Step and steady shear responses of nearly monodisperse highly entangled 1,4-polybutadiene solutions

Nonlinear relaxation dynamics of highly entangled solutions of high molecular weight 1,4-polybutadiene (PB) in a PB oligomer are studied in steady shear and step shear flows. Polymer entanglement densities vary in the range 14hN/N_e(J)⣴, allowing systematic investigation of entanglement effects on nonlinear rheological response. In agreement with previous steady shear studies using well entangled polystyrene solutions, a flow regime is found where both the steady-state shear stress and first normal stress difference remain constant or increase quite slowly with shear rate, leading to a plateau in the steady-state orientation angle. The magnitude of the average orientation angle in the plateau range is in accordance with predictions of a recent theory by Islam and Archer (2001). In step shear, the nonlinear relaxation modulus G(t,%) is approximately factorable into time-dependent G(t) and strain-dependent h(%) functions only at long times, t>5_k, where 5_k,O(F_d0). This finding is consistent with earlier observations for entangled polystyrene solutions; however the complex crossing pattern in G(t,%)h^-1(%) that precede factorability in the latter materials is not observed. For all but the most entangled sample, apparent shear damping functions h (%,t)=(G(t,%))/(G(t)) immediately following imposition of shear are in nearly quantitative accord with the damping function h_DEIA predicted by Doi-Edwards theory.     

Furan-containing conjugated polymers for organic solar cells

Development of organic semiconductors is one of the most intriguing and productive topics in material science and engineering. Many efforts have been made on the synthesis of aromatic building blocks such as benzene, thiophene and pyrrole due to the facile preparation accompanied by the intrinsic environmental stability and relatively efficient properties of the resulting polymers. In the past, furan has been less explored in this field because of its high oxidation potential. Recently, furan has attracted obsession due to its weaker aromaticity, the greater solubilities of furan-containing π-conjugated polymers relative to other benzenoid systems and the accessibility of furan-based starting materials from renewable resources. This review elaborates the advancements of organic photovoltaic polymers containing furan building blocks. The uniqueness and advantages of furan-containing building blocks in semiconducting materials are also discussed.     

Exogenous Sodium Nitroprusside Mitigates Salt Stress in Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) by Affecting the Growth,Yield, and Biochemical Properties

Soil salinity disrupts the physiological and biochemical processes of crop plants and ultimately leads to compromising future food security. Sodium nitroprusside (SNP), a contributor to nitric oxide (NO), holds the potential to alleviate abiotic stress effects and boost tolerance in plants, whereas less information is available on its role in salt-stressed lentils. We examined the effect of exogenously applied SNP on salt-stressed lentil plants by monitoring plant growth and yield-related attributes, biochemistry of enzymes (superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD)) amassing of leaf malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). Salinity stress was induced by NaCl application at concentrations of 50 mM (moderate salinity) and 100 mM (severe salinity), while it was alleviated by SNP application at concentrations of 50 µM and 100 µM. Salinity stress severely inhibited the length of roots and shoots, the relative water content, and the chlorophyll content of the leaves, the number of branches, pods, seeds, seed yield, and biomass per plant. In addition, MDA, H₂O₂ as well as SOD, CAT, and POD activities were increased with increasing salinity levels. Plants supplemented with SNP (100 µM) showed a significant improvement in the growth- and yield-contributing parameters, especially in plants grown under moderate salinity (50 mM NaCl). Essentially, the application of 100 µM SNP remained effective to rescue lentil plants under moderate salinity by regulating plant growth and biochemical pathways. Thus, the exogenous application of SNP could be developed as a useful strategy for improving the performance of lentil plants in salinity-prone environments.     

Semiempirical evaluation of the global hardness of the atoms of 103 elements of the periodic table using the most probable radii as their size descriptors

Relying upon the fact that the density functional computation of the global hardness of the atoms of the elements are still at large and there is some mathematical in congruency between the theory and operational formula of finite difference approximation, we have suggested a radial‐dependent ansatz for evaluating global hardness of atoms as: η=a(7.2/r)+b (in eV), where, “a” and “b” are the constants and r is the absolute radius of atoms in angstrom unit. The ansatz is invoked to evaluate the global hardness of atoms of 103 element of the periodic table. The evaluated new set of global hardness is found to satisfy the sine qua non of a reasonable scale of hardness by exhibiting perfect periodicity of periods and groups and correlating the gross physicochemical properties of elements. The inertness of Hg and extreme reactivity Cs atoms are nicely correlated. The chemical reactivity and its variation in small steps in the series of lanthanide elements are also nicely reproduced. The results of the present semiempirical calculation also have strong correlation with the result of some sophisticated DFT calculation for a set of atoms. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2010     

Potential formation and high density plasma production on the tandem mirror GAMMA 10

GAMMA 10 experiments have advanced in high density experiments after the last EPS Workshop where we reported high density plasma production by using an ion cyclotron range of frequency heating at a high harmonic frequency and neutral beam injection in the central cell. Recently a high density plasma was obtained with much improved reproducibility than before and without degradation of diamagnetic signal. The high density plasma was attained by adjusting the spacing of the conducting plates installed in the anchor transition regions. Dependencies of particle confinement time, ion energy confinement time and plasma confining potential on plasma density were obtained for the first time in the high density region. Presented at 5th Workshop “Role of Electric Fields in Plasma Confinement and Exhaust”, Montreus, Switzerland, June 23–24, 2002.     

Effect of pullulan/poly(vinyl alcohol) blend system on the montmorillonite structure with property characterization of electrospun pullulan/poly(vinyl alcohol)/montmorillonite nanofibers

Nanofibers of the composite of pullulan (PULL), poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), and montmorillonite clay (MMT) were prepared using electrospinning method in aqueous solutions. Pullulan is an interesting natural polymer for many of its merits and good properties. Because of biocompatibility and non-toxicity of PVA, it could be used in numerous fields. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) were done to characterize the PULL/PVA/MMT nanofibers morphology and properties. XRD patterns and FTIR data demonstrated that there were good interactions between PULL and PVA caused by possibly hydrogen bonds. Moreover, XRD data and TEM images indicated that intercalated and exfoliated MMT nanoplatelets can be obtained within the PULL/PVA/MMT nanofibers depending on the PULL/PVA blend ratios. Furthermore, the thermal stability and mechanical property (tensile strength) of PULL/PVA/MMT nanofibers could be enhanced more by exfoliated MMT nanoplatelets than intercalated structures of that nanoplatelets.     

Lithium insertion into YBa2Cu3O7

Atomistic computer simulation techniques are used to investigate the effects of lithium insertion into YBa₂Cu₃O₇. Attention is focused on various possible lattice sites occupied by the inserted lithium ions and pathways for their migration. The square-planar position in the Cu(2) layer is calculated to be the most energetically favorable. This is supported by the structural modeling of the ordered lithiated phase Li_0.33YBa₂Cu₃O₇. The calculated activation energies derived from migration profiles are in accord with experimental values and suggest fairly mobile lithium ions.     

Randomly chosen chaotic maps can give rise to nearly ordered behavior

Parrondo’s paradox [J.M.R. Parrondo, G.P. Harmer, D. Abbott, New paradoxical games based on Brownian ratchets, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85 (2000), 5226–5229] (see also [O.E. Percus, J.K. Percus, Can two wrongs make a right? Coin-tossing games and Parrondo’s paradox, Math. Intelligencer 24 (3) (2002) 68–72]) states that two losing gambling games when combined one after the other (either deterministically or randomly) can result in a winning game: that is, a losing game followed by a losing game = a winning game. Inspired by this paradox, a recent study [J. Almeida, D. Peralta-Salas, M. Romera, Can two chaotic systems give rise to order? Physica D 200 (2005) 124–132] asked an analogous question in discrete time dynamical system: can two chaotic systems give rise to order, namely can they be combined into another dynamical system which does not behave chaotically? Numerical evidence is provided in [J. Almeida, D. Peralta-Salas, M. Romera, Can two chaotic systems give rise to order? Physica D 200 (2005) 124–132] that two chaotic quadratic maps, when composed with each other, create a new dynamical system which has a stable period orbit. The question of what happens in the case of random composition of maps is posed in [J. Almeida, D. Peralta-Salas, M. Romera, Can two chaotic systems give rise to order? Physica D 200 (2005) 124–132] but left unanswered. In this note we present an example of a dynamical system where, at each iteration, a map is chosen in a probabilistic manner from a collection of chaotic maps. The resulting random map is proved to have an infinite absolutely continuous invariant measure (acim) with spikes at two points. From this we show that the dynamics behaves in a nearly ordered manner. When the foregoing maps are applied one after the other, deterministically as in [O.E. Percus, J.K. Percus, Can two wrongs make a right? Coin-tossing games and Parrondo’s paradox, Math. Intelligencer 24 (3) (2002) 68–72], the resulting composed map has a periodic orbit which is stable.