Characterization of thermo-oxidative stability of polymer optical fibers using chemiluminescence technique

The thermo-oxidative stability of commercially available polymer optical fibers (POFs) and their components (cores and claddings) was investigated. All the bare POFs (core and cladding only) studied here were based on poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) core. The fibers were exposed to 100 °C/low humidity for about 4200 h. Chemiluminescence (CL) technique was applied to investigate the thermo-oxidative stability and for measuring the transmission loss during exposure a prototype device called multiplexer was used. POFs exhibited variation in thermo-oxidative stability although they possessed identical core material PMMA. This was due to difference in the chemical compositions of claddings. Claddings were more susceptible to the thermo-oxidative degradation compared to cores. The thermo-oxidative degradation of both the cladding and the core was found in POFs as a result of climatic exposure. POFs showed an early drop-off followed by a slow decline of transmission. The early drop-off of transmission was attributed to physical changes like thermal expansion and the slow decline of transmission to chemical changes like oxidative degradation of POFs. A good linear relationship between optical transmission stability and thermo-oxidative stability of POFs was established from these studies.     

量化方法研究分子结BEMP和TEMP的电子输运特性

通过结合杂化密度泛函和前线轨道理论与弹性散射格林函数方法研究了BE- MP(benzene-1,4-di-ethynyl-4-mercaptophenyl)和TEMP(thiophene-2,5-di-ethynyl-4- mercaptophenyl)两分子结的输运性质。基于杂化密度泛函方法计算两扩展分子电子结构的基础上,计算了两分子的输运性质．计算结果显示:电流增加来源于电极和分子轨道的共振;电导曲线呈现出平台特征．在此基础上从扩展分子A(Au-BEMP-Au)中间的苯环的旋转而引起电流减小的角度解释了负微分电阻现象．     

Structural and Chemical Analysis of Materials with High Spatial Resolution

 An understanding of the correlation between microstructures and properties of materials require the characterization of the material on many different length scales. Often the properties depend primarily on the atomistics of defects, such as dislocations and interfaces. The different techniques of transmission electron microscopy allow the characterization of the structure and of the chemical composition of materials with high spatial resolution to the atomic level: high resolution transmission electron microscopy allows the determination of the position of the columns of atoms (ions) with high accuracy. The accuracy which can be achieved in these measurements depends not only on the instrumentation but also on the quality of the transmitted specimen and on the scattering power of the atoms (ions) present in the analyzed column. The chemical composition can be revealed from investigations by analytical microscopy which includes energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, mainly quantitatively applied for heavy elements, and electron energy-loss spectroscopy. Furthermore, the energy-loss near-edge structure of EELS data results in information on the local band structure of unoccupied states of the excited atoms and, therefore, on bonding. A quantitative evaluation of convergent beam electron diffraction results in information on the electron charge density distribution of the bulk (defect-free) material. The different techniques are described and applied to different problems in materials science. It will be shown that nearly atomic resolution can be achieved in high resolution electron microscopy and in analytical electron microscopy. Recent developments in electron microscopy instrumentation will result in atomic resolution in the foreseeable future.     

Field-induced structural ordering in electrorheological fluids

Structural relaxations of an electrorheological fluid (ERF) due to changes in the applied electrical field strength or shear rate are observed on time scales 1 s<t<40 000 s. Commercial ERFs consisting of mesoscopic polyurethane particles in a silicone oil matrix were studied by three different experimental techniques in order to obtain and compare the characteristic relaxation times. It is demonstrated that dielectric spectroscopy, viscosimetry and light transmission experiments represent the same results concerning the structural relaxation phenomena of ERFs when electrical fields are applied. The tendency of strong induced dipoles to align the particles in the direction of the field increases the effective dipole moment and therefore , the shear viscosity and the amount of light transmitted along the field direction in an ITO/glass sandwich cell. The optical experiment is capable of resolving fast processes within the first 1 ms if large electrical fields are applied. The effects of electrophoresis and shearing, which both counteract the field induced structures, are also addressed.     

Electron and light microscopical investigation of defect structures in mesophases of pharmaceutical substances

 Transmission electron microscopy of freeze fractured and replicated samples (TEM) and polarizing light microscopy (PLM) are used to investigate the defect structures of the thermotropic and lyotropic mesophases of the non-steroidal antiinflammatory drug fenoprofen sodium and of the thermotropic mesophase of the nonionic surfactant sucrose oleate (O1570). All mesophases have a layered, smectic structure. The thermotropic liquid crystal of feno-profen sodium is an interdigitated smectic A phase (smectic Ad) having the highest viscosity of the investigated samples. The thermotropic mesophase of the sugar ester is also of the type smectic A, likely to be of subtype smectic A2 (bilayered smectic structure). The lyotropic mesophase is of lamellar liquid crystalline nature and has a much lower viscosity than the thermotropic mesophases. In the PLM the lyotropic fenoprofen mesophase has a strong tendency to form a pseudoisotropic texture, indicating a strong tendency to form undisturbed layered structures. Other textures exhibited in the PLM are fan-shaped texture and maltese-cross texture. Confocal domains, cylinders, pits and peaks as well as screw dislocations are found in great number in the TEM. However, no greater regions of undisturbed lamellar arrangement in the lyotropic mesophase could be detected. The only texture of the thermotropic fenoprofen mesophase visible in the PLM is the fan-shaped texture, indicating confocal domains as predominant structural elements. However, no confocal domains (tori or Dupin cyclides) are found in the TEM. In the PLM the sugar–ester mesophase exhibited a fan-shaped texture, maltese crosses and oily streaks as dominant textures. In the TEM only a few +π and −π disclinations and imperfect confocal domains could be detected. The discrepancies in the appearance of defect structures and textures between the mesophases as well as the discrepancies in the findings in the PLM and in the TEM investigations are caused by the different sample preparation and the different viscosities of the mesophases. Received: 28 May 1997 Accepted: 2 September 1997     

DFT study of the conductance of molecular wire:The effect of coupling geometry and intermolecular interaction on the transport properties

The density functional theory (DFT) combining with the non-equilibrium Green functions (NEGF) method is applied to the study of the electronic transport properties for a Di-thiol-benzene (DTB) molecule coupled to two Au(111) surfaces. The dependence of the transport properties on the bias, the coupling geometry of the molecule-electrode interface, and the intermolecular interaction are examined in detail. The results show that the existence of the hydrogen atom at the end of the DTB molecule would significantly decrease the transmission coefficients, and then the differential conductance (dI/dV). By changing the position of the DTB molecule located between two electrodes a maximum value of calculated current is observed. It is also found that the intermolecular interaction will strongly influence the transport properties of the system studied.     

Energy filtered transmission electron microscopy for the physico-chemical characterization of aquatic submicron colloids

A combination of energy filtered transmission electron microscopic (EF-TEM) procedures is proposed for the non-perturbing physico-chemical characterization of submicron mineral and organic colloids in aquatic systems. Synthetic hematite microparticles and xanthan polysaccharides were used as well-characterized model colloids in order to determine the optimum EF-TEM analysis conditions. In this paper, it is demonstrated that (i) our model colloids are morphologically representative of naturally occurring mineral/organic associations, (ii) EF-TEM allows the detection of fine xanthan ultrastructures without artefacts of conventional staining methods and (iii) submicron hematite particles can be specifically visualized and spectrometrically measured by EF-TEM within a hematite/xanthan mixture. This EF-TEM procedure appears to be appropriate for the characterization of real aquatic samples.     

Synthesis and characterization of polystyrene‐b‐poly (1,2‐isoprene‐ran‐3,4‐isoprene) block copolymers with azobenzene side groups

Polystyrene‐b‐poly(1,2‐isoprene‐ran‐3,4‐isoprene) block copolymers with azobenzene side groups were synthesized by the esterification of azobenzene acid chloride with polystyrene‐b‐hydroxylated poly(1,2‐isoprene‐ran‐3,4‐isopenre) block copolymers for creating new photochromic materials. The resulting block copolymers with azobenzene side groups were characterized for structural, thermal, and morphological properties. IR and NMR spectroscopies confirmed that the polymers obtained had the expected structures. Differential scanning calorimetric measurements by heating runs clearly showed the glass transitions of polystyrene and polyisoprene main chains and two distinct first‐order transitions at temperatures of azobenzene side groups around 48 and 83 °C. The microstructure of these block copolymer films was investigated using both transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and near‐field optical microscopy (NOM). TEM images revealed typical microphase‐separated morphologies such as sphere, cylinder, and lamellar structures. The domain spacing of microphase‐separated cylindrical morphology in the NOM image agreed with that of the TEM results. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 40: 2406–2414, 2002     

The Crystal Structure of Sr2TiSi2O8

Sr₂TiSi₂O₈ single crystals were grown by Czochralski pulling and from a high-temperature solution. X-ray diffractometry revealed the modulated crystal structure of Sr₂TiSi₂O₈ to belong to the 5D superspace group P4bm (−α, α, 1/2; α, α, 1/2) with α=0.3. Atomic positions, anisotropic displacement factors and positional modulation parameters for Sr₂TiSi₂O₈ are determined and discussed. The positional modulation is further investigated by electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. In the latter experiments, the 2D modulation appears to be superimposed by some 1D modulation waves. This effect is discussed in terms of growth conditions.