Reaction of Cyclic Sulfates with Phosphines

In their reactions with phosphines, cyclic sulfates 9, 10, 11, and 12 afforded corresponding olefins by way of phosphonium sulfate salts whereas sugar cyclic sulfates 21 and 22 gave anhydrosugar 23.     

Bioethanol Production from Soybean Residue via Separate Hydrolysis and Fermentation

Bioethanol was produced using polysaccharide from soybean residue as biomass by separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF). This study focused on pretreatment, enzyme saccharification, and fermentation. Pretreatment to obtain monosaccharide was carried out with 20% (w/v) soybean residue slurry and 270 mmol/L H₂SO₄ at 121 °C for 60 min. More monosaccharide was obtained from enzymatic hydrolysis with a 16 U/mL mixture of commercial enzymes C-Tec 2 and Viscozyme L at 45 °C for 48 h. Ethanol fermentation with 20% (w/v) soybean residue hydrolysate was performed using wild-type and Saccharomyces cerevisiae KCCM 1129 adapted to high concentrations of galactose, using a flask and 5-L fermenter. When the wild type of S. cerevisiae was used, an ethanol production of 20.8 g/L with an ethanol yield of 0.31 g/g consumed glucose was obtained. Ethanol productions of 33.9 and 31.6 g/L with ethanol yield of 0.49 g/g consumed glucose and 0.47 g/g consumed glucose were obtained in a flask and a 5-L fermenter, respectively, using S. cerevisiae adapted to a high concentration of galactose. Therefore, adapted S. cerevisiae to galactose could enhance the overall ethanol fermentation yields compared to the wild-type one.     

A Contributed Paper on Third Order Nonlinear Susceptibilities in Polydiactylenes: an Update

A novel technique to measure X⁽³⁾ (w) for thin films of polydiacetylenes is described. Preliminary results for wavelengths in the visible and near infrared are presented for a polydiacetylene in the form of a planar waveguide.     

Development of the Microstrip Circulator with a Magnetized Ferrite Sphere in Millimeter Wave Band

In this paper, a novel microstrip circulator with a magnetized ferrite sphere is proposed for various millimeter wave communications. A three-dimensional Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) approach for the analysis of this ferrite sphere based microstrip circulator is first presented. The electromagnetic fields inside the ferrite junction are calculated using special updating equations derived from the equation of motion of the magnetization vector and Maxwell's curl equations in consistency. Frequency dependent insertion loss, isolation and reflection loss of circulator are calculated over a wide band of frequencies with a single FDTD run. Experimental results at Ka band are presented and compared with theoretical simulations. As a result, a good agreement is found between them.     

Hirota polynomials for the KP and BKP hierarchies

Using symmetric function techniques, we derive closed-form expressions for the Hirota polynomials for thepth modified KP and BKP hierarchies in terms of Schur and SchurQ-polynomials, respectively. The Hirota polynomials for the BKP hierarchy can also be expressed as Pfaffians while those for thepth modified KP hierarchies can, under certain conditions, be expressed as determinants.     

Surface modification on thermoplastic olefins by low‐temperature cascade arc discharge‐air plasmas for enhanced adhesion with primer

Improvement of primer adhesion to thermoplastic olefins (TPOs) by surface modification with a low‐temperature cascade arc discharge‐air plasmas was investigated. Air plasma with a low‐temperature cascade arc plasma torch can be used for improving the primer adhesion to TPOs. Tape‐adhesion tests (ASTM 3359‐92a method) demonstrated this improvement with a rating of “0” for untreated TPOs and “5” for air plasma‐modified TPOs at certain plasma conditions even for aging at 60 °C and 80% relative humidity for 5 days. The adhesion to primer for the soft and flexible kind of TPOs (ETA‐3041c and ETA‐3101) was easily enhanced. The adhesion to primer for the hard and brittle TPOs (ETA‐3183) needs to optimize the plasma conditions to pass the wet‐adhesion test using air plasmas. To relate the surface characteristics of air plasma‐modified TPOs to adhesion performance with primer, the wettability and polarity of TPOs were evaluated by the contact‐angle measurements of primer and deionized water to TPOs. TPO surface morphology was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy. The surface composition was characterized with electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 40: 623–637, 2002; DOI 10.1002/polb.10122     

Poly(methyl silsesquioxane)/amphiphilic block copolymer hybrids and their porous derivatives: Poly(styrene‐block‐acrylic acid) and poly(styrene‐block‐3‐trimethoxysilylpropyl methacrylate)

Porous poly(methyl silsesquioxane) (PMSSQ) films were prepared from PMSSQ/amphiphilic block copolymer (ABC) hybrids, and this was followed by spin coating and multistep baking. The ABCs were poly(styrene‐block‐acrylic acid) (PS‐b‐PAA) and poly(styrene‐block‐3‐trimethoxysilylpropyl methacrylate) (PS‐b‐PMSMA), which were synthesized by living polymerization. The chemical bonding between the ABCs and PMSSQ resulted in significant differences in the morphologies and properties of the hybrids and their porous derivatives. Both intramolecular and intermolecular hydrogen bonding existed in the PMSSQ/PS‐b‐PAA hybrid and led to macrophase separation. Through the modification of the chemical structure from the poly(acrylic acid) segment to PMSMA, covalent bonding between PMSSQ and PMSMA occurred and prevented the macrophase separation and initial pyrolysis of the ABC. Modulated differential scanning calorimetry results also suggested a significant difference in the miscibility of the two hybrid systems. The chemical bonding resulted in higher retardation of the symmetry‐to‐nonsymmetry Si? O? Si structural transformation for PMSSQ/PS‐b‐PMSMA than for PMSSQ/PS‐b‐PAA according to Fourier transform infrared studies. The pore size of the nanoporous thin film from the PMSSQ/PS‐b‐PMSMA hybrid was estimated by transmission electron microscopy to be less than 15 nm. The refractive index and dielectric constant of the prepared porous films decreased from 1.354 to 1.226 and from 2.603 to 1.843 as the PS‐b‐PMSMA loading increased from 0 to 50 wt %, respectively. This study suggests that chemical bonding in hybrid materials plays a significant role in the preparation of low‐dielectric‐constant nanoporous films. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 4466–4477, 2004     

Millimeter Wave Scattering of 2-D Frequency Selective Surface by Efficient Method of Lines with Preconditioned CG Technique

In this paper, both banded and symmetric successive overrelaxation (SSOR) preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) techniques are combined with method of lines (MOL) to further enhance the computational efficiency of this semi-analytic method. The electromagnetic wave scattering of 2-D frequency-selective surface is used as the examples to describe its implementation, whose analysis usually needs fast algorithms because of electrically large dimension. For arbitrary incident wave, helmholtz equation and boundary condition are used to calculate the impedance matrix and then to obtain reduced current-voltage linear matrix equation in spatial domain. Both banded and effective symmetric successive overrelaxation preconditioned conjugate gradient iterative method are chosen to solve this matrix equation. Our numerical results show that PCG methods can converge to accurate solution in much fewer iteration steps for analysis of the electromagnetic wave scattering from 2-D frequency-selective surface.