On the dynamics of ferro- and antiferro-electric liquid crystals

Abstract

In this work, a set of Landau–Ginzburg equations to investigate the dynamic properties of ferro- and antiferro-electric smectic phases is formulated on the basis of the elastic continuum theory of compressible smectics. In the present framework, the polarization electric field is consistently taken into account through the Poisson equation as seen in our previous work. As a practical application, a few numerical results are presented for the surface-stabilized geometry with inclined and chevron layer structures. An asymmetric bistable switching is found to be achieved in the chevron layer structure under an alternating external field. In an inclined layer structure, however, a symmetric switching is found to be possible. In addition, it is first presented from a theoretical standpoint that the compressible smectic layer structure may be drastically deformed in the chevron and inclined layer structures with a sufficiently large external field.     

The effect of interfacial miscibility on the cell morphology of polyethylene terephthalate/bisphenol a polycarbonate blend foams

Annealing polyethylene terephthalate (PET)/polycarbonate (PC) blends enhance the transesterification reaction and increase the amount of copolymer at the interface of both polymers. The copolymer enhances the compatibility of PET with PC, because it contains both PET and PC blocks, which causes the interface between PET and PC to become fuzzy. When the PET/PC undergoes batch physical foaming with CO₂, the copolymer significantly changes the resulting cell morphology, that is, the annealing time. Before annealing or in the absence of the copolymer, bubble nucleation occurs and dominates growth at the interface. When the PET/PC blends are annealed, the interface impedes bubble nucleation and growth. The polymer is stretched at the interface by bubble growth, forming fibril‐like structures connecting two polymer domains at the interface. Increased annealing time causes the interface to become more homogeneous and makes heterogeneous bubble nucleation difficult. At higher copolymer concentrations, the interface of PET and PC becomes fuzzy and the cell morphology becomes like those of foamed homogeneous polymers. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2012     

Simultaneous Determination of Pyridine-Triphenylborane Anti-Fouling Agent and Its Degradation Products in Artificial Seawater by CZE

We developed a CZE method for simultaneous determination of pyridine-triphenylborane (PTPB) anti-fouling agent and its degradation products such as diphenylborinic acid (DPB), phenylboronic acid (MPB), and phenol in artificial seawater (ASW) with no extraction procedure. The ASW samples, in which 20 % (v/v) acetonitrile was added, were injected directly into the capillary using vacuum injection. As the background electrolyte, 60 mM sodium tetraborate adjusted to pH 9.8 was used. The LODs (S/N = 3) for PTPB, DPB, MPB, and phenol were, respectively, 55, 78, 126, and 30 μg L^?1. The RSDs (n = 4) for analytes listed above were in the respective ranges of 2.7–5.7, 0.68–6.1, and 0.69–1.1 % for the peak area, peak height, and migration time. Simple degradation experiments were conducted to verify the usefulness of the proposed method. The PTPB samples dissolved in ASW were put in the open air, and rooms with and without light. The sample solutions were analyzed over time. We inferred that PTPB in ASW was more degraded by photolysis than by hydrolysis. The proposed CZE method has been demonstrated as a useful tool to elucidate the PTPB degradation process and its degradation products in ASW.     

Synthesis of (+)-boronolide and (+)-deacetylboronolide using Pd-catalyzed carbonylation and lactonization

(+)-Boronolide and (+)-deacetylboronolide were synthesized using Pd-catalyzed CO insertion and lactonization as the key step. As to the ¹³C NMR data of (+)-deacetylboronolide, the assignment at C-6 position should be revised.