Mathematical modelling of the oxidation of nickel titanium alloys

A one-dimensional bulk reaction model for the oxidation of nickeltitanium is formulated, with preferential oxidation of titaniumbeing included. The modelling is directed at the better understandingof the dominant mechanisms involved in the oxidation processand their significance for the biocompatibility of the alloy.Two different regimes for the relative diffusivities of oxygenand the metals are investigated. By assuming fast bulk reactions,different asymptotic structures emerge in different parameterregimes and the resulting models take the form of moving boundaryproblems. Different profiles of nickel concentration are obtained:in particular a nickel-rich layer (observed in practice) ispresent below the oxide/metal interface for the case when oxygenand the metals diffuse at comparable rates.     

Structure and properties of the mesophase of syndiotactic polystyrene. II. Effect of stepwise extraction on the preparation of the mesophase

In this study, a novel stepwise extraction method has been examined. The guest molecules housed between the helices of the clathrate δ form of syndiotactic polystyrene can be removed completely with this method. A systematic study of the preparation of a solvent‐free mesophase (emptied clathrate) membrane, its helical and residual solvent contents, and its structural transformations has been performed. In this first attempt, an enhancement in the TTGG helical content has been observed in the extracted membrane, and a conceptual mechanism is proposed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 269–273, 2003     

Lein?l, Lein?lfirniss und Oelfarben

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

A method to collect an infrared spectrum in solution.

Herein we report a new method to collect a qualified infrared spectrum of a solute in solution by two solvent cells with different thickness during background single-beam spectrum scanning. By collecting the background spectrum with two cells (two stages), we successfully achieved accurate solvent compensation between a sample and a reference, namely, the solvent amounts in the sample and background measurements could become congruent. Therefore, the solvent bands were thoroughly suppressed in the infrared spectrum and a qualified spectrum of the solute was obtained.     

Mono-dispersed cross-linked polystyrene micro-spheres prepared by seed swelling polymerization method

A two-step swelling procedure was adopted to synthesize mono-dispersed and highly cross-linked poly (St-divinylbenzene) particles with PSt micro-spheres (1.80 μm in diameter). The PSt micro-spheres were prepared by a dispersion polymerization method and used as seeds. The effects of monomer concentration, ratio of ethanol to water, swelling reagents, crosslinking reagents, swelling temperature and agitation speed on particle size were investigated in detail. The morphologies and size distributions of these micro-spheres were examined by SEM and particle size analysis (PSA). The T _g of the micro-spheres was measured by DSC. The results indicate that the particles (6.20 μm in diameter) exhibit excellent mono dispersed property and high crosslinking degree when the concentration of the swelling reagent was 25%, the concentration of the crosslinking reagents was 23%, the swelling temperature was 30°C and the stirring speed was 150 r/min. __________ Translated from Chinese Journal of Applied Chemistry, 2007, 24(11): 1289–1294     

The kinetics of the light-induced defect creation in hydrogenated amorphous silicon – Stretched exponential relaxation

Our model for light-induced defect creation in hydrogenated amorphous silicon is applied to its kinetics, i.e., the growing curve of light-induced dangling bond density as a function of illumination time, which is fitted to a stretched exponential function. Two parameters β and τ involved in the function are estimated as functions of saturated dangling bond density in terms of our model. These are compared with two experimental results, i.e., our results obtained from ESR measurements and Shimakawa et al.’s results obtained from photoconductivity measurements. The saturated dangling bond density is also measured as a function of the generation rate of free carriers. The experimental results are compared with calculated results and discussed.     

Buckling of a stiff thin film on a compliant substrate in large deformation

A finite-deformation theory is developed to study the mechanics of thin buckled films on compliant substrates. Perturbation analysis is performed for this highly nonlinear system to obtain the analytical solution. The results agree well with experiments and finite element analysis in wavelength and amplitude. In particular, it is found that the wavelength depends on the strain. Based on the accurate wavelength and amplitude, the membrane and peak strains in thin films, and stretchability and compressibility of the system are also obtained analytically.     

Structural hierarchy of rock masses and the mechanisms of its formation

The formation mechanisms for the structural hierarchy in geological media are discussed. It is shown that the formation of such a hierarchy is caused by certain external and internal circumstances. The first ones consist in the fact that, because of external actions, the Earth’s poles continuously execute the translational and rotational motions responsible for a regular structure of rock fracture and for the appearance of the scale factor √2. The second ones consist in the fact that, under the action of many random factors and because of external actions, during the formation of geological media there appear dissipative structures and, hence, some self-similar fractal structures are formed.     

Miscibility and phase structure of binary blends of polylactide and poly(methyl methacrylate)

Blends of amorphous poly(DL‐lactide) (DL‐PLA) and crystalline poly(L‐lactide) (PLLA) with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) were prepared by both solution/precipitation and solution‐casting film methods. The miscibility, crystallization behavior, and component interaction of these blends were examined by differential scanning calorimetry. Only one glass‐transition temperature (T_g) was found in the DL‐PLA/PMMA solution/precipitation blends, indicating miscibility in this system. Two isolated T_g's appeared in the DL‐PLA/PMMA solution‐casting film blends, suggesting two segregated phases in the blend system, but evidence showed that two components were partially miscible. In the PLLA/PMMA blend, the crystallization of PLLA was greatly restricted by amorphous PMMA. Once the thermal history of the blend was destroyed, PLLA and PMMA were miscible. The T_g composition relationship for both DL‐PLA/PMMA and PLLA/PMMA miscible systems obeyed the Gordon–Taylor equation. Experiment results indicated that there is no more favorable trend of DL‐PLA to form miscible blends with PMMA than PLLA when PLLA is in the amorphous state. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 23–30, 2003