The physical aging phenomenon of 6FDA‐durene polyimide hollow fiber membranes

The aging phenomenon of asymmetric 6FDA‐durene polyimide hollow fibers spun with different shear rates for gas separation has been investigated. The permeances and selectivities of different gases, such as H₂, O₂, N₂, CH_4, and CO₂, were experimentally determined as a function of time for around five months at room temperature. It was found that the gas permeation fluxes of the uncoated and silicone rubber‐coated hollow fibers decreased significantly during the first 30 days following fabrication and then slightly deteriorated thereafter. In the early stage of aging, because of different molecular orientations and skin morphologies induced by shear rates, the percentage of permeance drop for uncoated fibers increased with increasing shear rates, then decreased with increasing shear rates. The permeance of 6FDA‐durene hollow fibers coated with silicone rubber dropped more significantly than the uncoated fibers, implying that silicone rubber coating did affect the aging behavior. This might be due to the fact that silicone rubber layer hindered the molecular relaxation and tightened interface molecules between the dense selective layer and silicone rubber, thus the selectivity increased with aging. Thermal analysis data suggest two processes occurring simultaneously during the aging: one is the relaxation of shear oriented chains, and the other is the densification of chain packing through the reduction of interstitial space among chains. The former has been confirmed by an increase in CTE, while the latter was confirmed by an increase in the peak of β‐relaxation temperature. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 38: 765–775, 2000     

Rheological behavior and prediction for blending conditions of a thermotropic liquid crystalline polyester with nylon

The dynamic rheological behavior of a liquid crystalline polymer (LCP), Vectra™ A, and nylons was investigated. The viscosities of nylon 66 and nylon 6 decrease slowly with an increase in temperature, while the viscosity of Vectra A drops dramatically at 280 °C, but remains slightly changed above 300 °C. At constant frequency and above 300 °C, the mean value of the activation energy of Vectra A is about 87.0 kJ/mole, but jumps to a much higher value of about 407.0 kJ/mole if the melt temperature is below 300 °C. The activation energy of Vectra A above 300 °C is lower than nylon 66, which shows that the viscosity of nylon 66 has a greater temperature dependence than Vectra A. The viscosity ratio of Vectra A to Nylon 66 is less than 1 at temperatures higher than 290 °C, which indicates that Vectra A can form the fibrils in the nylon 66 matrix and reinforce nylon 66 when blending them above this temperature. Experimental data confirm our prediction. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Trees with the minimum Wiener number

The Wiener number (𝒲) of a connected graph is the sum of distances for all pairs of vertices. As a graphical invariant, it has been found extensive application in chemistry. Considering the family of trees with n vertices and a fixed maximum vertex degree, we derive some methods that can strictly reduce 𝒲 by shifting leaves. And then, by a process, we prove that the dendrimer on n vertices is the unique graph reaching the minimum Wiener number. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 78: 331–340, 2000     

Artocarpol A,a Novel Constituent with Potent Anti‐inflammatory Effect,Isolated from Artocarpus rigida

A novel phenolic compound, artocarpol A ( 1 ), was isolated from the root bark of Artocarpus rigida and its structure determined by spectroscopic methods and by comparison with its diacetate derivative. Compound 1 strongly inhibited superoxide formation in phorbol 12‐myristate 13‐acetate (PMA) stimulated rat neutrophils in a concentration‐dependent manner with an IC₅₀ value of 13.7±0.7 μM . Compound 1 also showed a significant inhibitory effect on tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α) formation in lipopolysaccharide(LPS)‐stimulated RAW 264.7 cells.