Effect of Electron Beam Irradiation on the Kinetics of Non-isothermal Crystallization of Nylon 66

The non-isothermal crystallization kinetics was studied by differential scanning calorimetric analysis on nylon 66 and e-beam irradiated nylon 66 at different cooling rates. The Modified Avrami equation, the Ozawa equation and the Combined Avrami-Ozawa equation were applied to study the kinetics of non-isothermal crystallization of nylon 66. The crystallization behavior of pristine nylon 66 polymer was compared with that of e-beam irradiated nylon 66 and observed that the kinetics of non-isothermal crystallization of nylon66 was affected largely upon e-beam irradiation. E-beam irradiation not only decreased the crystallization temperature of nylon 66, but influenced the mechanism of nucleation and crystal growth and reduced the overall crystallization rate of nylon 66 also. The crystallization activation energy calculated by the Kissinger method for irradiated nylon 66 was lower than that of pristine nylon 66.     

Effect of the Presence of an Ester of Montanic Acids With Multifunctional Alcohols in the Composites of Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles With Poly (Ethylene Terephthalate) in Their Non-Isothermal Crystallization

The effect of the addition of an ester of montanic acid with multifunctional alcohols in the effectiveness of the dispersion and compatibility of TiO₂ nanoparticles when included as filler in poly(ethyleneterephthalate) for composite production is studied through the study of the non-isothermal crystallization by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The application of the Avrami method enables to evaluate the compatibility and the level of dispersion/aggregation of the nanofiller in the poly(ethyleneterephthalate) by the analysis of the temperature and enthalpy of crystallization, the kinetic parameters and the half-crystallization time.     

高酸位多级孔超稳Y型沸石的制备及催化性能

以表面活性剂十六烷基三甲基溴化铵（CTABr）为模板剂,在水热体系对水蒸气处理后的超稳Y型（USY）沸石进行晶化处理,获得高酸量和高水热稳定性的USY-c-w样品。利用X射线衍射、扫描电子显微镜、透射电子显微镜、固态核磁共振、N₂吸附-脱附、NH₃-程序升温脱附、傅里叶变换红外光谱及吡啶红外对所制备催化剂的物化性质进行详细表征。选用1,3,5-三异丙苯（TIPB）催化裂化作为探针反应,研究制备的催化剂的催化性能,并与工业USY沸石进行对比。结果表明,再次水热晶化后,样品的硅铝骨架局部重构,非骨架铝重新进入沸石骨架,合成样品的硅铝比（n_SiO2/n_Al2O3）由10降至3.0;再晶化后的USY沸石,不仅具有丰富的介孔结构,并且具有更多的弱酸和中强酸位点。在TIPB裂解反应中,再晶化后的USY沸石表现出比原样品更优异的催化性能。     

CoTiO3微晶水热生长机理及结晶动力学研究

采用水热法以TiCl3和Co(CH3COO)2.4H2O为主要原料制备出CoTiO3微晶。利用X射线衍射、透射电子显微镜对产物进行表征,重点研究了晶体的生长规律及结晶动力学。结果表明水热条件下CoTiO3晶体的生长过程是:水热温度为220℃时,晶核首先析出并沿平面铺展;随着反应时间的延长或水热温度的升高,晶核逐渐长大形成类似六边形的片状晶粒;280℃时晶粒开始沿垂直于片层的方向逐层堆积生长,最终形成菱面体晶粒。结晶动力学研究显示:水热条件下,CoTiO3晶体成核速率及生长速率均随温度升高而增长,其成核活化能和表观生长活化能分别为89.18 kJ.mol-1和50.56 kJ.mol-1。     

Non-superimposable mirror image crystals of enantiomers by spontaneous resolution and the chiral discrimination mechanism

Non-superimposable mirror image crystals of both enantiomers(S/R) of cyclicγ-alkenyl alcohol(2) have been recognized and remarkably identified by the naked eye.More interestingly,both crystals are an outcome of most astonishingly H-bond and intermolecularσ/π-πinteractions.They accounted for the relatively rare and less predictable spontaneous resolution with optical purity >99%ee from the racemic mixture.The chiral discrimination mechanism of this spontaneous resolution has also been proposed.     

流变-导电同步测试法研究炭黑填充高密度聚乙烯的等温结晶行为

采用流变-导电同步测试法,研究炭黑(CB)填充高密度聚乙烯(HDPE)在124.3～125.3℃范围的等温结晶行为,发现应变、频率与预降温速率均显著影响等温结晶过程中动态流变与导电行为.动态储能模量(G')与电阻均在结晶过程中发生显著变化.其中,CB粒子在熔体中发生扩散,造成原有逾渗网络结构破坏,导致复合体系电阻在结晶诱导期内增大.随结晶度增加,G'在结晶诱导期附近开始显著增大,其临界时间对应1%～2%相对结晶度;同时,CB粒子在无定形区相互聚集而形成渗流网络结构,使得复合体系电阻显著降低.电阻的变化被认为与CB粒子在熔体中的迁移以及在HDPE晶体生长过程中的聚集行为有关,且比依时性动态流变行为更敏感.     

Monitoring the liquid phase concentration by Raman spectroscopy in a polymorphic system

In this work, Raman spectroscopy was successfully used for the quantitative determination of the liquid phase concentration in an aqueous polymorphic system of D‐mannitol. An extensive study has initially been performed to identify the influence of the solid state, e.g. particle size, particle amount, and different polymorphs, on the intensity of the characteristic Raman solute signal. It was found that the existence of solid phase can decrease Raman intensity, and this influence is more significant when the suspension density is higher, e.g. with smaller size and larger amount of particles. Based on this information, a large number of samples were examined by Raman spectroscopy in the form of clear solutions and suspensions. The spectral preprocessing and partial least squares (PLS) regression were then used to relate the solute concentrations to these spectral data, independent of solid state. Several PLS calibration models were developed with different treatments to the spectral data, and the optimized strategy was finally demonstrated. Particularly, a reference peak at 578 cm⁻¹ related to the sapphire in the Raman probe window was innovatively applied to reduce the influences from the equipment and other external variations, with which the full‐spectrum PLS model was seen to give more stable results rather than partial spectral regions. The optimized model was subsequently applied to predict the liquid phase concentration in a multiphase multicomponent dynamic process, the solvent mediated polymorphic transformation (SMPT) of mannitol, and it was shown that the offline measurements and the predicted values were mainly in agreement with one another. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Advanced multicanonical Monte Carlo methods for efficient simulations of nucleation processes of polymers

The investigation of freezing transitions of single polymers is computationally demanding, since surface effects dominate the nucleation process. In recent studies we have systematically shown that the freezing properties of flexible, elastic polymers depend on the precise chain length. Performing multicanonical Monte Carlo simulations, we faced several computational challenges in connection with liquid–solid and solid–solid transitions. For this reason, we developed novel methods and update strategies to overcome the arising problems. We introduce novel Monte Carlo moves and two extensions to the multicanonical method.     

The acquirement of desirable dielectric properties of carbon nanofiber composites based on the controlled crystallization

This study focused on uncovering the relationship among nanofiller, crystallization behavior, and dielectric property of polymer composites. The effects of carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and heat treatment on the crystalline structures and dielectric properties of the semi‐crystalline polymers were analyzed by using high density polyethylene (HDPE) as a matrix, which is a representative of non‐polar polymer and contains only one crystal structure. The experimental results showed that the degree of crystallinity, size distribution of crystallity, and relative amount of different crystal planes in the HDPE matrix were changing due to the addition of CNFs. With the increase of CNF loading, the dielectric constant, dielectric loss and AC conductivity of the HDPE composites were increased, presenting a typical percolation characteristic, and the dependence of the dielectric constant on frequency became more obvious. All kinds of electronic transmission, polarization effect, and relaxation behaviors in CNF/HDPE composite system were deeply analyzed. After heat treatment, the degree of crystallinity of HDPE composites was decreased with the enhanced cooling rate. For the CNF/HDPE composites with nanofiller content slightly higher than the percolation threshold, the significant increase of the dielectric constant and the dramatical reduction of the dielectric loss over a wide frequency range were realized simultaneously through rapid cooling treatment. The research indicated that a general commercial polymer material with excellent dielectric properties, which exhibited a high dielectric constant and a low dielectric loss, can be obtained by a simple technical approach different from traditional fabrication method of threshold composites.     

Crystallization behavior and morphology of β‐nucleated isotactic polypropylene with different stereo‐defect distribution

Aiming at further investigating the combination effect of concentration of β‐nucleating agent (β‐NA) and stereo‐defect distribution on the crystallization behavior of β‐nucleated isotactic polypropylene (β‐iPP), in this study, the crystallization behavior and polymorphic morphology of twoβ‐iPP resins with nearly same average isotacticity (PP‐A and PP‐B) but different uniformities of stereo‐defect distribution were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD) and polarized optical microscopy (POM). The results of DSC and WAXD showed that the addition of TMB‐5 increases the crystallization temperature and decreases the spherulite sizes of both PP‐A and PP‐B, and reduces their crystallization energy barriers as well; however, the polymorphic behaviors of PP‐A and PP‐B exhibit different dependence on the TMB‐5 concentration. For PP‐A with less uniform distribution of stereo‐defects, β‐phase can be observed only when the TMB‐5 concentration is no less than 0.1 wt.%, while for PP‐B with more uniform stereo‐defect distribution, addition of 0.01 wt.% TMB‐5 can induce the formation of β‐phase. Moreover, the analysis of POM indicated that the crystalline morphologies of both PP‐A and PP‐B change greatly with the TMB‐5 concentration, and the variation features of PP‐A and PP‐B are quite different from each other. PP‐B with more uniform stereo‐defect distribution was more favorable for the formation of large amount of β‐phase in the presence of wide concentration range of TMB‐5. The different polymorphic behaviors and their different dependences on the β‐NA concentration were related to the different uniformities of stereo‐defect distribution of the samples, since the distribution of stereo‐defects could restrain the regular insertion of molecular chains during crystallization and thus determine the tendency the α‐phase crystallization of the sample. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.