Effect of Demulsifiers on Dilatational Properties of Crude Oil–Water Interfaces

The dilatational properties of polyether demulsifiers PEA, PEB, PEC, PED, PEF, and PEG at the decane-water interface were investigated. Meanwhile, the effect of demulsifiers with different structures on interfacial dilatational modulus of diluted crude oil also was explored. The properties of demulsifiers are compared and analyzed in combine with the dilatational parameters at decane-water interface and at 5% crude oil-water interface. The results show that interfacial dilatational viscoelasticity could characterize the interfacial behavior of demulsifiers. The demulsifiers, which have different kinds or structures, have different effects on destroying the interfacial film of crude oil with increasing bulk concentration. Therefore, the dosage of demulsifier is a very important role in controlling nature of crude oil film.     

Skin Constituents as Cosmetic Ingredients. Part II: A Study of Bio‐Mimetic Monoglycerides Behavior at the Squalene‐Water Interface by the “Pendant Drop” Method in a Dynamic Mode

This work aims at presenting the viscoelastic behavior of bio‐mimetic monoglycerides used as emulsifier in a mixture made of two non‐miscible liquids, squalene and water. The measurement of the interfacial tension, carried out by the “pendant drop” method in “dynamic” mode, made it possible to characterize these amphiphilic molecules according to the value of their elastic modulus, ?, as well as their relaxation time, τ_R.

The analysis of these parameters, as well as those developed in the previous publication [L. Blasco et al. (2006) Skin constituents as cosmetic ingredients. Part I: A Study of bio‐mimetic monoglyceride behavior at the squalene‐water interface by the “pendant drop” method in a static mode. J. Dispers. Sci. Technol., 27(6).] shows that the hydrocarbon chain structure, such as its length, the presence of one or more unsaturations, hydroxyl function, affects the behavior of surfactant molecules at the squalene/water interface.     

pH响应性P(MMA-co-MAA-co-HEMA)微凝胶的制备及其性能

利用预乳化乳液法制备了不同单体配比的聚(甲基丙烯酸甲酯-co-甲基丙烯酸-co-甲基丙烯酸羟乙酯)(P(MMA-co-MAA-co-HEMA))微凝胶分散液;采用透射电子显微镜、动态光散射仪研究了微凝胶的微观形态、粒径大小及其溶胀率;利用试管倒转法对微凝胶分散液的凝胶化相转变行为进行了研究,借助椎板流变仪考察了所形成胶态凝胶的储能模量与单体配比、微凝胶分散液浓度和温度的关系.结果表明,所制备的微凝胶的数均粒径为90 nm左右,当MMA与MAA的投料质量不变时,随着HEMA含量的增加,分散液凝胶化所需的临界最小浓度增大,临界最大pH值减小,胶态凝胶的储能模量增加.当保持单体MMA与HEMA的投料质量不变时,随着单体MAA投料质量的增多,微凝胶的数均粒径和溶胀率增大,胶态凝胶的储能模量先升高后降低;当MAA占单体总摩尔数的25%时,浓度为15 wt%的微凝胶分散液在扫描频率为100 rad/s时,胶态凝胶的储能模量最高可达2×104Pa.这类微凝胶分散液在组织工程支架材料方面有潜在的应用价值.     

复微分方程组的代数解

本文研究了一类复微分方程组的代数解的存在问题.利用最大模原理和Nevanlinna值分布理论,得到了一个结论,推广和改进了一些文献的结果,例子表明结论精确.     

Insulating Polymers as Additives to Bulk-Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells: The Effect of Miscibility

Adding insulating polymers to conjugated polymers is an efficient strategy to tailor their mechanical properties for flexible organic electronics. In this work, we selected two insulating polymers as additives for high-performance photoactive layers and investigated the mechanical and photovoltaic properties in organic solar cells (OSCs). The insulating polymers were found to reduce the electron mobilities in the photoactive layers, and hence the power conversion efficiencies were significantly decreased. More importantly, we found that the insulating polymers exhibited negative effect on the mechanical properties of the photoactive layers, with reduced Young's modulus and low crack onset strains. Further studies revealed that the insulating polymers had poor miscibility with the photoactive layers, providing large domains and more cavities in blend thin films, which act as negative effect for the tensile test. The studies indicate that rational selection of insulating polymers, especially enhancing the non-covalent interaction with the photoactive layers, will be critically important for the stretchable OSCs.     

New polymer electrolyte membrane for medium-temperature fuel cell applications based on cross-linked polyimide Matrimid and hydrophobic protic ionic liquid

New hydrophobic protic ionic liquid, 2-butylaminoimidazolinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (BAIM-TFSI), has been synthesized. The ionic liquid showed good thermal stability to at least 350 °C. The conductivity of BAIM-TFSI determined by electrochemical impedance method was found to be 5.6 × 10^?2 S/cm at 140 °C. Homogeneous composite films based on commercial polyimide (PI) Matrimid and BAIM-TFSI containing 30–60 wt% of ionic liquid were prepared by casting from methylene chloride solutions. Thermogravimetric analysis data indicated an excellent thermal stability of PI/BAIM-TFSI composites and thermal degradation points in the temperature range 377 °C–397 °C. The addition of ionic liquid up to 50 wt% in PI films does not lead to any significant deterioration of the tensile strength of the polymer. The dynamic mechanical analysis results indicated both an increase of storage modulus E′ of PI/BAIM-TFSI composites at room temperature and a significant E′ decrease with temperature compared with the neat polymer. The cross-linking of the PI with polyetheramine Jeffamine D-400 allowed to prepare PI/Jeffamine/BAIM-TFSI (50%) membrane with E′ value of 300 MPa at 130 °C. The ionic conductivity of this cross-linked composite membrane reached the level of 10^?2 S/cm at 130 °C, suggesting, therefore, its potential use in medium-temperature fuel cells operating in water-free conditions.     

Red Blood Cell Stiffness and Adhesion Are Species-Specific Properties Strongly Affected by Temperature and Medium Changes in Single Cell Force Spectroscopy

Besides human red blood cells (RBC), a standard model used in AFM-single cell force spectroscopy (SCFS), little is known about apparent Young’s modulus (Ea) or adhesion of animal RBCs displaying distinct cellular features. To close this knowledge gap, we probed chicken, horse, camel, and human fetal RBCs and compared data with human adults serving as a repository for future studies. Additionally, we assessed how measurements are affected under physiological conditions (species-specific temperature in autologous plasma vs. 25 °C in aqueous NaCl solution). In all RBC types, Ea decreased with increasing temperature irrespective of the suspension medium. In mammalian RBCs, adhesion increased with elevated temperatures and scaled with reported membrane sialic acid concentrations. In chicken only adhesion decreased with higher temperature, which we attribute to the lower AE-1 concentration allowing more membrane undulations. Ea decreased further in plasma at every test temperature, and adhesion was completely abolished, pointing to functional cell enlargement by adsorption of plasma components. This halo elevated RBC size by several hundreds of nanometers, blunted the thermal input, and will affect the coupling of RBCs with the flowing plasma. The study evidences the presence of a RBC surface layer and discusses the tremendous effects when RBCs are probed at physiological conditions.     

Light-Driven Crawling of Molecular Crystals by Phase-Dependent Transient Elastic Lattice Deformation

The light-driven crawling of a molecular crystal that can form three phases, (α, β, and γ) is presented. Laser irradiation of the molecular crystal can generate phase-dependent transient elastic lattice deformation. The resulting elastic lattice deformation that follows scanning irradiation of a laser can actuate the different phases of molecular crystal to move with different velocity and direction. Because the γ phase has a large Young's modulus (ca. 26 GPa), a force of 0.1 μN can be generated under one laser spot. The generated force is sufficient to actuate the γ-formed molecular crystals in a wide dimensional range to move longitudinally at a velocity of about 60 μm min⁻¹, which is two orders of magnitude faster than the α and β phases.     

Measurement of viscoelastic properties for polymers by nanoindentation

A new method has been proposed and verified to measure the viscoelastic properties of polymers by nanoindentation tests. With the mechanical response of load–displacement curves at different loading rates, the parameters of creep compliance and relaxation modulus are calculated through the viscoelastic contact model. Dynamic thermomechanical analysis (DMA) tests are conducted to compare the results by the proposed technique. The results show that the correlation coefficients between DMA tests and the new method are above 0.9 in the entire range, which verified the feasibility of the method. The loading curves fitted by the model are identical to the experimental curves within the discrete points and so it shows that this technique is more suitable for general linear viscoelastic materials. Numerical creep tests are carried out to examine the effectiveness of the proposed method by input the Prony series calculated by the three-element Maxwell model and the viscoelastic contact model. The good agreement shows that the proposed technique can be applied in practice.     

Changes in electronic,magnetic and bonding properties from Zr2FeH5 to Zr3FeH7 addressed from ab initio

Potential hydrogen storage ternaries Zr₃FeH₇ and Zr₂FeH₅, are studied from ab initio with the purpose of identifying changes in electronic structures and bonding properties. Cohesive energy trends: E_coh. (ZrH₂) > E_coh. (Zr₂FeH₅) > E_coh. (Zr₃FeH₇) > E_coh. (hypothetic-FeH) indicate a progressive destabilization of the binary hydride ZrH₂ through adjoined Fe so that Zr₃FeH₇ is found less cohesive than Zr₂FeH₅. From the energy volume equations of states EOS the volume increase upon hydriding the intermetallics leads to higher bulk moduli B₀ explained by the Zr/Fe–H bonding. Fe–H bond in Zr₂FeH₅ leads to annihilate magnetic polarization on Fe whereas Fe magnetic moment develops in Zr₃FeH₇ identified as ferromagnetic in the ground state. These differences in magnetic behaviors are due to the weakly ferromagnetic Fe largely affected by lattice environment, as opposed to strongly ferromagnetic Co. Hydrogenation of the binary intermetallics weakens the inter-metal bonding and favors the metal–hydrogen bonds leading to more cohesive hydrides as with respect to the pristine binaries. Charge analyses point to covalent like Fe versus ionic Zr and hydrogen charges ranging from covalent H^−0.27 to more ionic H^−0.5.