Polyisophthalamides with heteroaromatic pendent rings: Synthesis,physical properties,and water uptake

A set of novel aromatic polyamides containing pyridine pendent groups was prepared from aromatic diamines and new monomers that are 5‐substituted derivatives of isophthalic acid bearing nicotinamide, isonicotinamide, or picolinamide groups. The polymers were obtained in high yield and high molecular weight by the phosphorylation method of polycondensation. They were characterized by spectroscopic and chromatographic methods and several of their properties were investigated. All of the polymers were soluble in polar aprotic solvents and gave films of good mechanical properties. Glass transition temperatures were higher than that of the reference polymer, poly(m‐phenyleneisophthalamide) (IP‐MPD), while the thermal resistance, defined by the initial decomposition temperature observed by thermogravimetry, was in the range 370–420 °C, lower by 30–70 °C than that of IP‐MPD. The presence of a pendent pyridine group and an additional amide side group per repeat unit made the polymers essentially amorphous and greatly improved their abilities to absorb water in comparison with nonsubstituted polyamides. Water uptake values up to 15% were observed at 65% relative humidity. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 5300–5311, 2005     

The modeling of small scales in two-dimensional turbulent flows: A statistical mechanics approach

In previous work we have defined statistical equilibrium states for 2D incompressible Euler equations. We study here the relaxation process toward equilibrium. This leads to a natural modeling of the small scales in turbulent flows, which might be relevant for meteorological and oceanographic applications. Numerical simulations illustrating the performance of these new models are presented.     

Smooth and path connected Banach submanifold Σ r of B(E,F) and a dimension formula in B(ℝ n ,ℝ m )

Given two Banach spaces E,F, let B(E,F) be the set of all bounded linear operators from E into F, Σ _r the set of all operators of finite rank r in B(E,F), and Σ _r ^# the number of path connected components of Σ _r . It is known that Σ _r is a smooth Banach submanifold in B(E,F) with given expression of its tangent space at each A ∈ Σ _r . In this paper,the equality Σ _r ^# = 1 is proved. Consequently, the following theorem is obtained: for any nonnegative integer r, Σ _r is a smooth and path connected Banach submanifold in B(E,F) with the tangent space T _A Σ _r = {B ∈ B(E,F): BN(A) ⊂ R(A)} at each A ∈ Σ _r if dim F = ∞. Note that the routine method can hardly be applied here. So in addition to the nice topological and geometric property of Σ _r the method presented in this paper is also interesting. As an application of this result, it is proved that if E = ℝ ⁿ and F = ℝ ^m , then Σ _r is a smooth and path connected submanifold of B(ℝ ⁿ , ℝ ^m ) and its dimension is dimΣ _r = (m+n)r−r ² for each r, 0 <- r < min {n,m}. Supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No.10671049 and 10771101).     

Theoretical investigations on the carbazole‐based conjugated polymers containing electron‐donating divinylaryl

The polycarbazoles have been proved to efficiently suppress the keto defect emission. Three carbazole‐based conjugated polymers, poly[9‐methyl‐3‐(4‐vinylstyryl)‐9H‐carbazole] (PBC), poly[9‐methyl‐3‐(2‐(5‐vinylthiophen‐2‐yl)vinyl)‐9H‐carbazole] (PBT) and poly[9‐methyl‐3‐(2‐(5‐vinylfuran‐2‐yl)vinyl)‐9H‐carbazole] (PBF), were investigated by quantum‐chemical techniques, and gain a detailed understanding of the influence of carbazole units and the introduction of electron‐donating on the electronic and optical properties. The electronic properties of the neutral molecules, HOMO‐LUMO gaps (ΔE), in addition to ionization potential (I_p) and electron affinity (E_a), are studied using B3LYP density functional theory. The lowest excitation energies (E_g) and the absorption wavelength are studied using the time dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). The calculated results show that all three series of polymers have good planarity. And the highest‐occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energies lift about 0.36–0.61 eV and thus the I_P decrease about 0.01–0.19 eV compared to polycarbazole, suggesting the significant improved hole‐accepting and transporting abilities. By introducing the electron‐donating 1,4‐divinylphenylene or 2,5‐divinylthiophene or 2,5‐divinylfuran units in the backbone, and the lowest‐unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energies decrease 0.20–0.39 eV. In addition, PBC, PBT and PBF have longer maximal absorption wavelengths than polycarbazole. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 47: 706–714, 2009     

Modeling of Temperature and Strain-Rate Effects in Metals Using an Internal Variable Model

The thermo-viscoplastic behavior of three metals is characterized in a large range of loading conditions by using a new phenomenological constitutive model. The flow stress is decomposed into the sum of an effective stress with an internal stress depending upon an internal parameter which describes the strain hardening effect. The evolution of the internal stress is sensitive to the history of strain-rate and temperature. A systematic method is used for determining the model’s parameters. The model predictions show a good correlation with experimental data. Temperature history effects are especially analyzed.     

On the combinatorics of the Pfaff identity

Recently, there has been a revival of interest in the Pfaff identity on hypergeometric series because of the specialization of Simons and a generalization of Munarini. We present combinatorial settings and interpretations of the specialization and the generalization; one is based on free Dyck paths and free Schröder paths, and the other relies on a correspondence of Foata and Labelle between the Meixner endofunctions and bicolored permutations, and an extension of the technique developed by Labelle and Yeh for the Pfaff identity. Applying the involution on weighted Schröder paths, we derive a formula for the Narayana numbers as an alternating sum of the Catalan numbers.     

Synthesis and photochemical properties of porphyrie-quinone compounds

The results of studies on the synthesis of porphyrin-quinone compounds and investigation of their photochemical properties are summarized. Effects of various factors (the redox potential, the distance between donor and acceptor moieties, their spatial orientation, the free energy of the reaction, and solvents) on the photoinduced electron transfer in these model systems are discussed. The dyad and triad model systems have been compared. The possibility of using these systems for modeling the primary steps of photosynthesis is discussed.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 1. pp. 9–24, January, 1996.     

Investigation of multipactor breakdown in communication satellite microwave co-axial systems

Multipactor breakdown or multipactor discharge is a form of high frequency discharge that may occur in microwave components operating at very low pressures. Some RF components of multi-channel communication satellites have co-axial geometry and handle high RF power under near-vacuum conditions. The breakdown occurs due to secondary electron resonance, wherein electrons move back and forth in synchronism with the RF voltage across the gap between the inner and outer conductors of the co-axial structure. If the yield of secondary electrons from the walls of the co-axial structure is greater than unity, then the electron density increases with time and eventually leads to the breakdown. In this paper, the current due to the oscillating electrons in the co-axial geometry has been treated as a radially oriented Hertzian dipole. The electric field, due to this dipole, at any point in the coaxial structure, may then be determined by employing the dyadic Green’s function technique. This field has been compared with the field that would exist in the absence of multipactor.     

On the Spectrum of Invertible Semi-hyponormal Operators

It is known that for a semi-hyponormal operator, the spectrum of the operator is equal to the union of the spectra of the general polar symbols of the operator. The original proof of this theorem involves the so-called singular integral model. The purpose of this paper is to give a different proof of the same theorem for the case of invertible semi-hyponormal operators without using the singular integral model.