Synthesis and thermal behaviour of salicylaldimine-based liquid crystalline symmetrical dimers

A series of symmetrical dimers consisting of salicylaldimine moieties connected by flexible alkylene central spacer via ether linkages has been synthesized. In order to validate the empirical rule suggested by Date et al. to account for the smectic behaviour of such dimers, the chain length of the terminal alkoxy chain has been kept constant (C₈) while the number of methylene units in the central spacer was varied from C₃ to C₁₁. Another aim of the present investigation was to understand structure-property relationship in these dimers in which the salicylaldimine mesogenic segment has been used for the first time in dimers. The mesomorphic behaviour of these dimers was evaluated using optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry and the structure of some of the mesophases has been further investigated with the help of X-ray diffraction. Our studies reveal that the dimers consisting of 3 to 8 methylene units in the flexible spacer show only smectic (smectic C and smectic A) phases. For the dimers containing 4, 6 and 8 methylene units in the central spacer, a unique filament growth pattern has been observed in the smectic A phase while cooling from the isotropic phase. The dimers containing of C₉ to C₁₁ methylene groups exhibit the nematic phase in addition to smectic modifications. This observation indicates that when the terminal chains are shorter than the spacer, the tendency to form smectic phases is not fully extinguished but is perhaps reduced.     

Photothermal techniques applied to the determination of the water vapor diffusion coefficient and thermal diffusivity of edible films.

Water vapor diffusion coefficient (WVDC) and thermal diffusivity (alpha) were determined in gelatin-starch films through photothermal techniques. The effect of different variables in the elaboration of these films, such as starch and glycerol concentrations and pH, were evaluated through the response surface methodology. The results indicated that an increase in the glycerol concentration and pH favored the WVDC of the films. On the other hand, alpha was influenced principally by the starch content and pH of the film-forming solution. The minimum alpha value was 4.5 x 10(-4) cm2/s, which is compared with alpha values reported for commercial synthetic polymers.     

Ethylene/1‐hexene copolymerization with tetramethyldisiloxane‐bridged bis(indenyl) metallocenes

Ethylene/1‐hexene copolymerizations with disiloxane‐bridged metallocenes, rac‐ and meso‐1,1,3,3‐tetramethyldisiloxanediyl‐bis(1‐indenyl)zirconium dichloride (rac‐ 1 , meso‐ 1 ) activated by modified methylaluminoxane were performed to investigate the influence of conformational dynamics on comonomer selectivity. Although ¹H NOESY (nuclear Overhauser and exchange spectroscopy) analysis indicated that the most stable conformation for the meso isomer in solution was that in which both indenes project over the metal coordination site, this isomer showed higher 1‐hexene selectivity in copolymerization (r_e = 140 ± 30, r_h = 0.024 ± 0.004) than the rac isomer with only one indene over the coordination site (r_e = 240 ± 20, r_h = 0.005 ± 0.001). The meso isomer showed high 1‐hexene selectivity, a high product of reactivity ratios (r_er_h = 3.3 ± 0.5) and produced copolymers that could be separated into fractions with different ethylene content suggesting that the active species exhibited multisite behavior and populated conformations with different comonomer selectivities during the copolymerization. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 3323–3331, 2004     

Adsorption of nonionic surfactant triton X-100 on solids from aqueous and nonaqueous solutions

The adsorption of nonionic surfactant Triton X-100 on quartz sand and methylated quartz sand from water and toluene was investigated by means of spectrophotometry, the radiotracer technique, and wetting angle measurements.     

Diffuse x-ray scattering study of the formation of microdefects in heat-treated dislocation-free large-diameter silicon wafers

Diffuse x-ray scattering (DXS) is used to study the formation of microdefects (MDs) in heat-treated dislocation-free large-diameter silicon wafers with vacancies. The DXS method is shown to be efficient for investigating MDs in silicon single crystals. Specific defects, such as impurity clouds, are found to form in the silicon wafers during low-temperature annealing at 450°C. These defects are oxygen-rich regions in the solid solution with diffuse coherent interfaces. In the following stages of decomposition of the supersaturated solid solution, oxide precipitates form inside these regions and the impurity clouds disappear. As a result of the decomposition of the supersaturated solid solution of oxygen, interstitial MDs form in the silicon wafers during multistep heat treatment. These MDs lie in the {110} planes and have nonspherical displacement fields. The volume density and size of MDs forming in the silicon wafers at various stages of the decomposition are determined.     

Calculation of the bond ionicity in complex oxides

A technique for calculating the bond ionicity of crystalline materials using electronegativities of elements and taking into account the structure of polyhedra of the complex-oxide structure is proposed.     

Scattering of a Rayleigh wave by monopole-dipole resonators

The problem of scattering of a Rayleigh wave by a chain of identical closely spaced monopole-dipole resonators with friction is considered. The values of resonator parameters that provide the rejection of the Rayleigh wave are found. The conditions under which the Rayleigh wave is much more efficiently reflected by the dipole resonators than by the monopole ones are determined.