Improvement of the properties of polyarylate reinforced with liquid crystalline polymers

Blends of polyarylate of bisphenol A, PAr, with two commercial main chain liquid crystalline polymers, Vectra A950 and Vectra B950, are studied. From dynamic viscoelastic measurements it is deduced that both systems (PAr/Vectra A950 and PAr/Vectra B950) are immiscible and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs show the presence of spherical domains of the liquid crystalline polymer when PAr constitutes the matrix. Extrusion capillary measurements reveal that, under conditions of temperature and shear rate similar to those of processing, the viscosity is reduced to approximately 10% of its value when the content of liquid crystalline polymer is only 20%. This great improvement of the rheological properties is observed in both PAr/Vectra A950 and PAr/Vectra B950 blends. The effect of draw ratio on Young's modulus for different compositions is also analyzed, pointing out the reinforcing action of both liquid crystalline polymers on polyarylate: for instance, 20% of Vectra B950 in the blend gives rise to a 700% increase of the modulus of fibres prepared at a draw ratio of 50. SEM of the extrudates reveals that the spherical domains are elongated at the entrance of the capillary giving rise to a microfibrillar morphology which is related to the excellent rheological and mechanical properties of the blends.     

Regular Approximations of Singular Sturm-Liouville Problems with Limit-Circle Endpoints

For any self-adjoint realization S of a singular Sturm-Liouville equation on an interval (a,b) with limit-circle endpoints, we construct a family of self-adjoint realizations S _r ,r ∈ (0,∞), of this equation on subintervals (a _r ,b _r ) of (a,b) such that every eigenvalue of S is the limit of a continuous eigenvalue branch of this family. Of particular interest are the cases when at least one endpoint is oscillatory or the leading coefficient function changes sign. In these cases, we show that the index determining each continuous eigenvalue branch has an infinite number of jump discontinuities and give an explicit characterization of these discontinuities.     

A rheological analysis of interactions in phenoxy/organoclay nanocomposites

Novel oscillatory flow results of phenoxy/organoclay nanocomposites are analysed considering the blocking effect of nanostructure on polymer chain mobility. The modification provoked by this hindering effect on loss tangent spectrum is investigated. The study of three different systems, involving a pristine montmorillonite and two montmorillonites modified with one alkyl tail and two alkyl tails, respectively, leads to conclude that polymer-alkyl repulsive interactions play the most important role in the chain mobility obstruction process. Our results suggest that polymer-alkyl interactions increase with temperature.     

A new polymorph of tetraphenyldiboroxane

A new polymorph of tetraphenyldiboroxane [or oxybis(diphenylborane)], C₂₄H₂₀B₂O, (Ia), has been found. It is monoclinic, like the already known form, (Ib), and can be refined in the same space group, namely P2₁/c, or in the equivalent setting P2₁/n. The molecular conformations of the two polymorphs differ in the rotations of two of the phenyl rings about the B—C bonds, leading to markedly different packing patterns and cell dimensions.     

Thermochemically induced binding of methyl orange to polycations containing primary amine groups

The thermochemical transformation of electrostatically formed complexes of methyl orange (MO) with polycations containing primary amine groups such as ammonium salts afforded new polymers with a high concentration of covalently bound 4‐N,N‐dimethylaminoazobenzene groups in the side chain. Poly(allylamine hydrochloride) and poly(β‐aminoethylene acrylamide hydrochloride) were employed as support polycations for MO. The transformation of sulfonate–ammonium ion pairs into sulfonamide bonds, via heating at an elevated temperature, was supported by the polymer properties before and after the thermal treatment. The polymer structure changes were monitored with elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared, ¹H NMR, and ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. The spacer length between the backbone and azobenzene structures used as side chains strongly influenced the polymer properties before and after the heat‐induced reaction. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 5898–5908, 2006     

Lefschetz Formulae for p-Adic Groups

In this paper,Lefschetz formulae for torus actions on p-adic groups are proven. These are similar to comparable formulae for real Lie groups.Applications lie in the realm of dynamical zeta functions.     

Quasielastic nucleon and hyperon production by neutrinos and antineutrinos with energies below 30 GeV

The cross sections of neutrino and antineutrino quasielastic reactions \(vn \to \mu ^ - p,\bar vp \to \mu ^ + n,\bar vp \to \mu ^ + \Lambda\) were studied in the neutrino energy range between 3 and 30 GeV. In comparison withV-A theory axial mass parameters ofM _A =(1.06±0.05±0.14) GeV/c² from neutrino andM _A =(0.71±0.10±0.20) GeV/c² from antineutrino data were found. The total cross-section for the hyperon production process can be described byM _A =1.0 GeV/c².