Plasma polymers from chloromethyltrimethylsilane and their modification with sodium azide

Plasma polymerization of chloromethyltrimethylsilane (CMTMS) was investigated by elemental analysis, infrared spectroscopy, and ESCA, and the modification of Cl substituents in the plasma polymers from CMTMS with sodium azide was discussed. CMTMS was plasma polymerized to yield filmy polymers. The polymer deposition rate was faster than that from tetramethylsilane containing no Cl atom. The plasma polymers from CMTMS were mainly composed of CH₃, CH₂, Si? CH₃, Si? O? Si, and Si? O? C groups with a small amount of C? Cl groups. The Cl substituents incorporated into the plasma polymers were capable of substitution reactions with azide groups to form azide polymers.     

Analysis of a type of nonsmooth dynamical systems

In this paper, a class of nonsmooth dynamical systems is analyzed. Extensive simulations reveal the chaotic behavior in these systems. By introducing a parameter, a chain of systems with one end being a linear stable system and the other being a chaotic system is constructed. Then the phase transition process through the chain is investigated as the parameter varies. Difficulties involved in analyzing this class of systems are also discussed.     

The LPCTrap experiment: measurement of the β–ν angular correlation in 6He using a transparent Paul trap

We report on the status of the LPCTrap experiment, devoted to measure the β–ν angular correlation in the pure Gamow–Teller decay of ⁶He. This measurement is motivated by the search for the presence of tensor type contributions to the weak interaction. The ⁶He ions are confined in a novel transparent Paul trap. The β particles and the recoil ions are detected in coincidence to deduce the angular correlation parameter. The commissioning run performed in 2005 has given the proof of principle of this experiment. Up to 10⁵ coincidences were recorded during a second run in 2006.     

Fractal character of effective Hall properties of a three-dimensional disordered composite

The dependencies of the effective Hall properties on a scale, obtained by means of an iterative averaging method, manifest their fractal character. The influence of an intensity of the Hall effect on the fractal character of the Hall properties was considered. Scale ranges and dimensional characteristics of the effective Hall properties behavior were calculated and discussed.     

Studies on calcium‐containing poly(urethane ether)s

The calcium salt of mono(hydroxyethoxyethyl)phthalate [Ca(HEEP)₂] was synthesized by the reaction of diethylene glycol, phthalic anhydride, and calcium acetate. Calcium‐containing poly(urethane ether)s (PUEs) were synthesized by the reaction of hexamethylene diisocyanate (HMDI) or tolylene 2,4‐diisocyanate (TDI) with a mixture of Ca(HEEP)₂ and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG₃₀₀ or PEG₄₀₀) with di‐n‐butyltin dilaurate as a catalyst. A series of calcium‐containing PUEs of different compositions were synthesized with Ca(HEEP)₂/PEG₃₀₀ (or PEG₄₀₀)/diisocyanate (HMDI or TDI) molar ratios of 2:2:4, 3:1:4, and 1:3:4 so that the coating properties of the PUEs could be studied. Blank PUEs without calcium‐containing ionic diols were also prepared by the reaction of PEG₃₀₀ or PEG₄₀₀ with HMDI or TDI. The PUEs were well characterized by Fourier transform infrared, ¹H and ¹³C NMR, solid‐state cross‐polarity/magic‐angle‐spinning ¹³C NMR, viscosity, solubility, and X‐ray diffraction studies. The thermal properties of the polymers were also studied with thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The PUEs were applied as top coats on acrylic‐coated leather, and their physicomechanical properties were also studied. The coating properties of PUEs, such as the tensile strength, elongation at break, tear strength, water vapor permeability, flexing endurance, cold crack resistance, abrasion resistance, color fastness, and adhesive strength, were better than the standard values. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 2865–2878, 2003     

Synthesis and electrical characteristics of polyaniline nanoparticles and their polymeric composite

Monodisperse polyaniline nanoparticles (PAPSSA) were synthesized from an oxidative dispersion polymerization using poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSSA) as both a polymeric stabilizer and a dopant agent due to its acidity. The nanoparticles were being stabilized with two different molecular weight of PSSA. Size effect of PAPSSA particles were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The d.c. electrical conductivity of composite films on the glass substrate was measured by a four-probe method. It was found that the electrical properties of the composite films are affected by the content of nano-sized polyaniline and different molecular weights of stabilizer in the poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) matrix.     

Annealing behavior of gel‐spun polyethylene fibers at temperatures lower than needed for significant shrinkage

The annealing at 373 K of ultrastrong, gel‐spun polyethylene (PE) has been studied. At this temperature, the fibers show no significant shrinkage. Still, a significant decrease in the mechanical properties is observed. The fibers have been analyzed with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), temperature‐modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and small‐angle X‐ray scattering (SAXS). During the annealing, the glass transition of the intermediate phase is exceeded, as shown by DSC. When split for structure analysis by AFM, the annealed fibers undergo plastic deformation around the base fibrils instead of brittle fracture. The quasi‐isothermal TMDSC experiments are compared to the minor structural changes seen with SAXS and AFM. The loss of performance of the PE fibers at 373 K is suggested to be caused by the oriented intermediate phase, and not by major changes in the structure or morphology. The overall metastable, semicrystalline structure is shown by TMDSC to posses local regions that can melt reversibly. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 403–417, 2003     

Development of a parallel storm surge model

A new parallel storm surge model, the Parallel Environmental Model (PEM), is developed and tested by comparisons with analytic solutions. The PEM is a 2‐D vertically averaged, wetting and drying numerical model and can be operated in explicit, semi‐implicit and fully implicit modes. In the implicit mode, the propagation, Coriolis and bottom friction terms can all be treated implicitly. The advection and diffusion terms are solved with a parallel Eulerian–Lagrangian scheme developed for this study. The model is developed specifically for use on parallel computer systems and will function accordingly in either explicit of implicit modes. Storm boundary conditions are based on a simple exponential decay of pressure from the centre of a storm. The simulated flooding caused by a major Category 5 hurricane making landfall in the Indian River Lagoon, Florida is then presented as an example application of the PEM. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exact Solutions of Extended Boussinesq Equations

The problem addressed in this paper is the verification of numerical solutions of nonlinear dispersive wave equations such as Boussinesq-like system of equations. A practical verification tool for numerical results is to compare the numerical solution to an exact solution if available. In this work, we derive some exact solitary wave solutions and several invariants of motion for a wide range of Boussinesq-like equations using Maple software. The exact solitary wave solutions can be used to specify initial data for the incident waves in the Boussinesq numerical model and for the verification of the associated computed solution. The invariants of motions can be used as verification tools for the conservation properties of the numerical model.     

Interior point cutting plane method for optimal power flow

In this paper, an interior point cutting plane method (IPCPM)is applied to solve optimal power flow (OPF) problems. Comparedwith the simplex cutting plane method (SCPM), the IPCPM is simpler,and efficient because of its polynomial-time characteristic.Issues in implementing IPCPM for OPF problems are addressed,including (1) how to generate cutting planes without using thesimplex tableau, (2) how to identify the basis variables inIPCPM, and (3) how to generate mixed integer cutting planes.The calculation speed of the proposed algorithm is further enhancedby utilizing the sparsity features of the OPF formulation. Numericalsimulations on IEEE 14-300-bus test systems have shown thatthe proposed method is effective.