Dispersion and distribution of organically modified montmorillonite in nylon‐66 matrix

Nylon‐66 nanocomposites were prepared by melt‐compounding nylon‐66 with an alkyl ammonium surfactant pretreated montmorillonite (MMT). The thermal stability of the organic MMT powders was measured by thermogravimetric analysis. The decomposition of the surfactant on the MMT occurred from 200 to 500 °C. The low onset decomposition temperature of the organic MMT is one shortcoming when it is used to prepare polymer nanocomposites at high melt‐compounding temperatures. To provide greater property enhancement and better thermal stability of the polymer/MMT nanocomposites, it is necessary to develop MMT modified with more thermally stable surfactants. The dispersion and spatial distribution of the organic MMT layers in the nylon‐66 matrix were characterized by X‐ray diffraction. The organic MMT layers were exfoliated but not randomly dispersed in the nylon‐66 matrix. A model was proposed to describe the spatial distribution of the organic MMT layers in an injection‐molded rectangular bar of nylon‐66/organic MMT nanocomposites. Most organic MMT layers were oriented in the injection‐molding direction. Layers near the four surfaces of the bar were parallel to their corresponding surfaces; whereas those in the bulk differed from the near‐surface layers and rotated themselves about the injection‐molding direction. The influence of the spatial distribution of the organic MMT on crystallization of nylon‐66 was also investigated. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 1234–1243, 2003     

Controlled/living polymerization of 2‐(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate and its block copolymer with tert‐butyl methacrylate by atom transfer radical polymerization

Polymerization of 2‐(diethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DEAEMA) via homogeneous atom transfer radical polymerization under various reaction conditions is described. The effects of the initiators and solvents were examined. With 1,1,4,7,10,10‐hexamethyl triethylenetetramine/copper(I) chloride/p‐toluenesulfonyl chloride as the ligand/catalyst/initiator system in methanol, poly(DEAEMA) with a polydispersity index as low as 1.07 was synthesized. Kinetic studies demonstrated the polymerization was very well controlled and exhibited the living characteristic of the process. Well‐defined block copolymers of DEAEMA and tert‐butyl methacrylate (tBMA) were successfully synthesized. The copolymers could be synthesized with equally good results by starting with either p(DEAEMA) or p(tBMA) as the macroinitiators. However, only the macroinitiators terminated with chlorine should be used. The corresponding macroinitiators with bromine as a transferable group did not yield well‐defined copolymers. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 2688–2695, 2003     

Annealing behavior of gel‐spun polyethylene fibers at temperatures lower than needed for significant shrinkage

The annealing at 373 K of ultrastrong, gel‐spun polyethylene (PE) has been studied. At this temperature, the fibers show no significant shrinkage. Still, a significant decrease in the mechanical properties is observed. The fibers have been analyzed with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), temperature‐modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS). During the annealing, the glass transition of the intermediate phase is exceeded, as shown by DSC. When split for structure analysis by AFM, the annealed fibers undergo plastic deformation around the base fibrils instead of brittle fracture. The quasi‐isothermal TMDSC experiments are compared to the minor structural changes seen with SAXS and AFM. The loss of performance of the PE fibers at 373 K is suggested to be caused by the oriented intermediate phase, and not by major changes in the structure or morphology. The overall metastable, semicrystalline structure is shown by TMDSC to posses local regions that can melt reversibly. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 403–417, 2003     

Multiplicity results for positive solutions of some semi-positone three-point boundary value problems

In this paper, some multiplicity results for positive solutions of some singular semi-positone three-point boundary value problem be obtained by using the fixed point index method.     

Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis transitions of partially and fully substituted cellulose fatty esters

The main transitions of cellulose fatty esters with different degrees of substitution (DSs) were investigated with dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. Two distinct main relaxations were observed in partially substituted cellulose esters (PSCEs). They were attributed to the glass‐transition temperature and to the chain local motion of the aliphatic substituents. The temperatures of both transitions decreased when DS or the number of carbon atoms (n) of the acyl substituent increased. Conversely, all the transitions of fully substituted cellulose esters occurred within a narrow temperature range, and they did not vary significantly with n. This phenomenon was explained by the formation of a crystalline phase of the fatty substituents. The presence of few residual OH groups in PSCEs was responsible for a large increase in the storage bending modulus, and it eliminated the effect of n on damping. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 281–288, 2003     

Photoluminescence characteristics of ZnTiO3: Bi nanocrystals

The photoluminescence properties of the Bi³⁺ in sol-gel derived ZnTiO₃ nanocrystals have been investigated. An ultra-violet emission at 360 nm and a visible emission band at 506 nm have been observed, originating from two kinds of emission centers. The former is ascribed to the ³P₁-¹S₀ transition of Bi³⁺ and the latter to the recombination of the electrons with the photo-generated holes trapped in the zinc vacancies. In all cases the latter contribution is predominant.     

Optimization of the locations of the loudspeaker and absorption material in a small room

The sound field both in the loudspeaker box and in the room is calculated by an analytical solution of three-dimensional wave equation. It is shown in theory that the amplitude response in small rooms is affected by the following positions: driver position on the front panel of the box, box position in the room, absorption material position in the box and absorption material position on the interior walls of the room. Both our computer prediction and experiments prove that the optimum positions are beneficial to the amplitude response.     

2‐connected 7‐coverings of 3‐connected graphs on surfaces

An m‐covering of a graph G is a spanning subgraph of G with maximum degree at most m. In this paper, we shall show that every 3‐connected graph on a surface with Euler genus k ≥ 2 with sufficiently large representativity has a 2‐connected 7‐covering with at most 6k ? 12 vertices of degree 7. We also construct, for every surface F² with Euler genus k ≥ 2, a 3‐connected graph G on F² with arbitrarily large representativity each of whose 2‐connected 7‐coverings contains at least 6k ? 12 vertices of degree 7. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 43: 26–36, 2003     

The elastic theory of a single DNA molecule

We study the elastic responses of double-(ds) and single-stranded (ss) DNA at external force fields. A double-strand-polymer elastic model is constructed and solved by path integral methods and Monte Carlo simulations to understand the entropic elasticity, cooperative extensibility, and supercoiling property of dsDNA. The good agreement with experiments indicates that short-ranged base-pair stacking interaction is crucial for the stability and the high deformability of dsDNA. Hairpin-coil transition in ssDNA is studied with generating function method. A threshold force is needed to pull the ssDNA hairpin patterns, stabilized by base pairing and base-pair stacking, into random coils. This phase transition is predicted to be of first order for stacking potential higher than some critical level, in accordance with experimental observations.     

厚高阶光学非线性介质Z扫描的变分法分析

利用变分法对具有五阶光学非线性介质的Z扫描特性进行了研究。通过比较，发现当介质在具有较大的五阶非线性系数或较大光强的情况下，五阶非线性项的作用是不可忽略的。这对光限制器的设计和Z扫描实验都具有一定的指导意义。