Reactive poly(glycidyl methacrylate) microspheres prepared by dispersion polymerization

Poly(glycidyl methacrylate) [poly(GMA)] microspheres of narrow size distribution were prepared in a simple one‐step procedure by dispersion radical polymerization. Depending on the solvent used, poly(GMA) particle size could be controlled in the range of 0.5–4 μm by changing the solubility parameter of the reaction mixture. In N,N′‐dimethylformamide (DMF)/methanol mixture, the particle size increased and the size distribution broadened with decreasing initial solubility parameter. While in the DMF/methanol solvent system, hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) or cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) were taken as steric stabilizers of the dispersion polymerization, poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) was used in alcoholic media. Contrary to the DMF/methanol system, narrow particle size distributions were obtained with PVP‐stabilized polymerizations in ethanolic, methanolic, propan‐1‐olic or butan‐1‐olic medium. Both the particle size and polydispersity were reduced with increasing stabilizer concentration. If lower molecular‐weight PVP was used, larger microspheres were obtained. Poly(GMA) samples prepared in a neat alcoholic medium virtually quantitatively retained oxirane group content after the polymerization. Reactivity of the poly(GMA) microspheres was confirmed by their hydrolysis and aminolysis. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 38: 3855–3863, 2000     

A Fluorescent Molecular Probe for the Detection of Hydrogen Based on Oxidative Addition Reactions with Crabtree‐Type Hydrogenation Catalysts

A Crabtree‐type Ir^I complex tagged with a fluorescent dye (bodipy) was synthesized. The oxidative addition of H₂ converts the weakly fluorescent Ir^I complex (Φ=0.038) into a highly fluorescent Ir^III species (Φ=0.51). This fluorogenic reaction can be utilized for the detection of H₂ and to probe the oxidative addition step in the catalytic hydrogenation of olefins.     

A π‐Stacked Porphyrin–Fullerene Electron Donor–Acceptor Conjugate That Features a Surprising Frozen Geometry

A “frozen” electron donor–acceptor array that bears porphyrin and fullerene units covalently linked through the ortho position of a phenyl ring and the nitrogen of a pyrrolidine ring, respectively, is reported. Electrochemical and photophysical features suggest that the chosen linkage supports both through‐space and through‐bond interactions. In particular, it has been found that the porphyrin singlet excited state decays within a few picoseconds by means of a photoinduced electron transfer to give the rapid formation of a long‐lived charge‐separated state. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show HOMO and LUMO to be localized on the electron‐donating porphyrin and the electron‐accepting fullerene moiety, respectively, at this level of theory. More specifically, semiempirical molecular orbital (MO) configuration interaction (CI) and unrestricted natural orbital (UNO)‐CI methods shed light on the nature of the charge‐transfer states and emphasize the importance of the close proximity of donor and acceptor for effective electron transfer.     

A mathematical model for lifetime prediction of lacquer-paint coatings in sea water

Main features of the mechanism of lacquer-paint coatings destruction in sea water have been revealed. On this basis, a mathematical model has been developed and boundary value problems of mathematical physics have been formulated to calculate the determining processes on characteristic stages of coatings in sea water. The theoretical evaluation of coatings longevity depending on physical characteristics of the system has been made. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Bergeʼs maximum theorem for noncompact image sets

This note generalizes Berge?s maximum theorem to noncompact image sets. It also clarifies the results from Feinberg, Kasyanov and Zadoianchuk (2013) [7] on the extension to noncompact image sets of another Berge?s theorem, that states semi-continuity of value functions. Here we explain that the notion of a K$\mathbb{K}$-inf-compact function introduced there is applicable to metrizable topological spaces and to more general compactly generated topological spaces. For Hausdorff topological spaces we introduce the notion of a KN$\mathbb{K}\mathbb{N}$-inf-compact function (N$\mathbb{N}$ stands for “nets” in K$\mathbb{K}$-inf-compactness), which coincides with K$\mathbb{K}$-inf-compactness for compactly generated and, in particular, for metrizable topological spaces.     

Ce20Mg19Zn81: a new structure type with a giant cubic cell

Icosacerium nonadecamagnesium henoctacontazinc, Ce₂₀Mg₁₉Zn₈₁, synthesized by fritting of the pure elements with subsequent arc melting, crystallizes with an unusually large cubic unit cell [space group F3m, a = 21.1979 (8) Å] and represents a new structure type among the technologically important family of ternary rare earth–transition metal–magnesium intermetallics. The majority of atoms (two Ce and five Zn) display .3m site symmetry, two Ce and one Mg atom occupy three 2.mm positions, one Mg and one Zn have 3m site symmetry, one Mg and three Zn atoms sit in ..m positions, and one Zn atom is in a general position. The Ce₂₀Mg₁₉Zn₈₁ structure can be described using the geometric concept of nested polyhedral units, by which it consists of four different polyhedral units, viz.A (Zn+Zn₄+Zn₄+Zn₁₂+Ce₆), B (Mg+Zn₁₂+Ce₄+Zn₂₄+Ce₄), C (Zn₄+Zn₁₂+Mg₆) and D (Zn₄+Zn₄+Mg₁₂+Ce₆), with the outer construction unit being an octahedron or tetrahedron. All interatomic distances in the structure indicate metallic‐type bonding.     

Electronic Properties of Strained Double‐Weyl Systems

The effects of strains on the low‐energy electronic properties of double‐Weyl phases are studied in solids and cold‐atom optical lattices. The principal finding is that deformations do not couple, in general, to the low‐energy effective Hamiltonian as a pseudoelectromagnetic gauge potential. The response of an optical lattice to strains is simpler, but still only one of the several strain‐induced terms in the corresponding low‐energy Hamiltonian can be interpreted as a gauge potential. Most interestingly, the strains can induce a nematic order parameter that splits a double‐Weyl node into a pair of Weyl nodes with the unit topological charges. The effects of deformations on the motion of wavepackets in the double‐Weyl optical lattice model are studied. It is found that, even in the undeformed lattices, the wavepackets with opposite topological charges can be spatially split. Strains, however, modify their velocities in a very different way and lead to a spin polarization of the wavepackets.     

Polar-Covalent Bonding Beyond the Zintl Picture in Intermetallic Rare-Earth Germanides

A comparative chemical bonding analysis for the germanides La₂MGe₆ (M=Li, Mg, Al, Zn, Cu, Ag, Pd) and Y₂PdGe₆ is presented, together with the crystal structure determination for M=Li, Mg, Cu, Ag. The studied compounds adopt the two closely related structure types oS72-Ce₂(Ga_0.1Ge_0.9)₇ and mS36-La₂AlGe₆, containing zigzag chains and corrugated layers of Ge atoms bridged by M species, with La/Y atoms located in the biggest cavities. Chemical bonding was studied by means of the quantum chemical position-space techniques QTAIM (quantum theory of atoms in molecules), ELI-D (electron localizability indicator), and their basin intersections. The new penultimate shell correction (PSC0) method was introduced to adapt the ELI-D valence electron count to that expected from the periodic table of the elements. It plays a decisive role to balance the Ge−La polar-covalent interactions against the Ge−M ones. In spite of covalently bonded Ge partial structures formally obeying the Zintl electron count for M=Mg²⁺, Zn²⁺, all the compounds reveal noticeable deviations from the conceptual 8−N picture due to significant polar-covalent interactions of Ge with La and M ≠ Li, Mg atoms. For M=Li, Mg a formulation as a germanolanthanate M[La₂Ge₆] is appropriate. Moreover, the relative Laplacian of ELI-D was discovered to reveal a chemically useful fine structure of the ELI-D distribution being related to polyatomic bonding features. With the aid of this new tool, a consistent picture of La/Y−M interactions for the title compounds was extracted.     

Lattice Boltzmann representation of neutral turbulence in the cold gas blanket divertor regime

In the divertor plasma detachment regime one expects to encounter turbulent collisional neutral gas dynamics. These conditions are ideally simulated by lattice Boltzmann methods — methods ideal for application on multi-parallel processors. As illustrative of this method, we specifically show the effect of conductivity in the Rayleigh-Benard convection cells, using an octagonal velocity lattice. This work was supported by DoE and a joint U.S-Czech grant. These results were presented at the 6th International Workshop on Plasma Edge Theory in Fusion Devices, 15–17 September 1997.     

Interpretation of measured data and the resolution analysis of the RTP 4-channel pulsed radar

In the present work, the resolution of a 4-channel pulsed radar being built at Rijnhuisen for RTP tokamak is analyzed. The achievable resolution depends mainly on the accuracy of the time-of-flight measurements and the number of sampling frequencies; since the technological solution and the configuration have already been set, the emphasis is laid on the interpretation of the measured data (inversion problem) and minimization of the overall error. For this purpose, a specific neural network — Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP) — has been successfully applied.The central density in the range 0.2–0.6×10²⁰ m^–3 was considered, i.e., above the critical density for all four frequencies but not too high to restrict the measurements just to the edge of plasma. For a wide class of density profiles, by balancing the inversion error and the time measurement error, the overall error in estimating the reflection point position between 0.72cm (for the lowest frequency) and 0.52cm (for the highest frequency) root mean square was obtained, assuming an RMS error of 70 ps in the time of flight measurements. It is probably much better than what could have been obtained by Abel transform. Moreover, the mapping by MLP is incomparably faster and should be considered for routine multichannel pulsed radar data processing.The author thanks Dr. J. B. Lister for his drawing his attention to the MLP technique.