Nanostructured carbon arrays from block copolymers of polyacrylonitrile

Arrays of graphitic carbon nanoclusters were obtained by pyrolysis of nanoscale phase-separated block copolymers of polyacrylonitrile and poly(n-butyl acrylate). Upon heating in an inert atmosphere to temperatures ranging from approximately 400 to 1200 degrees C, polyacrylonitrile domains were converted into carbon nanoclusters, maintaining the overall shape and spacing, whereas the poly(n-butyl acrylate) phase was sacrificed. Preservation of the original nanoscale morphology of a block copolymer was possible only if pyrolysis was preceded by oxidation at temperatures of approximately 230 degrees C, in analogy with thermal stabilization of polyacrylonitrile precursor in the process used in the manufacturing of carbon fibers. Preorganization of the carbon precursor through self-assembly in block copolymers of polyacrylonitrile appears to be an attractive and robust strategy for templated synthesis of well-defined nanostructured carbon materials.     

Trajectories joining critical points of nonlinear parabolic and hyperbolic partial differential equations

Consider the following nonlinear Dirichlet boundary value problems:

$\text{D}{}_{\mathrm{t}}\text{u(t,x)=Lu(t,x)+f(u(t,x)),}\text{t?0,x∈Ω}\text{u(t,x)=0,}\text{t?0,x∈?Ω}$

(1.1)

$\text{D}{}_{\mathrm{t}}\text{D}{}_{\mathrm{t}}\text{u(t,x)=Lu(t,x)+}\text{α}\text{L(D}{}_{\mathrm{t}}\text{u(t,x))+f(u(t,x)),}\text{α}\text{>0,t?0,x∈Ω}\text{u(t,x)=0,}\text{t?0,x∈?Ω}$

(1.2)

$\text{Lu(x)+f(u(x)),}\text{x∈Ω}\text{u(x)=0,}\text{x∈?Ω}$

. (1.3) In all of these equations, f: R → R is a locally Lipschitzian asymptotically linear function with positive asymptotic slope, f(0) = 0, and L is a self-adjoint, negativedefinite and strongly elliptic second-order differential operator on a smooth domain Ω in Rⁿ. The solutions of (1.1) and (1.2) generate semiflows which are not pointdissipative and whose equilibria are determined by solutions of (1.3). In this paper, using an extension (due to the present author) of Conley's Morse index theory to noncompact spaces, we prove not only the existence of positive solutions of (1.3) (a result shown earlier by Peitgen and Schmitt using different methods), but also show the existence of (nonconstant) heteroclinic orbits of (1.1) and (1.2) joining two sets of equilibria.     

Spectrochemical Properties of Noncubical Transition Metal Complexes in Solution. XII. Angular Overlap Studies of Salicylideneethylenediamine Cu(II) Complex in Various Solvents

As a part of our general interest in the UV-Vis spectroscopy of multidentate mixed-donor ligands, the (salicylideneethylenediamine)Cu(II) complex has been prepared and characterized by elemental analyses, solubility in common solvents, molar conductivities, and ultraviolet (UV), and visible (Vis) spectroscopy. The combined results of spectrophotometric measurements and EPR spectra, as well as known the X-ray structure for solids, were used to determine the structure of the investigated complex in solutions. The spectra of [Cu(salen)] (H₂salen = salicylideneethylenediamine), were measured in various solvents at room temperature, resolved by Gaussian analysis, and angular overlap model (AOM) treated in C _2v symmetry. Because of overparametrization problems, the bis(salicylaldehyde)Cu(II) complex has been characterized and AOM treated. The results of this have been used for AOM studies of [Cu(salen)]. The effect of the solvents upon the - and -bonding ligand abilities is discussed.     

Functionalized di- and tetrathia-crowns and their use to quantitatively separate and recover gold(III), palladium(II), silver(I) and mercury(II) Ions

Two new dithia-crowns containing a hydroxy group and 1,4,7,10-tetrathia-18-crown-6 containing an allyl-oxymethyl substituent were prepared in good yields. Two of these crowns were covalently attached to silica gel. The silica gel-bound thia-crowns were used to separate gold( III ), palladium( II ), silver( I ) and mercury( II ) ions from an aqueous 0.1 M nitric acid solution which also contained 1.0 M ferric chloride.     

Intermolecular potential energy surface and spectra of He-HCl with generalization to other rare gas-hydrogen halide complexes

A two-dimensional (rigid monomer) intermolecular potential energy surface (PES) of the He-HCl complex has been obtained from ab initio calculations utilizing the symmetry-adapted perturbation theory (SAPT) and an spdfg basis set including midbond functions. The bond length in HCl was chosen to be equal to the expectation value in the ground vibrational state of isolated HCl. The rigid-monomer potential should be a very good approximation to the complete (three-dimensional) potential for H-Cl distances corresponding to the lowest vibrational levels of the monomer since the He-HCl interaction energy was found to be only weakly dependent on the HCl bond length in this region, at least as compared to systems such as Ar-HF. The calculated points were fitted using an analytic function with ab initio computed asymptotic coefficients. As expected, the complex is loosely bound, with the dispersion energy providing the majority of the attraction. Our SAPT PES agrees with the semiempirical PES of Willey et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 96, 898 (1992)], in finding that, atypically for rare gas-hydrogen halide complexes including the lighter halide atoms, the global minimum is on the Cl side (with intermonomer separation 3.35 A and depth of 32.8 cm(-1)), rather than on the H side, where there is only a local minimum (3.85 A, 30.8 cm(-1)). The ordering of the minima was confirmed by single-point calculations in larger basis sets and complete basis set extrapolations, and also using higher levels of theory. We show that the opposite findings in the recent calculations of Zhang and Shi [J. Mol. Struct: THEOCHEM 589, 89 (2002)] are due to the lack of midbond functions in their basis set. Despite the closeness in depth of the two linear minima, the existence of a relatively high barrier between them invalidates the assumption of isotropy, a feature of some literature potentials. The trends concerning the locations of minima within the family of rare gas-hydrogen halide complexes are rationalized in terms of the physical components of the intermolecular forces and related to monomer properties. The accuracy of the SAPT PES was tested by performing calculations of rovibrational levels. The transition frequencies obtained were found to be in excellent agreement (to within 0.02 cm(-1)) with the measurements of Lovejoy and Nesbitt [J. Chem. Phys. 93, 5387 (1990)]. The SAPT PES predicts a dissociation energy for the complex of 7.74 cm(-1) which is probably more accurate than the experimental value of 10.1+/-1.2 cm(-1). Our analysis of the ground-state rovibrational wave function shows that the He-HCl configuration is favored over the He-ClH configuration despite the ordering of minima. This is due to the greater volume of the well in the former case. We have also determined positions and widths of three low-lying resonance states through scattering calculations. These predictions are expected to be more accurate than values derived from experiment.     

Oil-in-water emulsions stabilized by highly charged polyelectrolyte-grafted silica nanoparticles

Fully sulfonated poly(styrenesulfonate) brushes were grown from the surface of colloidal silica particles and used to prepare stable trichloroethylene-in-water and heptane-in-water Pickering emulsions. These particles were highly charged and colloidally stable in water but could not be dispersed in trichloroethylene or heptane. Both two-phase (emulsion plus neat water) and three-phase (emulsion separating neat oil and water phases) systems were observed, with water-continuous emulsion phases in all cases. Emulsion phases containing as much as 83% (v/v) oil were stable for over six months. Poly(styrenesulfonate)-grafted particles were very efficient emulsifiers; stable emulsion phases were prepared when using as little as 0.04 wt% particles. The emulsifying effectiveness of the poly(styrenesulfonate)-grafted silica particles can be attributed to the hydrophobicity of the vinylic polymer backbone that makes this highly charged polyelectrolyte unusually surface active at the oil/water interface.     

Electron impact mass spectrometry of some 6-substituted tetrazolo[1,5-c]pyrimidin-5(6H)-ones

The electron impact mass spectra of 6-methyltetrazolo[1,5-c]pyrimidin-5(6H)-one, its 7- and 8-methyl derivatives, three 8-halo derivatives and two related nucleosides are reported. On the basis of the high-resolution data and detected metastable ions, the fragmentation routes of their molecular ions are proposed. Coexistence of the tautomeric forms of the title compounds of cyclic (tetrazole) or linear (azide) structure can be suggested owing to the fragmentation pathways identified for the bases. Decomposition of the related nucleosides lies in the breaking of nucleoside bonds to produce the appropriate base and sugar fragments.     

Protective properties of redox polymer film deposited on stainless steel

We propose a novel composite organic-inorganic coating in the form of a redox polymer film for protection of stainless steel against general corrosion in strong acid medium (2 M H₂SO₄). We utilize an anion exchange polymer, protonated poly(4-vinylpyridine), into which hexacyanoferrate anions have been introduced. Owing to the presence of Fe(CN)₆^3–/4– at the interface formed by the film and the steel, a sparingly soluble metal hexacyanoferrate (mostly Prussian blue, PB) is formed as an overcoating on the steels surface, presumably on the passive (metal oxide) layer. The redox polymer film on the steel seems to act as a composite three-dimensional bilayer-type coating in which hexacyanoferrate(III,II) anions (that are capable of effective charge storage) exist in the outer portions of the film, whereas the inner PB layer improves the systems overall adherence and stability. By analogy to a conducting polymer (e.g. polyaniline, polypyrrole), introduction of the redox polymer composite film leads to stabilization of the steel substrates potential within the passive range.Contribution to the 3rd Baltic Conference on Electrochemistry, Gdansk-Sobieszewo, Poland, 23–26 April 2003Dedicated to the memory of Harry B. Mark, Jr. (28 February 1934–3 March 2003)     

Geometrical meaning of the Poincaré group gauge theory

We find a condition (6) under which a gauge theory of the Poincaré group is equivalent to the Einstein-Cartan theory of gravitation.