A comparison of the structure,flexibility and mesogenic properties of 4-methoxy-4′-cyanobiphenyl and the α,α,α-trifluorinated derivative

Abstract

The compound 4-cyano-4′-(α,α,α-trifluoromethoxy)biphenyl (1OCBF₃) has been synthesized. Unlike the fully protonated analogue, 4-cyano-4′-methoxybiphenyl (1OCB), it does not show a liquid crystalline phase on cooling from the melting point (51°C) to room temperature. The transition temperature to a monotropic nematic phase was obtained as approximately 0°C by determining the transition temperatures of mixtures with 1OCB. The structures, conformational properties and orientational ordering of both 1OCB and 1OCBF₃ as solutes in a nematic solvent ZLI 1132 have been investigated via the 17 dipolar couplings obtained by analysing the proton and fluorine NMR spectra of these solutions. It is concluded that the major difference between the two molecules lies in the potential, V(φ₂), governing rotation about the ring–oxygen bonds. In 1OCB the potential has the same form as in anisole, with a minimum when the C–O bond is in the plane of the attached ring (φ₂ = 0°), and a maximum of about 15 kJ mol^?1 when φ₂ is 90°. In 1OCBF₃ the barrier to rotation about the ring–O bond decreases substantially to being near zero.     

Heat Release by Controlled Continuous-Time Markov Jump Processes

We derive the equations governing the protocols minimizing the heat released by a continuous-time Markov jump process on a one-dimensional countable state space during a transition between assigned initial and final probability distributions in a finite time horizon. In particular, we identify the hypotheses on the transition rates under which the optimal control strategy and the probability distribution of the Markov jump problem obey a system of differential equations of Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman-type. As the state-space mesh tends to zero, these equations converge to those satisfied by the diffusion process minimizing the heat released in the Langevin formulation of the same problem. We also show that in full analogy with the continuum case, heat minimization is equivalent to entropy production minimization. Thus, our results may be interpreted as a refined version of the second law of thermodynamics.     

Temperature dependence of the time-resolved emissions of CsI:Tl

Abstract

Time-resolved emissions of Csl:T1 are investigated. The system is laser-excited in the A-band at 308 nm and the emissions are observed in the range 370–650 nm, from 30 K to 300 K. Their analysis by means of a deconvolution permits the valuation of decay-times down to 1 ns. At every temperature many bands are observed and some of them show slow and fast components. The decay-times of the fast components are in the range 1–10 ns while the slow ones are even longer than 1 μs. In many cases intermediate decay-times of the order of 100 ns exist. The competition among the bands interests the application of this system as active material for tunable solid-state laser.     

Ionic electroactive polymer metal composites: Fabricating,modeling, and applications of postsilicon smart devices

Smart systems adapt to the surrounding environments in a number of ways. They are capable to scavenge energy from available sources, sense and elaborate external stimuli and adequately react. Electro Active Polymers are playing a main role in the realization of smart systems for applications if fields such as bio inspired and autonomous robotics, medicine, and aerospace. This paper focus on the possibility to use Ionic Polymer Metal Composites as a class of materials relevant to the realization of post silicon smart systems. The three main aspects of this new technology, i.e., fabrication methods, modeling, and applications are described with emphasis to most recent results. Attention is given to main challenges and shortcomings to be solved for technology, modelling, and control of IPMC based devices that need to be solved before this new technology can be fully exploited in real world applications. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2013     

Polymerization-Driven Photoluminescence in Alkanolamine-Based C-Dots

Carbonized polymer dots (CPDs), a peculiar type of carbon dots, show extremely high quantum yields, making them very attractive nanostructures for application in optics and biophotonics. The origin of the strong photoluminescence of CPDs resides in a complicated interplay of several radiative mechanisms. To understand the correlation between CPD processing and properties, the early stage formation of carbonized polymer dots has been studied. In the synthesis, citric acid monohydrate and 2-amino-2-(hydroxymethyl)propane-1,3-diol have been thermally degraded at 180 °C. The use of an oil bath instead of a more traditional hydrothermal reactor has allowed the CPD properties to be monitored at different reactions times. Transmission electron microscopy, time-resolved photoluminescence, nuclear magnetic resonance, infrared, and Raman spectroscopy have revealed the formation of polymeric species with amide and ester bonds. Quantum chemistry calculations have been employed to investigate the origin of CPD electronic transitions. At short reaction times, amorphous C-dots with 80 % quantum yield, have been obtained.     

An Ant Colony Optimisation algorithm for solving the asymmetric traffic assignment problem

In this paper we propose an Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) algorithm for defining the signal settings on urban networks following a local approach. This consists in optimising the signal settings of each intersection of an urban network as a function only of traffic flows at the accesses to the same intersection, taking account of the effects of signal settings on costs and on user route choices. This problem, also known as Local Optimisation of Signal Settings (LOSS), has been widely studied in the literature and can be formulated as an asymmetric assignment problem. The proposed ACO algorithm is based on two kinds of behaviour of artificial ants which allow the LOSS problem to be solved: traditional behaviour based on the response to pheromones for simulating user route choice, and innovative behaviour based on the pressure of an ant stream for solving the signal setting definition problem. Our results on real-scale networks show that the proposed approach allows the solution to be obtained in less time but with the same accuracy as in traditional MSA (Method of Successive Averages) approaches.     

Existence of maximizers for Sobolev–Strichartz inequalities

We prove the existence of maximizers of Sobolev–Strichartz estimates for a general class of propagators, involving relevant examples, as for instance the wave, Dirac and the hyperbolic Schrödinger flows.