Gelation of poly(n-butylisocyanate) in benzene

Poly (n-butylisocyanate)-benzene solutions prepared by solubilization at 45°C, followed by aging at room temperature were found to be metastable for months, although, eventually, they separated into a birefringent polymer-rich phase and an isotropic solution. These metastable solutions, as well as isothermally phase-separated biphasic samples, flowed and exhibited dynamic moduli indicative of low polymer connectivity. By contrast samples prepared by a freeze-thaw cycle were uniformly and highly birefringent and showed network (gel) behavior at room temperature. The mechanism of gel formation is most likely the exclusion of the polymer from the benzene crystal during crystallization, forcing the polymer to align and exist at grain boundaries. Films formed from solutions have different moduli than those formed from gels, and are consistent with the proposed mechanism.     

The Atkinson-Wilcox theorem in ellipsoidal geometry

The famous Atkinson-Wilcox theorem claims that any scattered field, no matter what the boundary conditions on the surface of the scatterer are, can be expanded into a uniformly and absolutely convergent series in inverse powers of distance and that once the leading coefficient of the expansion is known the full series can be recovered up to the smallest sphere containing the scatterer in its interior. The leading coefficient of the series is nothing else but the scattering amplitude. This is a very useful theorem, which provides the exact analogue of the Sommerfeld radiation condition, but it has the disadvantage of recovering the scattered field only outside the sphere circumscribing the scatterer. This means that an elongated obstacle which has a very large, as it compares to its volume, circumscribing sphere leaves a lot of exterior space where the scattered field cannot be recovered from its scattering amplitude. In the present work the Atkinson-Wilcox theorem has been extended to the ellipsoidal system where the theorem as well as the relative recovering algorithm holds true all the way down to the smallest circumscribing ellipsoid. Considering the anisotropic character of the ellipsoidal geometry it is obvious that an appropriately chosen ellipsoid can fit almost every smooth convex obstacle. Furthermore, such a result offers the best opportunity to develop a hybrid method based on the theory of infinite elements. Two orientations dependent differential operators are introduced in the recurrence scheme which, as the ellipsoid degenerates to a sphere, one of them vanishes, while the other reduces to the Beltrami operator. A reduction to spherical geometry is also included.     

Electron microscopy study of aggregation of microclusters of sulphur

A study of aggregation of sulphur particles in colloidal suspension of sulphur in water-methanol mixture using TEM and electron diffraction is reported. From the micrographs the aggregates formed have been found to be random and tenuous indicating a fractal structure. The electron diffraction patterns of the aggregates are used to study the mechanism of diffusion and reaction limited aggregation.     

Single-molecule single crystals

Various approaches to the preparation and verification of single-molecule single crystals are discussed for polyethylene and poly (oxyethylene). Analytic tools are electron microscopy, electron diffraction, and differential scanning calorimetry. The main difficulty in producing a single-molecule single crystal is to keep crystals from joining during growth.     

Radical copolymerization of 2‐trifluoromethylacrylic monomers. II. Kinetics,monomer reactivities,and penultimate effect in their copolymerization with norbornenes and vinyl ethers

Radical copolymerizations of electron‐deficient 2‐trifluoromethylacrylic (TFMA) monomers, such as 2‐trifluoromethylacrylic acid and t‐butyl 2‐trifluoromethylacrylate (TBTFMA), with electron‐rich norbornene derivatives and vinyl ethers with 2,2′‐azobisisobutyronitrile as the initiator were investigated in detail through the analysis of the kinetics in situ with ¹H NMR and through the determination of the monomer reactivity ratios. The norbornene derivatives used in this study included bicyclo[2.2.1]hept‐2‐ene (norbornene) and 5‐(2‐trifluoromethyl‐1,1,1‐trifluoro‐2‐hydroxylpropyl)‐2‐norbornene. The vinyl ether monomers were ethyl vinyl ether, t‐butyl vinyl ether, and 3,4‐dihydro‐2‐H‐pyran. Vinylene carbonate was found to copolymerize with TBTFMA. Although none of the monomers underwent radical homopolymerization under normal conditions, they copolymerized readily, producing a copolymer containing 60–70 mol % TFMA. The copolymerization of the TFMA monomer with norbornenes and vinyl ethers deviated from the terminal model and could be described by the penultimate model. The copolymers of TFMA reported in this article were evaluated as chemical amplification resist polymers for the emerging field of 157‐nm lithography. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 1478–1505, 2004     

Constructing one-parameter families of elliptic curves with moderate rank

We give several new constructions for moderate rank elliptic curves over Q(T). In particular we construct infinitely many rational elliptic surfaces (not in Weierstrass form) of rank 6 over Q using polynomials of degree two in T. While our method generates linearly independent points, we are able to show the rank is exactly 6 without having to verify the points are independent. The method generalizes; however, the higher rank surfaces are not rational, and we need to check that the constructed points are linearly independent.     

The exterior magnetic field for the multilayer ellipsoidal model of the brain

The magnetic induction field in the exterior of an ellipsoidallyinhomogeneous, four-conducting-layer model of the human headis obtained analytically up to its quadrupole approximation.The interior ellipsoidal core represents the homogeneous brainwhile each one of the shells represents the cerebrospinal fluid,the skull and the scalp, all characterized by different conductivities.The inhomogeneities of these four domains, together with theanisotropy imposed by the use of the ellipsoidal geometry, providethe most realistic physical and geometrical model of the brainfor which an analytic solution of the biomagnetic forward problemis possible. It is shown that in contrast to the spherical model,where shells of different conductivity are magnetically invisible,the magnetic induction field in ellipsoidal geometry is stronglydependent on the conductivity supports. The fact that sphericalshells of different conductivity are invisible has enhancedthe common belief that the biomagnetic forward solution doesnot depend on the conductivity profiles. As we demonstrate inthe present work, this is not true. Hence, the proposed multilayeredellipsoidal model provides a qualitative improvement of therealistic interpretation of magnetoencephalography (MEG) measurements.We show that the presence of the shells of different conductivitycan be incorporated in the form of the dipole vector for thehomogeneous model. Numerical investigations show that the effectsof shell inhomogeneities are almost as sound as the level ofMEG measurements themselves. The degenerate cases, where eitherthe differences of the conductivities within the shells disappear,or the ellipsoidal geometry is reduced to the spherical one,are also considered.     

Natural convection from a buried elliptic heat source

Numerical solutions are presented for the natural convection heat transfer from an elliptic heat source buried beneath a semi-infinite, saturated, porous medium. The surface of the medium is assumed to be permeable. The governing equations for Darcy flow are solved using finite differences. The complicated geometry is handled through the use of a body-fitted curvilinear coordinate system. Results are presented for Ra values ranging from 10 to 200 and ellipse aspect ratio values from 1.0 (circular cylinder) to 0.167. Two body orientations have been considered. The slender orientation yields much higher hear transfer rates (especially at low ellipse aspect ratio values) than the blunt orientation. The numerical simulations indicate that the boundary-layer approximations cannot be employed for low ellipse aspect ratios. In addition, the heat loss does not depend on the burial depth.     

Some remarks on Newton–Sabatier methods

It is shown how Newton–Sabatier methods (arising in inverse scattering at fixed energy) can be related to spectral measures and typically when they correspond to regular potentials. A number of spectral formulae for various transmutation kernels are also given in terms of general Kontorovi?–Lebedev theory and connections to generating functions, generalized orthogonal polynomials, etc. are indicated.