Transport and Magnetic Resonance Studies of Polyaniline

Conductivity, thermoelectric power, spin concentration and spin dynamics has been measured in polyaniline samples equilibrated at different pH. Data provide evidence for Metal-Insulator transition upon pH variation.     

Validated TLC-densitometry method for the simultaneous analysis of pyrethroid insecticides in agricultural and domestic products

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Pyrethroids are widely used for the control of pests and insects, as pyrethroids are believed to pose very little risk to human health and environment. However, exposure to the pyrethroids exceeding the label directions might adversely affect human health and environment. Hence a careful selection of environment friendly household product is required that must contain exactly the label claimed pyrethroids amount. RESULTS: A sensitive and robust TLC-densitometric method for simultaneous quantification of commonly used synthetic pyrethroids including esbiothrin, alpha-cypermethrin and cis/trans permethrin in agricultural and domestic products has been developed and validated. TLC aluminum plates, precoated with 0.2 mm thick layer of silica gel 60 F-254, were used for chromatographic process. Densitometric analysis of chromatoplates was carried out in absorbance mode at corresponding lamdamax of each pyrethroid. Equally valid common mobile phase for all pyrethroids consisted of hexane-dichloromethane-ethylacetate-formic acid (8:1.5:0.4:0.1 v/v/v/v) which provided sharp and symmetrical peaks of esbiothrin, alpha-cypermethrin, trans-permethrin and cis-permethrin, at Rf 0.31, 0.53, 0.6 and 0.65, respectively. Linear regression data for respective calibration curves showed a good linearity for all pyrethroids with r = 0.991-0.996. Limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantification (LOQ) for all pyrethroids were found in the range of 1.6-2.8 and 4.9-8.5 ng/spot, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The developed method is applicable for separating the mixture of pyrethroids and at the same time, it is also valid for separating their isomers. The method is reproducible, precise and accurate for the quantitative determination of pyrethroids in agricultural and domestic products.     

Methylol‐functional benzoxazines as precursors for high‐performance thermoset polymers: Unique simultaneous addition and condensation polymerization behavior

A new class of high‐performance resins of combined molecular structure of both traditional phenolics and benzoxazines has been developed. The monomers termed as methylol‐functional benzoxazines were synthesized through Mannich condensation reaction of methylol‐functional phenols and aromatic amines, including methylenedianiline (4,4′‐diaminodiphenylmethane) and oxydianiline (4,4′‐diaminodiphenyl ether), in the presence of paraformaldehyde. For comparison, other series of benzoxazine monomers were prepared from phenol, corresponding aromatic amines, and paraformaldehyde. The as‐synthesized monomers are characterized by their high purity as judged from ¹H NMR and Fourier transform infrared spectra. Differential scanning calorimetric thermograms of the novel monomers show two exothermic peaks associated with condensation reaction of methylol groups and ring‐opening polymerization of benzoxazines. The position of methylol group relative to benzoxazine structure plays a significant role in accelerating polymerization. Viscoelastic and thermogravimetric analyses of the crosslinked polymers reveal high T_g (274–343 °C) and excellent thermal stability when compared with the traditional polybenzoxazines. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Formation of a crosslinked POSS network by an unusual hydrosilylation: Thermo‐oxidative stabilization of the α‐cristobalite phase in its amorphous regions

A semicrystalline inorganic–organic hybrid crosslinked network containing polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) cores was constructed by the unusual hydrosilylation of the terminal vinyl groups of an internal acetylene‐containing silane linker by a POSS monomer. Products from the thermal treatments of this network in either argon or air at 250, 550, and 1000 °C, respectively, were characterized by Fourier transform infrared, Solid‐state ¹³C and ²⁹Si magic angle spinning NMR, X‐ray diffraction and XPS analyses. The highly symmetrically functionalized POSS silica clusters, in the fluorite silica phase, in the network were found to remain unchanged on thermal treatment possibly due to the shielding of the silica core by the functionalities and a cancellation of thermal stresses on the silica core. Stabilization of the metastable α‐cristobalite phase, which is typically formed on cooling by a β‐ to α‐transition of the β‐cristobalite phase formed above 1400 °C, was observed in the amorphous regions in the network sample treated only to 1000 °C in air. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Inventory control and pricing for perishable products under age and price dependent stochastic demand

Multistage stochastic programming (SP) with both endogenous and exogenous uncertainties is a novel problem in which some uncertain parameters are decision-dependent and others are independent of decisions. The main difficulty of this problem is that nonanticipativity constraints (NACs) make up a significantly large constraint set, growing very fast with the number of scenarios and leading to an intractable model. Usually, a lot of these constraints are redundant and hence, identification and elimination of redundant NACs can cause a significant reduction in the problem size. Recently, a polynomial time algorithm has been proposed in the literature which is able to identify all redundant NACs in an SP problem with only endogenous uncertainty. In this paper, however, we extend the algorithm proposed in the literature and present a new method which is able to make the upper most possible reduction in the number of NACs in any SP with both exogenous and endogenous uncertain parameters. Proving the validity of this method is another innovation of this study. Computational results confirm that the proposed approach can significantly reduce the problem size within a reasonable computation time.     

Ab-initio calculations of structural,electronic,and optical properties of Zn_3(VO_4)_2

The structural, electronic, and optical properties of Zn_3(VO_4)_2 are investigated using full potential linearized augmented plane wave(FP-LAPW) method within the framework of density functional theory(DFT). Various approaches are adopted to treat the exchange and correlation potential energy such as generalized gradient approximation(GGA),GGA+U, and the Tran–Blaha modified Becke–Johnson(TB-mBJ) potential. The calculated band gap of 3.424 eV by TB-mBJ is found to be close to the experimental result(3.3 eV). The optical anisotropy is analyzed through optical constants,such as dielectric function and absorption coefficient along parallel and perpendicular crystal orientations. The absorption coefficient reveals high absorption(1.5 × 10~(6) cm~(-1)) of photons in the ultraviolet region.