Synthesis and properties of the nanocomposite of zink oxide and poly(amic acid)

The composite comprised of zinc oxide quantum dots and poly(amic acid) (PAAc) was prepared and studied by X-rays diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, light scattering, UV absorbance and UV fluorescence. The UV absorbance of the ZnO/PAAc composite was found to be much larger than that of its components taken separately. The fluorescence of the ZnO/PAAc composite was found to be shifted to longer wavelengthes in comparison with pure ZnO. The presence of the dopant dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid was found to affect the observed fluorescence.     

Synthesis of 2-pyrone-4-carboxaldehydes from acetylene dicarboxaldehyde monoacetal

Reaction of acetylene dicarboxaldehyde monoacetal with substituted Meldrum’s acid leads good yields in 2-pyranones-4-carboxaldehydes substituted in position 3.     

Evidences of phase separation in moisture‐cured poly(urethane urea)s by means of temperature modulated differential scanning calorimetry

The degree of phase separation in several moisture‐cured poly(urethane urea)s (PUUs) was studied by FTIR spectroscopy, wide angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD), and temperature‐modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC). This latter technique was shown to be particularly useful in analysing the degree of phase separation in PUU polymers. Both phase mixing and phase segregation coexisted in the PUUs and the degree of phase separation increased as the urea hard segment (HS) content in the PUU increased. The maximum solubility of urea HSs into the polyol soft segments (SSs) was achieved for 50 wt % urea HS content in diol‐based PUUs, whereas for triol‐based PUUs the highest solubility between HS and SS was reached for lower urea HS amount. Finally, the higher the urea HS content the higher the extent of phase separation in the PUU. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 3034–3045, 2007     

Synthesis of BEDT-TTF derivatives with carboxylic ester and amide functionalities

Synthetic routes to BEDT-TTF derivatives bearing side chain carboxylic ester and amide groups are reported. Methyl ET-ethanoate was prepared in five steps from vinylacetic acid; amide groups were installed early in the synthesis by mixed anhydride methods before the final coupling reaction.     

Magnetic poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) microspheres by dispersion and inverse emulsion polymerization

The aim of this study was to develop novel thermally responsive polymer microspheres with magnetic properties. Dispersion and inverse emulsion copolymerization of N‐isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) and N,N′‐methylenebisacrylamide (MBAAm) was investigated in the presence of γ‐Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles. The resulting microspheres were characterized in terms of morphology, size, polydispersity, iron content, and temperature‐dependent swelling using optical microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, QELS, and AAS. The effects of several variables, such as the concentration of γ‐Fe₂O₃, MBAAm crosslinking agent, Span 80 surfactant, 2,2′‐azobis(2‐methyloctanenitrile) (AMON) initiator, and polymerization temperature on the properties of the microspheres were studied. Swelling and thermoresponsive behavior of the microspheres containing γ‐Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles were also investigated. The microspheres contained about 8 wt % of iron. The presence of magnetic nanoparticles and their concentration changes did not have any significant effect on the temperature sensitivity of the composites. The particles gradually shrink into an increasingly collapsed state when the temperature is raised to 40 °C since the increase in temperature weakens the hydration and PNIPAAm chains gradually become more hydrophobic, which leads to the collapse of the particles. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 5884–5898, 2007     

A differential scanning calorimetry method to determine the isothermal crystallization kinetics of cocoa butter

This research aimed to reduce the variability on the data obtained from differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) analysis of the isothermal crystallization kinetics of cocoa butter.

To enable transformation of the DSC crystallization peak to a sigmoid crystallization curve, the DSC peak area has to be integrated. Usually, the start and end points of the crystallization peak are determined visually. The result of this visual determination appeared to be very much dependent on the operator, but also differed considerably when the same operator performed the integration several times. By proposing an objective calculation algorithm to determine the start and end points of integration, the variability caused by the operator during the integration procedure could be eliminated. Furthermore, sample preparation and the DSC heating protocol to melt the sample prior to crystallization were studied. Three heating protocols (65 °C for 15 min, 65 °C for 30 min and 80 °C for 15 min) were compared and it was shown that holding at 65 °C for 15 min was sufficient to eliminate any influence of sample history. Two different sample preparation procedures were compared and it appeared that a change in sample preparation procedure had a significant influence on the measured crystallization process. It is thus important to keep this method constant to eliminate the variability caused by it.     

Gauss-Manin connections for arrangements, III Formal connections

We study the Gauss-Manin connection for the moduli space of an arrangement of complex hyperplanes in the cohomology of a complex rank one local system. We define formal Gauss-Manin connection matrices in the Aomoto complex and prove that, for all arrangements and all local systems, these formal connection matrices specialize to Gauss-Manin connection matrices.

     

Local Minimizers of the Ginzburg-Landau Energy with Magnetic Field in Three Dimensions

We establish the existence of locally minimizing vortex solutions to the full Ginzburg-Landau energy in three dimensional simply-connected domains with or without the presence of an applied magnetic field. The approach is based upon the theory of weak Jacobians and applies to nonconvex sample geometries for which there exists a configuration of locally shortest line segments with endpoints on the boundary.Research partially supported by NSERC grant number 261955