Enhancement of dielectric and electro-optical parameters of a newly prepared ferroelectric liquid crystal mixture by dispersing nano-sized copper oxide

ABSTRACT

Here, we present the effect of copper (II) oxide nanoparticles (nCuO) on dielectric and electro-optical parameters of a newly prepared ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) mixture, namely W302. The FLC mixture, comprising of pyrimidine compounds, was characterised through dielectric spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarising optical microscopy (POM) and other electro-optical methods. The material parameters such as spontaneous polarisation, rotational viscosity, response time and tilt angle of W302 were found to be 14 nC/cm², 240 mPa.s, 150 µs and 28^?, respectively. The phase transition temperatures of W302 were observed through DSC and further confirmed by the dependence of dielectric loss factor in homogeneously aligned FLC sample with temperature. We also demonstrate the observance of a low-frequency dielectric relaxation mode due to the unwinding of the helix, called as partially unwound helical mode (p-UHM) along with Goldstone mode. The behaviour of p-UHM has been systematically studied with temperature and applied bias field. Further, dispersion of nCuO into host W302 has shown a significant increase in dielectric permittivity. Also, the p-UHM relaxation peak in the dielectric regime has disappeared with the incorporation of nCuO. These studies would be useful to fabricate better electro-optical devices for display, switching and beam steering applications. The formulation and characterization of a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) mixture W302 composed of pyrimidine compounds is presented. Then, we observed the effect of copper (II) oxide nanoparticles (nCuO) on dielectric and electro-optical parameters of a newly prepared and characterized FLC mixture.     

Flavonoids in Leguminosae: analysis of extracts of T. pratense L., T. dubium L., T. repens L., and L. corniculatus L. leaves using liquid chromatography with UV, mass spectrometric and fluorescence detection

Reversed-phase LC on C-18 bonded silica with a methanol–ammonium formate gradient was used to determine the main flavonoids in leaves of four species of the Leguminosae family. The detection modes were diode-array UV absorbance, fluorescence, and (tandem) mass spectrometry. LC–UV was used for a general screening, sub-classification, and the calculation of total flavonoid contents. LC–FLU was included to identify isoflavones on the basis of their native fluorescence. Most structural information regarding aglycons, sugar moieties, and acidic groups was derived from LC–MS in both the full-scan and extracted-ion mode, using negative-ion atmospheric pressure chemical ionization. MS/MS did not provide much additional information, because the same fragments were observed as in full-scan MS.In T. pratense and T. repens, the main constituents were flavonoid glucoside–(di)malonates, while T. dubium and L. corniculatus mainly contained flavonoid (di)glycosides. Satellite sets comprising an aglycon, the glucoside and glucoside–malonates or –acetates, were abundantly present only in T. pratense. Generally speaking, the main aglycons and sugars in the four plant species are surprisingly different. In addition, while the results for T. pratense are similar to those reported in the literature, there is little agreement in the case of the other species. Finally, total flavonoid contents ranged from 50–65 mg/g for L. corniculatus and T. dubium, to 15 mg/g for T. pratense and only 1 mg/g for T. repens.     

Photodegradation of UV-cured coatings II. Polyurethane–acrylate networks

Highly crosslinked aliphatic and aromatic polyurethane-acrylate (PUA) coatings have been obtained by photopolymerization of multifunctional monomers. The discoloration and chemical modifications occurring upon accelerated QUV aging were monitored by UV and IR spectroscopy. The polymers were found to undergo photooxidation and loss of carbamate and phenyl groups, with lower quantum yields (10^?3 mol photon^?1) than in related linear polymers. Hydroxy-phenyl benzotriazole UV-absorbers have a limited effect on the degradation rate, at the concentration used (0.5%). Hindered amines (HALS) are substantially more effective, especially in aliphatic PUA. A 20-fold increase in the stabilization efficiency was found with the UVA + HALS combination. Aromatic PUA are more difficult to stabilize, because of the strong absorption and photolysis of the phenyl group which yields colored products. Radical-induced oxidation is predominant in aliphatic PUA and develops with long kinetic chains, while in aromatic PUA it competes with direct photolysis.     

On the formation of protonated acetic acid from ionized n-alkanoic acids in the gas phase

By means of collisional activation mass spectrometry and semi-empirical molecular orbital calculations (MNDO) it is shown that the [C₂H₅O₂]⁺ ions from metastable molecular ions of n-pentanoic and hexanoic acid have the structure of carbonyl protonated acetic acid [CH₃C(OH)₂]⁺. The MNDO calculated geometries of this ion and some other isomeric forms are given together with the ΔH_f⁰ values.     

Numerical study of the accuracy and efficiency of various approaches for Monte Carlo surface hopping calculations

A one-dimensional, two-state model problem with two well-separated avoided crossing points is employed to test the efficiency and accuracy of a semiclassical surface hopping technique. The use of a one-dimensional model allows for the accurate numerical evaluation of both fully quantum-mechanical and semiclassical transition probabilities. The calculations demonstrate that the surface hopping procedure employed accounts for the interference between different hopping trajectories very well and provides highly accurate transition probabilities. It is, in general, not computationally feasible to completely sum over all hopping trajectories in the semiclassical calculations for multidimensional problems. In this case, a Monte Carlo procedure for selecting important trajectories can be employed. However, the cancellation due to the different phases associated with different trajectories limits the accuracy and efficiency of the Monte Carlo procedure. Various approaches for improving the accuracy and efficiency of Monte Carlo surface hopping procedures are investigated. These methods are found to significantly reduce the statistical sampling errors in the calculations, thereby increasing the accuracy of the transition probabilities obtained with a fixed number of trajectories sampled.     

Degradation of poly(vinyl chloride) by u.v. radiation—II: Mechanism

The mechanism of the light-induced degradation of solid poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) has been investigated, and an overall reaction scheme has been developed, based on values of the quantum yields for the primary photoproducts. Only a very small fraction (0.2%) of the excited polyenes induces the degradation of PVC, primarily by photocleavage of the allylic CCl bond. The high instability of β-chloroalkyl radicals is responsible for the chain dehydrochlorination that leads to formation of polyenes. In the absence of O₂, chain scissions and crosslinking are postulated to originate mainly from α-chloroalkyl radicals through β-cleavage of CC bonds and radical coupling, respectively. In the presence of O₂, the chain dehydrochlorination still proceeds, together with an oxidative chain process which yields, via peroxy and alkoxy radicals, hydroperoxides, ketones and peroxide crosslinks. Cleavage of the polymer backbone results most probably from the decomposition of tertiary alkoxy radicals by a carbon-carbon β-scission process.     

Ion-chromatographic analysis of mixtures of ferrous and ferric iron

Determinations of the aqueous iron species Fe(II) and Fe(III) are essential for a fully-informed understanding of redox processes involving iron. Most previous methods for speciation of iron have been based on the calorimetric determination of Fe(II) followed by reduction of Fe(III) and analysis for total iron. The indirect determination of Fe(III) and the consumption of relatively large sample volumes have limited the accuracy and utility of such methods. A method based on ion-chromatography has been developed for simultaneous direct determination of Fe(II) and Fe(III). Sample pretreatment involves only conventional filtration and acidification. No interferences with the iron(II) determination were found; in determination of iron(III) the only interference observed was an artifact peak (of unknown origin) that occurred only when iron(II) was present, and had an area that was a function of the iron(II) concentration and could hence be corrected for. Solutions of iron(II) free from iron(III) can be prepared by treatment with a mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen in the presence of palladium black as catalyst, to reduce the iron(III). Photoreduction of iron(III) in acidified samples increases the Fe(II)/Fe(III) ratio; no means of circumventing this effect is known, other than storing the samples in the dark and analysing them as soon as possible.     

GROMACS: fast, flexible, and free

This article describes the software suite GROMACS (Groningen MAchine for Chemical Simulation) that was developed at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, in the early 1990s. The software, written in ANSI C, originates from a parallel hardware project, and is well suited for parallelization on processor clusters. By careful optimization of neighbor searching and of inner loop performance, GROMACS is a very fast program for molecular dynamics simulation. It does not have a force field of its own, but is compatible with GROMOS, OPLS, AMBER, and ENCAD force fields. In addition, it can handle polarizable shell models and flexible constraints. The program is versatile, as force routines can be added by the user, tabulated functions can be specified, and analyses can be easily customized. Nonequilibrium dynamics and free energy determinations are incorporated. Interfaces with popular quantum-chemical packages (MOPAC, GAMES-UK, GAUSSIAN) are provided to perform mixed MM/QM simulations. The package includes about 100 utility and analysis programs. GROMACS is in the public domain and distributed (with source code and documentation) under the GNU General Public License. It is maintained by a group of developers from the Universities of Groningen, Uppsala, and Stockholm, and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz. Its Web site is http://www.gromacs.org.     

Highly oriented self-assembled monolayers as templates for epitaxial calcite growth

The lateral alignment of [012] habit-modified calcite crystals with respect to a carboxylic acid terminated self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of thiols has been determined. The crystals were grown from a Kitano solution (pH 5.6-6.0), and the samples were investigated with scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and polarization microscopy. For the first time, a lattice match in one direction, which is the nearest neighbor direction of the SAM and the calcite <100> direction, has been experimentally shown. The experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical models proposed in previous work, and it is expected that this method can be applied to similar systems where inorganic crystals nucleate with a preferred orientation to a SAM.