All‐aromatic liquid crystalline thermosets with high glass transition temperatures

We have synthesized and characterized a new family of low melting all‐aromatic ester‐based liquid crystal oligomers end‐capped with reactive phenylethynyl end groups. In a consecutive, high‐temperature step, the reactive end groups were thermally activated and polymerization was initiated. This reactive oligomer approach allows us to synthesize liquid crystal thermosets with outstanding mechanical and thermal properties, which are superior to well‐known high‐performance polymers such as PPS and PEEK. We have modified an intractable LC formulation based on hydroquinone and terephthalic acid, with M_n = 1000, 5000, and 9000 g mol^?1, and varied the backbone composition using isophthalic acid, resorcinol, 4‐hydroxy‐benzoic acid, 6‐hydroxy‐2‐naphthoic acid, and chlorohydroquinone. All fully cured polymers showed glass transition temperatures in the range of 164–275 °C, and high storage moduli at room temperature (～ 5 GPa) and elevated temperature (～ 2 GPa at 200 °C). All oligomers display nematic mesophases and in most cases, the nematic order is maintained after cure. Rheology experiments showed that the phenylethynyl end group undergoes predominantly chain extension below 340 °C and crosslinking above this temperature. Highly aligned fibers could be spun from the nematic melt, and we found that the order parameter 〈P₂〉 was not affected by the chain extension and crosslink chemistry. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 1368–1380, 2009     

Binary permutation sequences as subsets of Levenshtein codes,spectral null codes,run-length limited codes and constant weight codes

We investigate binary sequences which can be obtained by concatenating the columns of (0,1)-matrices derived from permutation sequences. We then prove that these binary sequences are subsets of a surprisingly diverse ensemble of codes, namely the Levenshtein codes, capable of correcting insertion/deletion errors; spectral null codes, with spectral nulls at certain frequencies; as well as being subsets of run-length limited codes, Nyquist null codes and constant weight codes. This paper was presented in part at the IEEE Information Theory Workshop, Chengdu, China, October, 2006.     

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Does the strain hardening modulus of glassy polymers scale with the flow stress?

Using a generic coarse‐grained bead‐spring model, Hoy and Robbins reproduced important experimental observations on strain hardening, specifically the generally observed Gaussian strain hardening response and its dependence on network density and temperature. Moreover, their simulation results showed that the strain hardening response at different strain rates collapses to a single curve when scaled to the value of the flow stress, a phenomenon that has not yet been verified experimentally. In the present study, the proposed scaling law is experimentally investigated on a variety of polymer glasses: poly(methyl methacrylate), poly(phenylene ether), polycarbonate, polystyrene, and poly(ethylene terephthalate)‐glycol. For these polymers, true stress–strain curves in uniaxial compression were collected over a range of strain rates and temperatures and scaled to the flow stress. It was found that, generally, the curves do not collapse on a mastercurve. In all cases, the strain hardening modulus is observed to increase linearly, but not proportionally to the flow stress. The experimental data, therefore, unambiguously demonstrate that the proposed scaling law does not apply within the range of temperature and strain rate covered in this study. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 46: 2475–2481, 2008     

Polarons in magnesium-doped lithium niobate crystals induced by femtosecond light pulses

Strong light-induced absorption has been observed in lithium niobate crystals doped with magnesium after application of femtosecond illumination. In this material there are no Nb-on-Li-site defects and hence no antisite polarons occur, but small free polarons close to the conduction band can be generated. The light-induced absorption observed is attributed to these polarons. For LiNbO₃:Mg, their decay times are about two orders of magnitude smaller than those of the Nb-on-Li-site polarons in undoped material. The results are relevant for a better understanding of the suppression of the so-called optical damage in these crystals and for their use in femtosecond applications.     

Geometrical and electronic structures of dinuclear complex ions {(mu-bpym)[Cu(EAr3)2]2}2+ with intramolecular "organic sandwich" formation (E = P or As; Ar = Aryl; bpym = 2,2'-bipyrimidine)

The compound {(mu-bpym)[Cu(AsPh3)2]2}(BF4)2 (1) has been prepared and studied in comparison with the triphenylphosphine analogue 2. Qualitatively, the structure of 1 with characteristically distorted copper(I) coordination caused by Ph/bpym/Ph sandwich interactions is similar to that of 2 and is approximately reproduced by DFT calculations for the model complex ions {(mu-bpym)[Cu(EMe2Ph)2]2}2+, E = P or As. In contrast, the dinuclear {(mu-bpym)[Cu(P(3-Me-C6H4)3)2]2}(BF4)2 (3) displays a distinctly less distorted metal coordination geometry due to the steric requirements of the methyl groups in the meta-tolyl substituents. The electrochemical reduction of 1 is less reversible than for the phosphine analogues; the one-electron-reduced form 1*- exhibits a broad, unresolved EPR signal at g = 2.0023. Resonance Raman spectroscopy of 1 shows the typical vibrations of the bpym ligand in agreement with the MLCT assignment of the long-wavelength transitions below 500 nm. All three dinuclear complexes exhibit luminescence at room temperature in the solid and in solution.     

The effects of synthesis pH and hydrothermal treatment on the formation of zinc aluminum hydrotalcites

Zn/Al hydrotalcites were synthesized by coprecipitation at increasing pH from 6.0 to 14.0, followed by hydrothermal treatment at 150 °C for 7 days. The materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), STEM, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), thermal analysis, infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The XRD analysis for the samples prepared between pH 9.0 and 12.0 showed a pattern typical of hydrotalcite, with a c-axis distance of ∼22.6 Å. STEM showed that the pH of preparation affected the stability of the hydrotalcite and that instability, observed at pH 9.0, favored the formation of mixed phases when treated hydrothermally. It was also shown that treatment of a stable starting material increased the crystallinity and resulted in the formation of hexagonal plate-shaped particles. ICP-AES and thermal analysis showed that the Zn/Al ratio and thermal stability increased with pH. Thermal analysis showed three major weight losses corresponding to the loss of interparticle water, interlayer water and dehydroxylation of the hydroxide layers and decarbonization of the interlayer region.