Photo-orientation at liquid crystal—polymer interfaces

It is suggested that liquid crystal—polymer interfaces are coupled systems, in which the components mutually influence the orientational state of each other. The photo-orientation process at liquid crystal-polymer interfaces provides a striking example of such a coupling. Experiments show that the anisotropic structure generated by polarised light at a polymer surface is strongly affected by the phase of the liquid crystal covering the polymer. Photo-orientation is significantly more efficient when the liquid crystal is in the isotropic phase than when it exhibits orientational order. The observations are interpreted by assuming that in the smectic and nematic phases the liquid crystal stabilises to a large extent polymer chain-segments aligned parallel to the director, while it blocks the photo-induced formation of chain-segments in the perpendicular direction. Other situations, in which the coupling between the liquid crystal and the polymer can be important, are also discussed briefly.     

TG of polytetrahydrofuran/ isophoronediisocyanate reaction products

TG, swelling, and viscometric studies are presented for the residues, PTHF/IPDI polymer networks, and the extracts, the linear polymers and unreacted IPDI, after Soxhlet extraction of PTHF/IPDI reaction products. The products are obtained by reacting PTHF with 650, 1400, (2×650+1×2900), or 2900 of molecular mass with IPDI at various concentrations in bulk. The results on the swelling and the viscosity experiments suggest that the PTHF/IPDI reaction products have a usual expectable structure. All the TG curves are a double stage curve. The initial stage and the last stage seem to reflect decomposition of PTHF chains and vaporization of the remainder, IPDI, respectively. These are analyzed by a trial-and-error construction, supposing double event behavior. The values of ratio of mass loss associated with the initial event, W0₁, to the mass loss associated with the last event, W0₂, are smaller than the expectable those. This suggests that Event 2 involves vaporization of the decomposition products of PTHF moieties bonded to IPDI in addition to vaporization of IPDI. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Reagent concentration effects in the REM resin solid phase synthesis of tertiary amines

The use of reagent concentration has resulted in increased rates for all stages of the REM resin synthesis of tertiary amines. These increases in rate translate into faster reaction times, higher yields and lower reagent consumption. Of the methods examined, the most successful was the use of perfluorous solvents, either alone or with a small amount of organic co-solvent.     

Synthesis and characterization of 6‐ and 12‐arm star polymers by nitroxide‐mediated radical polymerization of St and MA from dendritic TIPNO‐based hexafunctional and dodecafunctional macroinitiators

Dendritic multifunctional macroinitiators having six and 12 TIPNO‐based alkoxyamines, TIPNO‐6 and TIPNO‐12 , were synthesized and used in the living radical polymerization of styrene (St), methyl acrylate (MA), N,N‐dimethylacrylamide (DMAAm), and isoprene (IP). The polymerizations of St initiated with TIPNO‐6 gave 6‐arm star polymers with narrow polydispersities of 1.14–1.18. In the polymerizations of MA initiated with TIPNO‐6 and TIPNO‐12 , the influences of added TIPNO on the polydispersity indexes (PDIs) of the resulting star polymers were first investigated, and this led to the successful formation of poly(MA) star polymers with narrow polydispersities (1.10–1.18). Moreover, the polymerizations of DMAAm and IP from TIPNO‐6 in the presence or absence of TIPNO were briefly investigated. The benzyl ether bonds of the poly(St) and poly(MA) star polymers were cleaved by treating with Me₃SiI or Pd/C, and the resulting arm's parts were analyzed with SEC. The PDIs of the resulting arm parts were low (1.19–1.23), and the M_ns agreed with the M_n,theor, indicating that the poly(St) and poly(MA) star polymers had well‐controlled arms. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 4364–4376, 2007     

Weak Attractive Ligand–Polymer and Related Interactions in Catalysis and Reactivity: Impact,Applications, and Modeling

The notion of weak attractive ligand–polymer interactions is introduced, and its potential application, importance, and conceptual links with “cooperative” ligand–substrate interactions are discussed. Synthetic models of weak attractive ligand–polymer interactions are described, in which intramolecular weak C? H???F? C interactions (the existence of which remains contentious) have been detected by NMR spectroscopy and neutron and X‐ray diffraction experiments. These C? H???F? C interactions carry important implications for the design of catalysts for olefin polymerization, because they provide support for the practical feasibility of ortho‐F???H_β ligand–polymer contacts proposed for living Group 4 fluorinated phenoxyimine catalysts. The notion of weak attractive noncovalent interactions between an “active” ligand and the growing polymer chain is a novel concept in polyolefin catalysis.     

A bicontinuous structure in some systems with cubic mesophases

A cubic structure of polymer colloid complexes is studied. The technique of the research includes i) an analysis of well-known literature SAXS data; on this basis, ii) constructing a simple model to estimate geometric structure parameters and to obtain a simulated scattering curve; and iii) comparing the model with the real structure obtained from the SAXS data, using the reconstruction of electron density distribution. A bicontinuous structure in cubic mesophases is formed. Dedicated to the memory of Alexander T. Dembo     

Strategic commitment to price to stimulate downstream innovation in a supply chain

It is generally in a firm’s interest for its supply chain partners to invest in innovations. To the extent that these innovations either reduce the partners’ variable costs or stimulate demand for the end product, they will tend to lead to higher levels of output for all of the firms in the chain. However, in response to the innovations of its partners, a firm may have an incentive to opportunistically increase its own prices. The possibility of such opportunistic behavior creates a hold-up problem that leads supply chain partners to underinvest in innovation. Clearly, this hold-up problem could be eliminated by a pre-commitment to price. However, by making an advance commitment to price, a firm sacrifices an important means of responding to demand uncertainty. In this paper we examine the trade-off that is faced when a firm’s channel partner has opportunities to invest in either cost reduction or quality improvement, i.e. demand enhancement. Should it commit to a price in order to encourage innovation, or should it remain flexible in order to respond to demand uncertainty. We discuss several simple wholesale pricing mechanisms with respect to this trade-off.     

扫描力显微术在高聚物薄膜玻璃化转变研究中的应用

简述了高聚物薄膜玻璃化转变的复杂性，并结合文章作者的的一些研究结果介绍了扫描力显微术(SFM)在研究高聚物玻璃化转变中的一些方法，包括观察高聚物薄膜形貌的变化，测量其摩擦力、粘附力和弹性模量等物理量的变化，最后指出SFM是研究高聚物薄膜玻璃化转变的有力工具。     

Polymorphy in the stereostructure of periodic polymer backbones

We theoretically investigated the polymorphy of the stereostructures of a periodic polymer. Using the polymer's internal conformation parameters of bond lengths, bond angles, and internal rotation angles, we extended the mathematical treatment for designing polymer backbones. We considered those periodic polymers whose unit cell consists of one (m = 1), two (m = 2), or three (m = 3) kinds of atoms. Moreover, for these three types of polymers, we supposed two catenation types for the skeleton atoms; one is a “homorotatory” sequence and the other is a “heterorotatory” one. To specify the backbone's stereostructure, we introduced several conformation parameters such as the helical pitch number n, the translation distance d, and the inclination angle of the skeleton plane Θ. By combining these parameters, we can systematically understand the variety and the possible polymorphy in the stereostructure of a periodic polymer backbone. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 2829–2849, 2003     

Using the new in–in method for the synthesis of polyisoprene/polystyrene heteroarm star polymers

The basis of the two‐step in–in method is as follows: star polymers with poly(divinyl benzene) cores, synthesized by the arm‐first method, include many unreacted double bonds in their core, and these double bonds can be attacked by the carbanions of some monomers such as styrene and dienes. In this work, linear polyisoprene chains were used to attack the double bonds existing in the poly(divinyl benzene) cores of polystyrene star polymers, so that a heteroarm star polymer with polystyrene and polyisoprene arms was synthesized. It was later well characterized with size exclusion chromatography, light scattering, viscometry, UV spectroscopy, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, and ¹H NMR. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 135–142, 2003