Phase behavior of charge stablized colloid dispersion with added water soluble polymers

Demixing and colloidal crystallization in the mixture of charge stabilized colloidal poly(methyl methacrylate) particles and soluble poly(ethylene oxide) were investigated by means of synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) technique. Phase diagram of the mixture was obtained based on visual inspection and SAXS results. The phase behavior is determined as a function of the concentration of the polymer as well as the volume fraction of the colloidal particles. The system shows a one phase region when the concentration of the polymer is low, whereas a two-phase region is present when the concentration of the polymer is larger than a critical concentration at certain volume fraction of the colloids. Interestingly, a face centered cubic colloidal crystalline structure was formed under certain conditions, which has been rarely observed in experiments of colloid-polymer mixtures with competing interactions.     

An electrochemically prepared sky-blue light emitting ether functionalized polyfluorene as chemosensor for metal ions

Synthesis and electrochemical polymerization of 9,9-bis(2-(2-(2-methoxy ethoxy)ethoxy)ethyl)-fluorene(EO-F)into poly[9,9-bis(2-(2-(2-methoxy ethoxy)ethoxy)ethyl)-fluorene](EO-PF) films are reported. The boron trifluoride diethyl etherate electrolyte enables facile preparation of EO-PF films at lower potential compared to LiClO4/MeCN and the electrochemical polymerizations are discussed. The EO-PF shows good electrochemical behavior and can be dissolved in solvents such as DMSO and THF. The solubility of EO-PF in THF is 2 mg mL 1and the number average molecular weight is35300 with a polydispersity index of 1.65. The side chains on C9position of the monomer maintain unchanged after electrooxidation into corresponding polymer. The EO-PF dissolved in THF under 365 nm ultraviolet light is sky blue light emitting with the Commission Internationale de L Eclairage-CIE coordinates of(0.19, 0.15). The electropolymerized EO-PF is used for the first time in chemosensing metal ions, demonstrating fluorescence quenching for Mn2+and Fe3+while fluorescence enhancement for Cr6+ions.     

Crystal orientation and melting behavior of poly(ɛ-Caprolactone) under one-dimensionally “hard” confined microenvironment

Crystal orientation and melting behavior of poly(ε-caprolactone) in a diblock copolymer of poly(ε-caprolactone)-block-poly(2,5-bis[4-methoxyphenyl]oxycarbonyl)styrene) (PCL-b-PMPCS) was investigated. The degrees of polymerization of the PCL and PMPCS block are 200 and 98, respectively. With the PMPCS in a columnar liquid crystalline phase, the diblock is rod-coil one, which exhibits a lamellar phase morphology with the PCL layer thickness of 15.2 nm. Since the glass transition temperature of PMPCS block is much higher than the melting temperature of PCL, the crystallization of PCL is in a one-dimensionally "hard" confinement environment. Mainly on the basis of two-dimensional wide-angle X-ray diffraction experiments, we identified the orientation of PCL isothermally crystallized at various crystallization temperatures (Tcs). At high Tcs (Tc≥10℃), the c-axis of the PCL crystal is along the layer normal of the microphase-separated sturcture. Decreasing Tc can result in the tilting of PCL c-axis with respect to the layer normal. The lower the Tc is, the more the c-axis inclines. Meanwhile, the b-axis of PCL remains perpendicular to the layer normal. At a very low Tc of -78℃, the orientation of the PCL crystals is completely random. For the samples isothermally crystallized at Tc≤10℃, double melting behavior can be observed. While the low temperature endotherm reflects the melting of the crystals originally formed at the Tc applied, the high temperature one is associated with the crystals subjected to the process of recrystallization/reorganization upon heating due to the annealing effect.     

IN SITU OBSERVATION OF MELTING AND CRYSTALLIZATION BEHAVIORS OF POLY(ε-CAPROLACTONE) ULTRA-THIN FILMS BY AFM TECHNIQUE

The melting and crystallization behaviors of poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) ultra-thin films with thickness from 15 nm to 8 nm were studied by AFM technique equipped with a hot-stage in real-time. It was found that melting can erase the spherulitic structure for polymer film with high thickness. However, annealing above the melting point can not completely erase the tree-like structure for the thinner polymer film. Generally, the structure formation of thin polymer films of PCL is controlled not only by melting and crystallization but also by dewetting during thermal annealing procedures, and dewetting predominates in the structure formation of ultra-thin films. However, the presence of tree-like morphology at 75 °C may be due to the strong interaction between PCL and mica surface, which may stick the PCL chains onto the mica surface during thermal annealing process. Moreover, the growth of the dendrites was investigated and it was found that crystallization is followed from a dewetted sample, and the branches did not grow with the stems. The crystallization of polymer in the ultra-thin films is a diffusion-controlled process. Both melting and crystallization behaviors of PCL in thin films are influenced by film thickness.     

A real-time AFM study on crystal nucleation and growth in nanodroplets of isotactic polypropylene

Isotactic polypropylene (iPP) nanodroplets were prepared by using the classical droplet method in this study. The formation of nanodroplets allowed the controlled observation of polymer nucleation as well as access to crystal growth at exceptionally high supercooling in iPP. Three cases including the heterogeneous nucleation and fast crystallization in iPP droplets, the formation of multiple independent homogeneous nuclei within a single droplet and a single nucleus within a single droplet were detected by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) during gradually cooling after remelting the nanodroplets. Moreover, it is found that when the volume of droplet is larger than the value of ca. 130000 nm3, the first case was observed. Otherwise, the latter two cases appeared. The temperature at which the onset of nucleation was observed in individual droplets was found to be mainly dependent on height of the droplets when the size scale of the droplet is comparable to the size of the critical nucleus in at least one dimension, which indicates the nucleation behavior under confinement.     

Medical applications of biopolyesters polyhydroxyalkanoates

Microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates(PHAs) are a family of biopolyesters produced by many wild type and engineered bacteria.PHAs have diverse structures accompanied by flexible thermal and mechanical properties.Combined with their in vitro biodegradation,cell and tissue compatibility,PHAs have been studied for medical applications,especially medical implants applications,including heart valve tissue engineering,vascular tissue engineering,bone tissue engineering,cartilage tissue engineering,nerve conduit tissue engineering as well as esophagus tissue engineering.Most studies have been conducted in the authors’ lab in the past 20+ years.Recently,mechanism on PHA promoted tissue regeneration was revealed to relate to cell responses to PHA biodegradation products and cell-material interactions mediated by microRNA.Very importantly,PHA implants were found not to cause carcinogenesis during long-term implantation.Thus,PHAs should have a bright future in biomedical areas.     

Capability of DNA-fueled molecular machine in tuning association rate of DNA-functionalized gold nanoparticles

The capability of our newly developed DNA-machine-driven strategy in tuning the association rate of DNA-AuNPs was compared with that of linker-addition strategy which has potential practical applications in different fields. The new established strategy shows its superiority to the linker-addition strategy in tuning the association rate of DNA-AuNPs in both pre-incubation treatment and non-incubation treatment conditions since its two components (a complex and a catalyst-oligonucleotide) can be individually optimized to make the machine run at an optimal rate. This strategy will provide a more convenient and flexible option in designing an oligonucleotide detection system and building a complex and versatile device.     

Halonickel 2,4-di-t-butyl-6-(quinolin-8-yliminomethyl)phenolates: Synthesis, characterization and ethylene reactivity

A series of nickel halides bearing 2,4-di-t-butyl-6-(quinolin-8-yliminomethyl) phenolate ligands was synthesized and characterized by IR spectroscopy and elemental analysis.Molecular structures of C1(R = H,X = Br) and C2(R = H,X = Cl) were further confirmed by single-crystal X-ray crystallographic studies,and revealed a distorted square planar geometry at nickel.Upon activation with diethylaluminum chloride(Et 2 AlCl),all nickel pre-catalysts displayed good catalytic activity [up to 9.3 × 10 5 g mol 1(Ni) h 1 ] for ethylene oligomerization with major dimerization.In the presence of methylaluminoxane(MAO),the nickel complex C1 was capable of ethylene polymerization under 3 MPa,and produced polyethylene products with narrow polydispersity(1.16 1.73) and molecular weights in the range of 2.6 4.95 kg/mol.     

Influence of clay on the morphology and phase separation behavior of poly(methyl methacrylate)/poly(styrene-co-acrylonitrile) blends

The effect of clay on the morphology and phase-separation behavior of poly(methyl methacrylate)/poly(styreneco-acrylonitrile)(PMMA/SAN) blends and the variation of clay dispersion have been investigated. With the evolution of phase separation in PMMA/SAN, most of the clays are first located at the boundaries between PMMA and SAN, and then gradually move to the PMMA-rich domain, owing to the affinity of clay to PMMA. The introduction of clay causes the increase of binodal and spinodal temperatures of PMMA/SAN and enlarges their metastable region, indicating the phase stabilizing effect of clay on the matrix. But the influence of clay on the cloud points obviously depends on the composition of PMMA/SAN. The selective adsorption of PMMA on the clay results in the difference between the composition of surface layer and that of polymer matrix. Hence, the clay plays the role of an agent changing the conditions of phase structure formation.     

决策者具有(严格)凸性偏好结构下的一类交互式多目标决策方法

为了更好地解决决策者具有(严格)凸性偏好结构下的多目标决策问题,一般目标空间为有界凸域的情形常常可以转化为目标空间为有界闭凸区域的情形,首先分析了切割平面及该平面上偏好最优点与被切割平面分割成的为有界闭凸区域的目标空间或目标空间的子集的两个部分之间的关系;然后分析并指出了对于包含全局偏好最优目标方案点的为有界闭凸域的目标空间及其子集(准最优目标集),在确定了切割平面上的偏好最优点后,通过适当地选取供决策者与切割平面的偏好最优点进行比较判断的目标方案点,经过一次比较就可以确定一个新的范围更小的包含全局偏好最优目标方案点的目标空间的有界闭凸子区域(准最优目标集).为获取切割平面上的偏好最优点,提出了改进的坐标轮换法.在这些结论和方法的基础上,提出了决策者具有(严格)凸性偏好结构下的一类交互式多目标决策方法,要求决策者提供较易的偏好性息,决策效能较好.