Use of blowing catalysts for integral skin polyurethane applications in a controlled molecular architectural environment: Synthesis and impact on ultimate physical properties

Polyurethane elastomers of a controlled molecular architecture were synthesized using a two‐step polymerization technique. The building blocks of the elastomeric materials included urea–urethane prepolymers end‐capped with diisocyanate groups and had an exact number of urea groups at both ends. Two‐dimensional bifurcated hydrogen‐bonding networks incorporating the urea groups were, with differential scanning calorimetric and dynamic mechanical thermal analyzer techniques, responsible for the increase in the glass‐transition temperature (T_g) of the hard block and sharp interface morphology between the pure “hard” domains and pure “soft” domains. The higher extent of the phase separation between the two phases contributed to higher elastic moduli for the hard blocks and higher tensile strength for the elastomeric samples. Higher elongation values were attributed to the liberation of the elastomeric chain ends that otherwise would have been constrained in the interface region. The higher T_g values of the hard blocks corresponded to an increase in the hardness values and a decrease in the tear‐strength values. The increase in the amount of urea groups within the hard segments, as a result of the increased amount of water and blowing catalyst, resulted in elastomeric foams with higher open‐cell content. This resulted in lower resilience values as measured using the pendulum rebound test and was attributed to the ability of the open cells to absorb and dissipate energy. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 40: 2526–2536, 2002     

The Orion Water-Hardness Electrode: An Unexpected Response to Magnesium Ion

Abstract

The Orion water-hardness electrode, while being used to measure magnesium ion activity in a series of calcium-free solutions, displayed some unanticipated changes in potential. As the overall potential change observed for one solution was 183 mV (equivalent to more than six orders of magnitude changes in magnesium-ion activity), several precautions are suggested which should be observed when using this electrode for specific purposes. In particular, it is recommended that the exchanger be pre-equilibrated with an appropriate solution if the electrode is to be used in restricted systems of known chemical composition.     

On percolation and ‐hardness

The edge‐percolation and vertex‐percolation random graph models start with an arbitrary graph G, and randomly delete edges or vertices of G with some fixed probability. We study the computational complexity of problems whose inputs are obtained by applying percolation to worst‐case instances. Specifically, we show that a number of classical ‐hard problems on graphs remain essentially as hard on percolated instances as they are in the worst‐case (assuming ). We also prove hardness results for other ‐hard problems such as Constraint Satisfaction Problems and Subset‐Sum, with suitable definitions of random deletions. Along the way, we establish that for any given graph G the independence number and the chromatic number are robust to percolation in the following sense. Given a graph G, let be the graph obtained by randomly deleting edges of G with some probability . We show that if is small, then remains small with probability at least 0.99. Similarly, we show that if is large, then remains large with probability at least 0.99. We believe these results are of independent interest.     

一种新型多元共聚含氟丙烯酸树脂的制备及性能研究

以含氟丙烯酸酯与几种不同结构丙烯酸酯单体为原料,采用常规的自由基引发溶液聚合反应,制备了一种新型疏水低表面能丙烯酸树脂。并以水接触角和铅笔硬度两项指标考察其应用性能。经固化成膜后,聚合物膜与水的接触角达到118.5°,铅笔硬度达到F等级以上。系统研究了涂膜与水接触角和铅笔硬度的主要影响因素,可通过调节单体投料比来调控接触角和铅笔硬度来适应不同实际应用领域的技术指标需求。这种具有力学强度的疏水涂层具有很大的应用价值。     

Structure-Property Dependence of Copolymers Prepared by Cationic Polymerization

α-Methylstyrene/isobutene, α-methylstyrene/diisobutene, cyclopentadiene/isobutene, and cyclopentadiene/α-methylstyrene were copolymerized by cationic polymerization techniques. Several properties of the copolymers such as softening ranges and oxidation stability depend on their constitutional composition, and were controlled by variation of the conditions of their synthesis.     

二氧化钛含量对铈稳定立方氧化锆陶瓷的性能影响

本文用无压烧结法成功制备了高硬度的立方氧化锆陶瓷,研究了氧化锆陶瓷的物相,Vickers硬度,显微结构,相对密度等性能,主要分析了TiO2添加量对Zr0.8Ce0.2O2陶瓷硬度和相对密度的影响。结果表明:烧结助剂TiO2可以有效抑制陶瓷晶粒异常生长,加快气孔排除,促进氧化锆陶瓷烧结致密化,提高陶瓷硬度。最高维氏硬度为20.2 GPa,最高相对密度达到了99.8%。     

Ho3+/Yb3+共掺ZnO-Al2O3-GeO2-SiO2玻璃陶瓷的制备和上转换发光性质

综合ZnO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂系和锗酸盐玻璃陶瓷的优点,采用熔融-晶化法首次制备了Ho³⁺/Yb³⁺共掺以ZnAl₂O₄为主晶相的ZnO-Al₂O₃-GeO₂-SiO₂系玻璃陶瓷。因[GeO₄]四面体和[SiO₄]四面体都是玻璃网络形成体,讨论了GeO₂取代SiO₂对玻璃陶瓷样品硬度及发光性能的影响,最终确定GeO₂的取代量为10.55%（w/w）时,玻璃陶瓷综合性能最佳。在980 nm泵浦光的激发下,发现强的绿色（546 nm）和弱的红色（650 nm）上转换发光,并研究了不同Ho³⁺/Yb³⁺掺杂比对样品上转换发光的影响,最终结果表明当Ho³⁺/Yb³⁺掺杂比为1：11（n/n）时样品荧光强度最强,在绿色上转换发光材料方面具有潜在的应用。     

Hardness and slip systems of orthorhombic hen egg-white lysozyme crystals

Hardness and slip systems by an indentation method were investigated on different habit planes of orthorhombic hen egg-white lysozyme (O-HEWL) crystals containing water. A dependence of the hardness on the water-evaporation time exhibits three stages as incubation, transition and saturated ones, as tetragonal (T)-HEWL crystals reported previously. The hardness values of (1 1 0), (0 1 0) and (0 1 1) habit planes of O-HEWL in the incubation stage or wet condition exhibits 6, 8 and 10 MPa, respectively. The hardness depends on indented planes but it is independent of the air-humidity and crystal volumes. These values correspond to the intrinsic hardness for O-HEWL crystals containing water. In the incubation stage, the slip traces are clearly observed around the indentation mark and the corresponding six kinds of slip systems are identified to be {0 1 1}<1 0 0>, {1 1 0}<1 1 0>, {0 1 1}<0 1 1>, {1 1 0}<0 0 1>, {1 0 0}<0 0 1> and {0 1 0}<0 0 1>.     

Inverse Hall–Petch like behaviour in a mechanically milled nanocrystalline Al5Fe2 intermetallic phase

In the present investigation, the indentation study on the high-energy ball-milled nanocrystalline Al₅Fe₂ intermetallic compound has established the inverse Hall–Petch (IHP) behaviour. The structural characterisation of the milled powder particles by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy has shown the evolution of nanocrystalline phase. Micro-indentation measurements have revealed the increase in hardness with decreasing grain size, reaching to a maximum of 9.0 ± 0.3 GPa up to a grain size of 32 ± 4 nm, followed by a decrease. The decrease in hardness with further refinement, an indication of grain size softening, demonstrates the IHP-like behaviour. The deviation from the Hall–Petch behaviour has been discussed using various models based on the dislocations and grain boundary-mediated processes. From the analysis, it appears that the model based on mesocopic grain boundary sliding phenomena is more appropriate to account for the observed grain size softening.