily creasable. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 39: 985–992, 2001     

Improvement of Impact Strength of Polylactide Blends with a Thermoplastic Elastomer Compatibilized with Biobased Maleinized Linseed Oil for Applications in Rigid Packaging

This research work reports the potential of maleinized linseed oil (MLO) as biobased compatibilizer in polylactide (PLA) and a thermoplastic elastomer, namely, polystyrene-b-(ethylene-ran-butylene)-b-styrene (SEBS) blends (PLA/SEBS), with improved impact strength for the packaging industry. The effects of MLO are compared with a conventional polystyrene-b-poly(ethylene-ran-butylene)-b-polystyrene-graft-maleic anhydride terpolymer (SEBS-g-MA) since it is widely used in these blends. Uncompatibilized and compatibilized PLA/SEBS blends can be manufactured by extrusion and then shaped into standard samples for further characterization by mechanical, thermal, morphological, dynamical-mechanical, wetting and colour standard tests. The obtained results indicate that the uncompatibilized PLA/SEBS blend containing 20 wt.% SEBS gives improved toughness (4.8 kJ/m²) compared to neat PLA (1.3 kJ/m²). Nevertheless, the same blend compatibilized with MLO leads to an increase in impact strength up to 6.1 kJ/m², thus giving evidence of the potential of MLO to compete with other petroleum-derived compatibilizers to obtain tough PLA formulations. MLO also provides increased ductile properties, since neat PLA is a brittle polymer with an elongation at break of 7.4%, while its blend with 20 wt.% SEBS and MLO as compatibilizer offers an elongation at break of 50.2%, much higher than that provided by typical SEBS-g-MA compatibilizer (10.1%). MLO provides a slight decrease (about 3 °C lower) in the glass transition temperature (T_g) of the PLA-rich phase, thus showing some plasticization effects. Although MLO addition leads to some yellowing due to its intrinsic yellow colour, this can contribute to serving as a UV light barrier with interesting applications in the packaging industry. Therefore, MLO represents a cost-effective and sustainable solution to the use of conventional petroleum-derived compatibilizers.     

Growth Modeling of Fiber Gratings: A Numerical Investigation

We have developed a simple method to analyze the growth process of fiber gratings (FGs) in the core of photorefractive optical fibers. It is based on the exponential saturation model and it takes into account the type of photosensitive fiber used, the exposure times, and the incident optical power. The photorefractive fiber has been characterized by two parameters: the saturation photoinduced refractive index change and the saturation energy, which can be obtained experimentally. We carry out a numerical investigation for the growth process of a uniform FG. The experimentally observed phenomena of shifting the Bragg optical frequency with exposure times and the appearance of higher-order Bragg resonances are predicted and discussed.     

芯片制造中的化学镀技术研究进展

芯片制造中大量使用物理气相沉积、化学气相沉积、电镀、热压键合等技术来实现芯片导电互连. 与这些技术相比, 化学镀因具有均镀保形能力强、工艺条件温和、设备成本低、操作简单等优点, 被人们期望应用于芯片制造中, 从而在近年来得到大量的研究. 本综述首先简介了芯片制造中导电互连包括芯片内互连、芯片3D封装硅通孔(TSV)、重布线层、凸点、键合、封装载板孔金属化等制程中传统制造技术与化学镀技术的对比, 说明了化学镀用于芯片制造中的优势; 然后总结了芯片化学镀的原理与种类、接枝与活化前处理方法和关键材料; 并详细介绍了芯片内互连和TSV互连化学镀阻挡层、种子层、互连孔填充、化学镀凸点、再布线层、封装载板孔互连种子层以及凸点间键合的研究进展; 且讨论了化学镀液组成及作用, 超级化学镀填孔添加剂及机理等. 最后对化学镀技术未来应用于新一代芯片制造中进行了展望.     

Development of a volatile amine sensor for the monitoring of fish spoilage

A sensor with potential for the development of a “chemical barcode” for real-time monitoring of fish freshness is described. This on-package sensor contains a pH sensitive dye, bromocresol green, that responds through visible colour change to basic volatile spoilage compounds, such as trimethylamine (TMA), ammonia (NH₃) and dimethylamine (DMA) collectively known as Total Volatile Basic Nitrogen (TVB-N). The sensor characteristics were studied as well as its response with standard ammonia gas. Trials on cod and under-utilised species have verified that the sensor response correlates with bacterial growth patterns in fish samples thus enabling the “real-time” monitoring of spoilage in various fish species. The sensor response can be interrogated with a simple, inexpensive reflectance colorimeter that we have developed based on two light emitting diodes (LEDs) and a photodetector.