On the Thermal Degradation of a Novel Epoxy-Based Nanocomposite Cured With Tryptophan as an Environment-Friendly Curing Agent

The thermal degradation kinetics of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) cured with tryptophan (Trp) in the presence of silica nanoparticles (SiNP) was investigated by thermogravimetry analysis. The activation energies of the solid-state decomposition process were evaluated using the advanced isoconversional method. The dependence of conversion (degradation) on the temperature and activation energy was determined allowing the calculation of master plots. The experimental master plots agreed with the first-order (F1) kinetic function for both neat epoxy and nanocomposite in the conversion range of 0.45–0.85. Using the kinetic model and the calculated kinetic parameters, the times at half conversion (α = 0.5) were computed for different degradation temperatures. The kinetic analysis showed that the degradation rate of the epoxy nanocomposite was lower than that of the neat epoxy for conversions between 0.45 and 0.85. Therefore, we concluded that adding SiNP to DGEBA/Trp can improve the thermal stability in the conversion range of 0.45–0.85.     

Green rings of Drinfeld doubles of Taft algebras

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the representation rings (or Green rings) of the Drinfeld doubles of the Taft algebras. It is shown that these Green rings are commutative rings generated by infinitely many elements subject to certain relations. The generators together with the subjecting relations are given. The stable Green rings of of the Drinfeld doubles of the Taft algebras are also described.     

Kinetics of cure for a coating system including DGEBA (n = 0)/1,8-NDA and barium carbonate

The increasing demand for low-cost and high performance coatings has promoted the development of chip epoxy-based coatings using inert fillers. Attention has been paid here on employing mixtures of DGEBA with barium carbonate as novel ceramic-based filler to produce a coating using 1,8-naphthalene diamine (1,8-NDA) as the crosslinking agent. A substantial increase in the T_g, from 85 to 100 °C, is observed for the optimum composition. The 1,8-NDA-cure of the epoxy composites showed an autocatalytic mechanism. At a specific conversion range the cure reaction of the composites will be controlled by a diffusion-control cure reaction rather than by Kamal autocatalytic model. Model-free isoconversional method is utilized to construct apparent activation energy dependence on conversion plot. The effect of diffusion control is described by an approach proposed by Chern and Poehlein. Greater diffusion control is observed as the cure temperature decreased.     

Fast Iterative Methods for Solving of Boundary Nonlinear Integral Equations with Singularity

A very efficient and fully discrete method for numerical solution of boundary nonlinear integral equation is described. There seems a lack of rigorous numerical analysis because of singular or hypersingular behavior. In this paper, we suggest variants of methods for solving numerical solutions. Moreover, our aim has been to show how the iterations can be effectively and efficiently regularized for solving ill-posed problems by using the preconditioner. We have compared these methods with CPU time and iterations. Finally, some numerical examples show the efficiency of the proposed methods.     

New porphyrins: synthesis,characterization, and computational studies

Molecular Diversity - New trans-A2B2-porphyrins substituted at phenyl positions were synthesized from 4-methylphthalic acid as a starting material through sequential multistep reactions. These...     

Normalized Augmented Inverse Probability Weighting with Neural Network Predictions

The estimation of average treatment effect (ATE) as a causal parameter is carried out in two steps, where in the first step, the treatment and outcome are modeled to incorporate the potential confounders, and in the second step, the predictions are inserted into the ATE estimators such as the augmented inverse probability weighting (AIPW) estimator. Due to the concerns regarding the non-linear or unknown relationships between confounders and the treatment and outcome, there has been interest in applying non-parametric methods such as machine learning (ML) algorithms instead. Some of the literature proposes to use two separate neural networks (NNs) where there is no regularization on the network’s parameters except the stochastic gradient descent (SGD) in the NN’s optimization. Our simulations indicate that the AIPW estimator suffers extensively if no regularization is utilized. We propose the normalization of AIPW (referred to as nAIPW) which can be helpful in some scenarios. nAIPW, provably, has the same properties as AIPW, that is, the double-robustness and orthogonality properties. Further, if the first-step algorithms converge fast enough, under regulatory conditions, nAIPW will be asymptotically normal. We also compare the performance of AIPW and nAIPW in terms of the bias and variance when small to moderate L1 regularization is imposed on the NNs.     

Peculiarities of magnetic flux penetration and trapping in monocrystalline (YBa2Cu3O7−x and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x ) and polycrystalline (YBa2Cu3O7−x ) samples

A comparative analysis of the magnetic flux trapping in monocrystalline and polycrystalline HTSC samples is carried out, and the possibility of employing the dependence of the trapped magnetic flux on the external magnetic field for obtaining comparative estimates of the effect of pinning centers is determined.     

Optimization of power conversion efficiency in multi-band solar cells (theoretical investigation using GA optimization)

Optical and Quantum Electronics - A plasmonic refractive index nanosensor based on Fano resonance was designed, the excellent performance of the structure was numerically achieved. The system...     

Experimental Investigation on Upgrading of Lignin‐Derived Bio‐Oils: Kinetic Analysis of Anisole Conversion on Sulfided CoMo/Al2O3 Catalyst

Kinetics of the hydroprocessing of anisole, a compound representative of lignin‐derived bio‐oils, catalyzed by a commercial sulfided CoMo/Al₂O₃, was determined at 8–20 bar pressure and 573–673 K with a once‐through flow reactor. The catalyst was sulfided in an atmosphere of H₂ + H₂S prior to the measurement of its performance. Selectivity‐conversion data were used as a basis for determining an approximate, partially quantified reaction network showing that hydrodeoxygenation (HDO), hydrogenolysis, and alkylation reactions take place simultaneously. The data indicate that these reactions can be stopped at the point where HDO is virtually completed and hydrogenation reactions (and thus H₂ consumption) are minimized. Phenol was the major product of the reactions, with direct deoxygenation of anisole to give benzene being kinetically almost insignificant under our conditions. We infer that the scission of the C_methyl–O bond is more facile than the scission of the C_aromatic–O bond, so that the HDO of anisole likely proceeds substantially through the reactive intermediate phenol to give transalkylation products such as 2‐methylphenol. The data determine rates of formation of the major primary products. The data show that if oxygen removal is the main processing goal, higher temperatures and lower pressures are favored.     

Exploration of tertiary aminosquaramide bifunctional organocatalyst in controlled/living ring‐opening polymerization of l‐lactide

A series of tertiary aminosquaramides as bifunctional organocatalysts in the ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) of l ‐lactide (l ‐LA) were developed, allowing the activation of both the l ‐LA monomer and the alcohol group of the initiator/propagating species. Further, the impact of tertiary nitrogen substituents on catalytic activity in ROP of l ‐LA was explored. The tertiary aminosquaramide— an air‐stable and moisture‐stable catalyst—exhibited superior activity in contest with thiourea counterpart when both were equipped with a similar tertiary amine group. Kinetic and chain‐extension experiments indicated that the formed poly(l ‐LA) is featured with narrow polydispersity and high end‐group fidelity, hallmarks of a living polymerization process. The initiator efficiency was further executed at ease by preparation of an ABA triblock copolymer poly (l ‐LA)‐b‐poly (ethylene glycol)‐b‐poly (l ‐LA) in the presence of a dual‐headed PEG macroinitiator. ¹H NMR titration experiments suggested a bifunctional catalytic mechanism, wherein both the l ‐LA monomer and the propagating hydroxyl group were activated en route to polymerization. The ¹H NMR, SEC, and MALDI‐TOF MS measurements validated the quantitative incorporation of the initiator in the polymeric chains and enchainment over competitive trans‐esterification reaction. Overall, the structure‐activity relationships were surveyed to uncover aminosquaramide as a new bifunctional dual hydrogen‐bond donor catalyst for living ROP of l ‐LA. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 2483–2493