Radiation-induced emulsion polymerization of ethylene. III. Emulsion polymerization with ammonium perfluorooctanoate as the emulsifier

Radiation-induced emulsion polymerization of ethylene with ammonium perfluoro-octanoate as an emulsifier was studied in order to elucidate the effect of the number of polymer particles. Owing to the stable structure of the emulsifier from a radical attack, no C? F bond was detected in the polyethylene as expected. The polyethylene produced was mostly gel containing a small amount of low molecular weight polyethylene. This may be attributable to chain transfer to the polyethylene. The effects of dose rate and of concentration of the emulsifier were determined without considering the chain-transfer reaction to the emulsifier. By considering the escape of the radical which is produced by chain transfer to the monomer from the polymer particle to the aqueous phase at the steady state, the following equation is derived: The experimental results could be explained by this equation, and the apparent rate constants were obtained.     

Molecular assembly of Zn porphyrin complexes onto a gold electrode using synthetic light-harvesting model polypeptides

Molecular assembly of Zn porphyrin pigments, Zn substituted bacteriochlorophyll a ([Zn]-BChl a) and Zn mesoporphyrin monomer (ZnMPMME) on a gold electrode using synthetic 1α-helix hydrophobic polypeptides which have similar amino acid sequences to the hydrophobic core in the native photosynthetic light-harvesting (LH) 1-β polypeptide from Rhodobacter sphaeroides, has been achieved: this process is dependent on the structures of pigments and polypeptides. Interestingly, an enhanced photoelectric current was observed when ZnMPMME with the LH1 model polypeptide in an α-helical configuration was assembled onto the electrode.     

Catalytic asymmetric allylation of aldehydes and related reactions with bis(((S)-binaphthoxy)(isopropoxy)titanium) oxide as a mu-oxo-type chiral Lewis acid

A new, chiral bis-Ti(IV) oxide of type 3 has been designed and can be utilized for strong activation of aldehyde carbonyls, thereby allowing a new catalytic enantioselective allylation of aldehydes with allyltributyltin. The chiral bis-Ti(IV) catalyst (S,S)-3 can be readily prepared either by treatment of bis(triisopropoxy)titanium oxide with (S)-BINOL or by treatment of ((S)-binaphthoxy)isopropoxytitanium chloride with silver(I) oxide. Treatment of hydrocinnamaldehyde with allyltributyltin under the influence of chiral bis-Ti(IV) oxide (S,S)-3 generated in situ (10 mol %) in CH(2)Cl(2) afforded an allylation product in 84 % yield and with 99 % ee. This asymmetric allylation with non-racemic bis-Ti(IV) oxide 3 and partially resolved (S)-BINOL shows a positive nonlinear effect in correlation of the enantiopurity of the allylation product with the ee of the (S)-BINOL. Chiral bis-Ti(IV) oxide (S,S)-3 can also be utilized for related reactions such as asymmetric methallylation and propargylation of aldehydes with high enantioselectivity. This asymmetric approach provides a very useful way of obtaining high reactivity and selectivity through the simple introduction of the M-O-M unit into the design of chiral Lewis acid catalysts.     

Conformationally rigid chiral [4+2]cycloadduct-based 2-oxazolidinones as new auxiliaries

Newly introduced enantiomerically pure [4+2]cycloadduct-based 2-oxazolidinones which are conformationally fixed by bicyclo[2.2.2] and [2.2.1] ring systems, serve well as exellent chiral auxiliaries in the Evans' asymmetric strategy.     

Modification and characterization of polystyrene surfaces used for cell culture

Surfaces of polystyrene Petri dishes used for cell culture were chemically modified by 5% fuming sulfuric acid. The sulfonation was performed at room temperature for various times. Formation of polar groups takes place essentially on the surface of the polymer. Wettability and ionic character of the modified surfaces were determined by contact angle measurements and surface conductivity measurements, respectively. Radioactive calcium (⁴⁵Ca) adsorption at these surfaces was investigated by means of radiotracer techniques. The chemical composition (concentration of polar sites produced) of these modified polystyrene surfaces was thus determined. It was found that the wettability of these surfaces is directly related to the concentration of sulfonate groups. The cation-exchange capacity of treated surfaces with inorganic cations (Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, and Al³⁺) were determined by the radiotracer technique.     

Radiation-induced emulsion polymerization of ethylene. II. Effect of potassium myristate concentration and dose rate on the rate of polymerization in connection with polymer properties,kinetics, and mechanism

Radiation-induced emulsion polymerization of ethylene with potassium myristate as an emulsifier was studied in connection with the kinetics and the mechanism. The molecular weight of polymer was relatively low, of the order of 10³, when a sufficient amount of emulsifier was used. However, polyethylene gel was produced in the absence of a sufficient amount of emulsifier. The rate of polymerization was proportional to the 0.5 power of dose rate and increased slightly with increasing emulsifier concentration. The rate of seeded polymerization followed a similar trend to that for conventional polymerization. Kinetic analysis of these results suggests that the escape of radicals produced by chain transfer of propagating radical with the emulsifier and the monomer from polymer particles into the aqueous phase plays an important part in the rate of polymerization. The melting temperature and the crystallinity of the polymer significantly decreased with increasing polymerization temperature in the range 40–60°C.     

Effect of pressure on the radiation-induced polymerization of ethylene in tert-butyl alcohol

The effects of pressure of the radiation-induced polymerization of ethylene in tert-butyl alcohol were studied. The reaction was carried out by use of a reactor with a capacity of 100 ml under the following conditions; pressure, 60–400 kg/cm²; temperature, 24 ± 3°C; dose rate, 2.0 × 10⁴?1.6 × 10⁵ rad/hr; amount of medium (tert-butyl alcohol containing 5 vol-% water), 70 ml. The results of polymerization were analyzed by a kinetical treatment based on a reaction mechanism with both first- and second-order terminations for the concentration of propagating, radical. On the basis of the kinetical treatment the rate constants of each elementary reaction at several pressures were determined, and the activation volumes of elementary reactions were obtained and are discussed in connection with the reaction mechanism. Consequently, the rate constants of propagation, first-order termination, and second-order termination at pressure p and at 24°C were expressed by,      

The radiation resistance of the bioburden from medical devices

An extensive study of the radiation resistance of microbial species constituting the bioburden of a number of different medical devices obtained from Japanese medical device manufacturers has been carried out. A standard protocol for determining radiation resistance was used and validated at the fourteen centres involved in the study. Individual microbial isolates from the bioburden obtained from seven different devices manufactured in these centres were studied. A total of 3742 unselected isolates were obtained, of which 197 failed to survive long enough for subsequent radiation resistance studies. The remainder were subjected to an initial screen test to identify those organisms that were sensitive to the lethal effects of radiation with a D₁₀ of < 1.5kGy. The 465 isolates that survived the screen doses were then tested for survival in an incremental series of radiation doses using methods similar to those of Whitby (1979) and Yan and Tallentire(1995). The isolates from “dry” devices were more resistant than those obtained from the one water filled (“wet”) device studied. The overall distribution of radiation resistance among the isolates was considered to be similar to that forming the “Standard Distribution of Resistance” (SDR) included in the ISO International Standard 11137 “Sterilization of Health Care Products — Requirements for validation and routine control — Radiation sterilization”.     

Novel surface fixation technology of hydrogel based on photochemical method: Heparin-immobilized hydrogelated surface

This article reports a novel photoinduced surface process technology enabling simultaneous hydrogel formation and its surface fixation on polymeric substrates. The process consists of layering two different types of photoreactive coatings on a polymeric surface, an azidophenyl-bearing polymer as an adhesive layer and cinnamoylated copolymer as a hydrogel layer, and subsequent UV irradiation. The photoreactive adhesive polymer coated on a substrate is poly(m-azidostyrene), in which photoreaction of phenyl azido groups is responsible for the chemical bonding between the substrate and hydrogel. N,N-dimethylacrylamide copolymer containing cinnamate moieties in their side chains, which undergo photocrosslinking via intermolecular dimerization, was applied as an overcoat on the adhesive layer. UV irradiation resulted in the formation of hydrogel chemically bonded onto the substrate. This was confirmed by ESCA measurements. A heparin-immobilized hydrogelated surface with controlled release characteristics was demonstrated. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Radiation-induced heterogeneous polymerization of ethylene in the presence of ethyl alcohol

The radiation-induced heterogeneous polymerization of ethylene in ethyl alcohol was carried out in a reactor with a capacity of 100 ml under the following reaction conditions: temperature, 24 ± 3°C; pressure, 200–400 kg/cm²; amount of ethyl alcohol, 30–70 ml; dose rate, 3.7 × 10⁴?1.05 × 10⁵ rad hr. The effects of amount of ethyl alcohol, pressure, and dose rate on the rate of polymerization at the steady state, the amount of polymerized monomer, the molecular weight of polymer, and the number of polymer chains were studied compared with the results obtained in the polymerization in tert-butyl alcohol. It was found that there is an acceleration period in the early stage of reaction followed by a steady state. The rate of polymerization was maximum when about 50 ml of ethyl alcohol was used. The molecular weight of polymer increased with a decrease in the amount of ethyl alcohol. The dependences of pressure (p) and dose rate (I) on the rate of polymerization at steady state (R_s) and the molecular weight of polymer (M?_n) were expressed as follows; R_s ∝ p^0.74, M?_n ∝ p^0.3?0.4, R_s ∝ I^0.9 and M?_n ∝ I^{?0.1 ?0.0}. The results were analyzed by a kinetic treatment based on a reaction mechanism containing both first-and second-order terminations. The rate constant of first-order termination by radical occlusion was considerably larger than that in the polymerization in tert-butyl alcohol, because the affinity of ethyl alcohol for polyethylene is smaller than that of tert-butyl alcohol. It was found that chain transfer to ethyl alcohol takes place easily and the G value of ethyl alcohol for initiation is larger than 1.5.