Flexible taper-shaped liquid crystal trimer exhibiting a modulated smectic phase

We prepared some taper-shaped liquid-crystalline trimers in which two phenylpyrimidine units and a 1,4-diphenyl-2,3-difluorobenzene unit are connected to 2,4-dihdroxy benzoic acid via flexible spacers. We then investigated their liquid-crystalline properties using polarised optical microscopy, differential scanning microscopy and X-ray diffraction. 6-[4–(5-Octylpyrimidin-2-yl)phenyloxy]hexyl 2-{7-{4-[4–(4-hexylphenyl)-2,3-difluorophenyl]phenyloxy}heptanoyloxy}-4-{6-[4–(5-octylpyrimidin-2-yl)phenyloxy]hexyloxy}benzoate (1) was found to exhibit a phase sequence of isotropic liquid – nematic – intercalated smectic A – intercalated anticlinic smectic C – modulated smectic C. The structure–property relation in the taper-shaped trimers reveals that the modulated phase is induced by competition between an intercalated structure stabilised by dipole–dipole interaction and a monolayer structure by packing entropy effects. Conformational change of compound 1 induced by intermolecular interactions plays an important role in the phase transition behaviour.     

Determination of antazoline hydrochloride in rat plasma and excreta by reversed‐phase ion‐pair chromatography and its application to pharmacokinetics

A reversed‐phase ion pair chromatography method with liquid–liquid extraction analytical method was developed and validated for the determination of antazoline hydrochloride in plasma and excreta of rat. The aim of our study was to characterize the preclinical pharmacokinetics and excretion profiles of antazoline hydrochloride in rats after intravenous injection at the dose of 10 mg/kg. Plasma and excreta samples were extracted with ethyl acetate, and phenacetin was used as the internal standard. The result showed that the method is suitable for the quantification of antazoline hydrochloride in plasma and excreta samples. Analysis of accuracy (90.89–112.33%), imprecision (<7.1%) and recovery (>82.5%) showed adequate values. After a single intravenous administration at 10 mg/kg to rats, plasma concentration profile showed a relative fast elimination proceeding with a terminal elimination half‐life of 3.53 h. Approximately 61.8 and 14.2% of the administered dose were recovered in urine and bile after 72 and 24 h post‐dosing respectively; 5.9% of the administered dose was recovered in feces after 72 h post‐dosing. The above results show that the major elimination route is urinary excretion. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self-Reguiating Poiycondensations. II. A Study of the Order Present in Polyamide-Hydrazides Derived from Terephthaloyl Chloride and p-Aminobenzhydrazide

The problem of chemical order of polyamide-hydrazides prepared from terephthaloyl chloride with an unsymmetrical monomer, p-aminobenzhydrazide, is discussed. An NMR method for identifying the molecular structure of species formed in the early stages of poly condensation has enabled the course of a polymerization to be followed during this time and the final degree of order to be predicted qualitatively. These studies have provided a demonstration that the structure of these polymers can be controlled to a significant degree by appropriate variations in experimental conditions. But even under the most adverse conditions usually employed, poly amide-hydrazides are found to be at least “partially ordered” copolymers. The techniques developed for this study may find application in the study of other polymer forming reactions with monomers having two functional groups with dissimilar reactivities.     

Optimization of solid phase dispersive field‐assisted ultrasonication for the extraction of auramine O and crystal violet dyes using central composite design

Simultaneous preconcentration and determination of auramine o (AO) and crystal violet (CV) dyes from aqueous solution was conducted by ultrasound assisted (dispersive) solid phase microextraction (UASPME) based on SnO₂/SnS composite loaded activated carbon (SnO₂/SnS‐NCs‐AC). The prepared of SnO₂/SnS‐NCs‐AC was characterized by FESEM and XRD analysis. Main and interaction influences of operational parameters such as pH, sonication time, amounts of sorbent, and type of eluent on extraction efficiency were investigated by central composite design and optimized with desirability function approach (DFA). ANOVA was conducted and shows that optimized values were found at 15.33 min sonication time, 0.019 g SnO₂/SnS‐NCs‐AC mass, pH 5.46 and among different solvents, dimethyl formamide was selected as an efficient eluent. Under this conditions recoverees percentage were obtained 82.85% and 86.70% for AO and CV, respectively. Based on F‐test under ANOVA all main effect and interaction effect of understudy parameters has the significant effect on the responses. At optimum conditions, limit of detection (0.0015 and 0.001 mg/l), limit of quantitation (0.4 and 0.4 mg/l), limit of linearity (9.0 and 9.0 mg/l), enrichment factor (33.48 and 83.71) and percent relative standard deviation (3.44 and 4.20) were found to be for auramine o and crystal violet dyes, respectively. Finally, the method was successfully applied for the preconcentration and determination of AO and CV in water samples and ER% of 89.0‐97.0 and 96.2–98.0% as acceptable range were found to be for AO and CV samples, respectively.     

Binary hairy nanoparticles: Recent progress in theory and simulations

Binary polymer brushes, including mixed homopolymer brushes and diblock copolymer brushes, are an attractive class of environmentally responsive nanostructured materials. Owing to microphase separation of the two chemically distinct components in the brush, multifaceted nanomaterials with functionalized and patterned surfaces can be obtained. This review summarizes recent progress on the theory and simulations related to binary polymer brushes grafted to flat, spherical, and cylindrical substrates, with a focus on patterned morphologies of multifaceted hairy nanoparticles, an intriguing class of hybrid nanostructured particles (e.g., nanospheres and nanorods). In particular, powerful field theory and particle-based simulations suitable for revealing novel structures on these patterned surfaces, including self-consistent field theory and dissipative particle dynamics simulations, are emphasized. The unsolved yet critical issues in this research field, such as dynamic response of binary polymer brushes to environmental stimuli and the hierarchical self-assembly of binary hairy nanoparticles, are briefly discussed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2014 , 52, 1583–1599     

Improved self‐assembly of poly(dimethylsiloxane‐b‐ethylene oxide) using a hydrogen‐bonding additive

Block copolymers with increased Flory–Huggins interaction parameters (χ) play an essential role in the production of sub‐10 nm nanopatterns in the growing field of directed self‐assembly for next generation lithographic applications. A library of PDMS‐b‐PEO block copolymers were synthesized by click chemistry and their interaction parameters (χ) determined. The highest χ measured in our samples was 0.21 at 150 °C, which resulted in phase‐separated domains with periods as small as 7.9 nm, suggesting that PDMS‐b‐PEO is a prime candidate for sub‐10 nm nanopatterning. To suppress PEO crystallization, PDMS‐b‐PEO was blended with (l )‐tartaric acid (LTA) which allows for tuning of the self‐assembled morphologies. Additionally, it was observed that the order‐disorder transition temperature (T_ODT) of PDMS‐b‐PEO increased dramatically as the amount of LTA in the blend increased, allowing for further control over self‐assembly. To understand the mechanism of this phenomenon, we present a novel field‐based supramolecular model, which describes the formation of copolymer‐additive complexes by reversible hydrogen bonding. The mean‐field phase separation behavior of the model was calculated using the random phase approximation (RPA). The RPA analysis reproduces behavior consistent with an increase of the effective χ in the PDMS‐b‐(PEO/LTA suprablock). © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016 , 54, 2200–2208     

Tailorable PC71BM Isomers: Using the Most Prevalent Electron Acceptor to Obtain High‐Performance Polymer Solar Cells

Despite being widely used as electron acceptor in polymer solar cells, commercially available PC₇₁BM (phenyl‐C₇₁‐butyric acid methyl ester) usually has a “random” composition of mixed regioisomers or stereoisomers. Here PC₇₁BM has been isolated into three typical isomers, α‐, β₁‐ and β₂‐PC₇₁BM, to establish the isomer‐dependent photovoltaic performance on changing the ternary composition of α‐, β₁‐ and β₂‐PC₇₁BM. Mixing the isomers in a ratio of α/β₁/β₂=8:1:1 resulted in the best power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.67 % for the polymer solar cells with PTB7:PC₇₁BM as photoactive layer (PTB7=poly[[4,8‐bis[(2‐ethylhexyl)oxy]benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]dithiophene‐2,6‐diyl][3‐fluoro‐2‐[(2‐ethylhexyl)carbonyl]thieno[3,4‐b]thiophenediyl]]). The three typical PC₇₁BM isomers, even though sharing similar LUMO energy levels and light absorption, render starkly different photovoltaic performances with average‐performing PCE of 1.28–7.44 % due to diverse self‐aggregation of individual or mixed PC₇₁BM isomers in the otherwise same polymer solar cells.     

Growth characteristics of spherical titanium oxide nanoparticles during the rapid gaseous detonation reaction

The nanosize grain growth characteristics of spherical single-crystal titanium oxide (TiO₂) during the rapid gaseous detonation reaction are discussed. Based on the experimental conditions and the Chapman–Jouguet theory, the Kruis model was introduced to simulate the growth characteristics of spherical TiO₂ nanoparticles obtained under high pressure, high temperature and by rapid reaction. The results show that the numerical analysis can satisfactorily predict the growth characteristics of spherical TiO₂ nanoparticles with diameters of 15–300 nm at different affecting factors, such as concentration of particles, reaction temperature and time, which are in agreement with the obtained experimental results. We found that the increase of the gas-phase reaction temperature, time, and particle concentration affects the growth tendency of spherical nanocrystal TiO₂, which provides effective theoretical support for the controllable synthesis of multi-scale nanoparticles.     

Salt effects on macrophase separations in non‐stoichiometric mixtures of oppositely charged macromolecules: Theory and experiment

In the field of biological applications, polyelectrolyte complexes are proposed to encapsulate bioactive compounds, to deliver drugs, and also to transfect genes into cells under the name of polyplexes. Complex formation is obtained by addition of a polycation solution into a polyanion solution or vice‐versa. This work proposes a theoretical approach to describe complex formation in the case of non‐stoichiometric mixtures of oppositely charged macroions having different degrees of ionization and different degrees of polymerization under different salt conditions. In a second part, comparison was made with experimental data collected when a weak polybase, namely poly(l ‐lysine) under its bromide form was added stepwise to solutions of various polyanions under their sodium salt form, namely poly(l ‐lysine citramide imide), poly(l ‐lysine citramide), and poly(β‐malic acid), the latter lacking hydroxyl groups attached to the main chain. The stability of stroichiometric complexes made of poly(l ‐lysine) and poly(l ‐lysine citramide) having different molecular masses is discussed. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2016 , 54, 1717–1730