Multiphysical modeling and meshless simulation of electric‐sensitive hydrogels

According to a multiphase mixture theory, we have mathematically developed a multiphysical model with chemoelectromechanical coupling considerations, termed the multieffect‐coupling electric‐stimulus (MECe) model, to simulate the responsive behavior of electric‐sensitive hydrogels immersed in a bath solution under an externally applied electric field. For solutions of the MECe model consisting of coupled nonlinear partial differential governing equations, a meshless Hermite–Cloud method with a hierarchical iteration technique has been used for a one‐dimensional steady‐state analysis of a hydrogel strip. The computed results are compared with the experimental data, and there is very good agreement. Simulations within the domains of both hydrogels and surrounding solutions also present distributions of the ionic concentrations and electric potential as well as the hydrogel displacement. The effects of various physical parameters on the response behavior of electric‐stimulus responsive hydrogels are discussed in detail. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 1514–1531, 2004     

Structure,morphology, and crystallization process of isotactic polypropylene/hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin blends

The structure, morphology, and isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization of isotactic polypropylene/low‐molecular‐mass hydrocarbon resin blends (iPP/HR) (up to 20% in weight of HR) have been studied, using optical and electron microscopy, wide‐ and small‐angle X‐ray and differential scanning calorimetry. New structures and morphologies can be activated, using appropriate preparation and crystallization conditions and blend composition. For every composition and crystallization condition, iPP crystallizes in α‐form, with a spherulitic morphology. The size of iPP spherulites increases with resin content, whereas the long period decreases. In the range of crystallization temperatures investigated, HR modifies the birefringence of iPP spherulites, favoring the formation of radial lamellae and changing the ratio between tangential and radial lamellae. Spherulitic radial growth rates, overall crystallization rates, and melting temperatures are strongly affected by resin, monotonically decreasing with resin content. This confirms miscibility in the melt between the two components of the blends. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 3368–3379, 2004     

Improved detectability with a polymer-based trapping device in rapid HPLC analysis for ultra-low levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in environmental samples.

A new high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been developed to detect ultra-low concentrations of bisphenol-A (BPA) (below 1 ng/L (ppt)) using column switching electrochemical detection (ECD). The results were superior to those obtained from manual pretreatment procedure with membrane stationary phase. BPA is inherently ubiquitous in the environment, including tools and solvents used for its analysis; to obtain meaningful results, therefore, the concentration of the overall BPA contamination must be below the detection limit for BPA using the analytical system. Therefore, purified water for preparing the standard BPA solution must be filtered with a hydrophobic membrane to suppress BPA background levels of contamination. In addition, we investigated methods for effectively preserving environmental water containing BPA. The addition of a small amount of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) provided good recovery even after overnight storage. By employing these precautionary measures and procedures to reduce BPA contamination from the analytical procedure, we could accurately determine l(-10) ppt of BPA in environmental water samples using a column switching HPLC system.     

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     

Sensitive monitoring of humic acid in various aquatic environments with acidic cerium chemiluminescence detection.

In this research, a simple, sensitive chemiluminescence (CL) method for the determination of humic acid (HA) in water samples was first developed based on the redox reaction between humic acid and cerium(IV) in the acidic condition. Different with the former redox CL reaction which occurred in alkaline solution, no enhancers were needed and neither precipitation nor a second contamination would occur in the present CL system. Comparing with other spectrometric methods, we find that the proposed analysis system had better applicability and accuracy. Under the optimal experiment conditions, the CL peak height was linear with the concentration of HA in the range of 0.03 to 10.0 microg mL(-1). The detection limit is 0.01 microg mL(-1) (S/N = 3), and the relative standard deviation was 2.3% for 0.5 microg mL(-1) HA solution with eleven repeated measurements. The present CL method was successfully applied to the determination of HA in tap water, spring water and river water samples with good recovery from 90.0 to 110.0%. A possible CL mechanism was proposed based on the results of UV and fluorescence spectrometry and the CL spectrum of HA. It was speculated that the semi-quinone radicals in the excited state were the emitters.     

2‐Cyanoprop‐2‐yl dithiobenzoate mediated reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerization of acrylonitrile targeting a polymer with a higher molecular weight

The reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) mediated by 2‐cyanoprop‐2‐yl dithiobenzoate was first applied to synthesize polyacrylonitrile (PAN) with a high molecular weight up to 32,800 and a polydispersity index as low as 1.29. The key to success was ascribed to the optimization of the experimental conditions to increase the fragmentation reaction efficiency of the intermediate radical. In accordance with the atom transfer radical polymerization of AN, ethylene carbonate was also a better solvent candidate for providing higher controlled/living RAFT polymerization behaviors than dimethylformamide and dimethyl sulfoxide. The various experimental parameters, including the temperature, the molar ratio of dithiobenzoate to the initiator, the molar ratio of the monomer to dithiobenzoate, the monomer concentration, and the addition of the comonomer, were varied to improve the control of the molecular weight and polydispersity index. The molecular weights of PANs were validated by gel permeation chromatography along with a universal calibration procedure and intrinsic viscosity measurements. ¹H NMR analysis confirmed the high chain‐end functionality of the resultant polymers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 1272–1281, 2007     

全球大气重力波联测期间电离层扰动的台阵观测

本文利用武汉电离层观象台的加密频高图和三站Doppler图记录及新近提出的短波扰动反演方法,分析了1985年全球大气重力波联测(WAGS)期间10月18日这天白天的重力波扰动,发现在该日扰动中有两列不同形态的波列分别属于中尺度的内重力波和大尺度的导制重力波。本文还进一步估算了这两列重力波的水平传播参量,深入分析了它们的频谱结构的高度变化特征,发现了重力波功率谱谱峰的分裂和偏移等重要现象。本文结果表明,新的反演方法使电离层无线电汉诊断的简易短波实验系统,也能成为探测和研究重力波一类大尺度电离层动力过程的有效手段。     

鲁棒稳定性分析的值映射与参数化方法

本文运用值映射与参数化的方法研究了鲁棒D稳定性问题。文中给出了主要结果——参数空间鲁棒分析的边界定理,作为该结果的应用,一些现代鲁棒分析的知名结果,例如多项式族的稜边定理,Kharitonov定理和菱形定理都被简洁地证明出来;给出了一种判定双参数多项式族D稳定的新方法。用该方法可以方便地确定H稳定多项式按一定摄动模式(区间方式和菱形方形)的最大摄动界。     

Spectral Representation Theory for Dielectric Behavior of Nonspherical Cell Suspensions

Recent experiments revealed that the dielectric dispersion spectrum of fission yeast cells in a suspension was mainly composed of two sub-dispersions. The low-frequency sub-dispersion depended on the cell length, while the high-frequency one was independent of it. The cell shape effect was simulated by an ellipsoidal cell model but the comparison between theory and experiment was far from being satisfactory. Prompted by the discrepancy, we proposed the use of spectral representation to analyze more realistic cell models. We adopted a shell-spheroidal model to analyze the effects of the cell membrane. It is found that the dielectric property of the cell membrane has only a minor effect on the dispersion magnitude ratio and the characteristic frequency ratio. We further included the effect of rotation of dipole induced by an external electric field, and solved the dipole-rotation spheroidal model in the spectral representation.Good agreement between theory and experiment has been obtained.     

Spectroscopic imaging display and analysis.

A system for display of magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopic imaging (SI) data is described which provides for efficient review and analysis of the multidimensional spectroscopic and spatial data format of this technique. Features include the rapid display of spectra from selected image voxels, formation of spectroscopic images, spectral and image data processing operations, methods for correlating spectroscopic image data with high resolution 1H MR images, and hardcopy facilities. Examples are shown for 31P and 1H spectroscopic imaging studies obtained in human and rat brain.