Lightly crosslinked,mesomorphic networks obtained through the reaction of dimeric,liquid‐crystalline epoxy–imine monomers and heptanedioic acid

We reacted various dimeric, liquid‐crystalline epoxy–imine monomers, differing in the length of the central aliphatic spacer or the dipolar moments, with heptanedioic acid. The resulting systems showed a liquid‐crystalline phase in some cases, depending on the dimer and on the reaction conditions. The systems were characterized with respect to their mesomorphic properties and then were submitted to dynamic mechanical thermal analysis in both fixed‐frequency and frequency‐sweep modes in the shear sandwich configuration. The arrangement in the liquid‐crystalline phase seemed to be mainly affected both by the polarization of the mesogen and by the reaction temperature, which favored the liquid‐crystalline arrangement when it was lying in the range of stability of the dimer mesophase. In agreement with other recent literature data, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis results suggested that the presence of the mesogen directly incorporated into the main chain increased the lifetimes of the elastic modes both in the isotropic phase and in the liquid‐crystalline phase with respect to side‐chain liquid‐crystalline elastomers and that the time–temperature superposition principle did not hold through the liquid‐crystalline‐to‐isotropic transition. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44:6270–6286, 2006     

Control of the conjugation length and solubility in electroluminescent polymers

A new type of cyclolinear polymer, poly(phenylene vinylene‐alt‐cyclotriphosphazene), was synthesized through Heck‐type coupling reactions to produce π‐conjugated macromolecules with excellent solubility and precise electronic control of the band‐gap energy. This synthesis method is capable of producing well‐defined alternating polymers. The method is highly adaptable and can be readily used for other chromophore systems. The resulting polymers were also capable of accommodating a wide variety of substituents on the cyclophosphazene rings with minimal effect on the electronic properties. The band gap and electron affinities of the polymer were varied through the manipulation of the π‐conjugated unit located between the insulating phosphazene rings. Each chromophore matched the intended conjugation length consistently throughout the macromolecules. The polymers were good film formers because of the chosen substituents on the phosphazene rings. The absorbance of the polymers indicated minimal spectral shift from the monomer absorbance. This suggested an effective insulation of each chromophore unit from its neighbors by the phosphazene rings. Solution photoluminescence efficiencies were found to be up to 44.1%. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 69–76, 2006     

Mechanical endurance of polymer electrolyte membrane and PEM fuel cell durability

The life of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) is currently limited by the mechanical endurance of polymer electrolyte membranes and membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs). In this paper, the authors report recent experimental and modeling work toward understanding the mechanisms of delayed mechanical failures of polymer electrolyte membranes and MEAs under relevant PEMFC operating conditions. Mechanical breach of membranes/MEAs in the form of pinholes and tears has been frequently observed after long‐term or accelerated testing of PEMFC cells/stacks. Catastrophic failure of cell/stack due to rapid gas crossover shortly follows the mechanical breach. Ex situ mechanical characterizations were performed on MEAs after being subjected to the accelerated chemical aging and relative humidity (RH) cycling tests. The results showed significant reduction of MEA ductility manifested as drastically reduced strain‐to‐failure of the chemically aged and RH‐cycled MEAs. Postmortem analysis revealed the formation and growth of mechanical defects such as cracks and crazing in the membranes and MEAs. A finite element model was used to estimate stress/strain states of an edge‐constrained MEA under rapid RH variations. Damage metrics for accelerated testing and life prediction of PEMFCs are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 2346–2357, 2006     

Effect of the environment on the stability of surfactant–polypeptide self‐assembled complexes: Molecular dynamics simulations of stoichiometric complexes formed by N‐dodecyltrimethylammonium and poly(α,L‐glutamate) in chloroform,methanol, and water

A series of molecular dynamics simulations have been performed to study the supramolecular structure of self‐assembled complexes formed by N‐dodecyltrimethylammonium cations and the synthetic polypeptide poly(α,L ‐glutamate). The influence of the type of solvent has been investigated, considering explicit environments of chloroform, water, and methanol on a stoichiometric complex containing 15 residues. In chloroform, the complex stabilizes in a regular structure: the polypeptide adopts an α‐helix conformation that is regularly surrounded by surfactant molecules to form electrostatic interactions through a multiple interaction pattern. However, this structure destabilizes in methanol and water: (a) the α‐helix unfolds in the two solvents and (b) the electrostatic links between the surfactant molecules and the polyanion are disrupted in aqueous solution, although these interactions are still preserved in methanol. The role of the solvent environment in stabilizing or destabilizing the polypeptide secondary structure, the organization of the surfactant molecules, and predominantly the surfactant–polypeptide supramolecular organization is discussed in detail. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 1122–1133, 2006     

Every group has a terminating transfinite automorphism tower

Iteratively taking the automorphism group of any group leads, transfinitely, to a fixed point.

     

Existence of magnetic charge

A status report is presented on the existence of quarks carrying the Dirac unit of magnetic chargeg = (137/2)e. The Paschen-Back effect in dyonium is discussed. From the dyonium model, Akers predicted the existence of a new meson at 1814 MeV withI ^G(J^PC) = 0⁺(0^–+). Experimental evidence now confirms the existence of the meson resonance.     

A reply to “a comment on generalized electromagnetism and Dirac algebra”

Issues raised by W. A. Rodrigues, Jr. are discussed.1. This is not a new result; see,e.g., Rohrlich.⁽³⁾ 2. A typographical error in Eq. (77) is corrected here: The productj A in the right-hand parentheses was erroneously transcribed in Ref. (2) as A.3. I define electromagnetic fieldF = A to be that generated by electric charges and the magnetoelectric fieldG = M to be that generated by magnetic monopoles:F F +₅ G. 4. Rodrigues, on the other hand, takes the position that the importance of the Lagrangian formulation should be downgraded if not discarded altogether: ... it is redundant to look for Lagrangians.⁽¹⁾ 5. In fact, he reformulates it using the language of differential forms.6. It is interesting to observe that this bilinear form has the additional virtue of being appropriate for dealing with the monopolecharge parity question, which was pointed out long ago.⁽¹⁴⁾ 7. In fact, even mathematics looks to Nature for its authority.⁽¹⁶⁾ There is evidence that Rodrigues does not understand this concept.⁽¹⁷⁾     

4-Amino-imidazole durchThorpe-Cyclisierung

The alkylation of arylaminomethylenecyanamides1 or cyano-imidothiocarbamates2 with -halogen carbonyl compounds followed by base catalysed cyclization yields substituted 4-amino-imidazoles4. Imidazo[4,5-d]pyrimidones5, 6 and imidazo[4,5-b]pyridines7 can be obtained from4.