Ring‐opening grafting polymerization of cyclic monomers onto human hair

Natural human hair was successfully modified by the graft polymerization of trimethylene carbonate, β‐propiolactone, ε‐caprolactone, glycidol, ε‐caprolactam, and 5,5‐dimethyl‐1,3‐dioxane‐2‐thione. In contrast, we could not modify natural human hair by the graft polymerization of oxetane under similar conditions. The model reaction suggested that the main initiating species in these polymerizations were the amino, thiol, and hydroxyl groups in hair, which could induce ring‐opening polymerization. Among the tested monomers, β‐propiolactone was most effective for hair modification with its graft polymer, whose concentration was as high as 0.5 g/g of hair though polymerization under mild conditions. The effects of the hair pretreatment and polymerization temperature on the weight ratio of the grafted polymers were also investigated. Hair modified by grafted polymers was characterized with scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared measurements. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 736–744, 2007     

Probing for electrical inclusions with complex spherical waves

Let a physical body Ω in ?² or ?³ be given. Assume that the electric conductivity distribution inside Ω consists of conductive inclusions in a known smooth background. Further, assume that a subset Γ ? ?Ω is available for boundary measurements. It is proved using hyperbolic geometry that certain information about the location of the inclusions can be exactly recovered from static electric measurements on Γ. More precisely: given a ball B with center outside the convex hull of Ω and satisfying (B? ∩ ?Ω) ? Γ, boundary measurements on Γ with explicitly given Dirichlet data are enough to determine whether B intersects the inclusion. An approximate detection algorithm is introduced based on the theory. Numerical experiments in dimension two with simulated noisy data suggest that the algorithm finds the inclusion‐free domain near Γ and is robust against measurement noise. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

10-Gbit/s optical receiver using ICs with low-capacitance HBT technology

A 10-Gbit/s optical receiver is developed using low-capacitance HBT IC technology. The HBT allows a cutoff frequency of 45 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency of 70 GHz. The receiver contains an automatic gain-control amplifier IC with a gain of 16 dB, a bandwidth of 10.7 GHz, and a decision-circuit IC with an ambiguity of 66 mVp-p at a data rate of 10 Gbit/s. The sensitivity of this receiver is -26.5 dBm at a bit error rate of 10^-9. Transmission over a 140-km fiber was achieved successfully.     

Copolymers containing a spiro orthoester moiety that undergo no shrinkage during cationic crosslinking

A spiro orthoester with an exomethylene group (exoSOE) was radically copolymerized with acrylonitrile or vinyl acetate at several feed ratios to obtain the corresponding copolymers having spiro orthoester moieties in the side chain. The obtained copolymers could be crosslinked via the double ring‐opening polymerization of the spiro orthoester moieties in their side chain by a treatment with BF₃OEt₂. The volume changes upon the crosslinking of the copolymers were evaluated by density measurements with a micromeritics gas pycnometer. The copolymers experienced less than 1% volume expansion instead of volume shrinkage during typical cationic crosslinking, regardless of the copolymer compositions. Negligible shrinkage was observed during the thermal cationic crosslinking of a film cast from a nitrobenzene solution of the copolymers containing a benzylthiophenium salt as a thermally latent cationic initiator. The constantly low volume changes during the crosslinking of the copolymers from exoSOE probably depended on the almost zero volume change during the cationic polymerizations of spiro orthoester derivatives. This indicates that exoSOE is an effective monomer for crosslinkable polymers without volume changes. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 3666–3673, 2006     

Anionic grafting polymerization of propylene sulfide onto human hair in water

Natural human hair was modified by the graft polymerization of propylene sulfide in an aqueous medium. The amount of the polymer grafted onto the reduced hair was 0.15–0.19 g on 1.0 g of hair. The grafted polymer was isolated by the hydrolysis of the hair in the polymer‐grafted hair under basic conditions and was confirmed to be poly(propylene sulfide) by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, and Fourier transform infrared spectra. The number‐average molecular weights of the isolated polymers from the grafted products were 10,000–12,000. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 3778–3786, 2006     

Synthesis of copolymers containing a spiro orthocarbonate moiety and evaluation of the volume change during their cationic crosslinking

Spiro orthocarbonate (SOC) monomers having either an exomethylene group {3,3‐dimethyl‐9‐methylene‐1,5,7,11‐tetraoxaspiro[5.5]undecane (ExoSOC)} or an allyl group {9‐allyl‐3,3‐dimethyl‐1,5,7,11‐tetraoxaspiro[5.5]undecane (AllylSOC)} were radically copolymerized with vinyl monomers at several feed ratios to obtain the corresponding copolymers having SOC moieties in the side chain. The obtained copolymers were crosslinked via the double ring‐opening polymerization of the SOC moieties by a treatment with boron trifluoride etherate. The volume changes during the crosslinking of the copolymers were evaluated by density measurements with a gas pycnometer. As the SOC moiety composition increased, the volume shrinkage during the crosslinking was suppressed, and that finally changed into volume expansion. The volume changes during the crosslinking of the copolymers from AllylSOC were slightly larger than those of the copolymers from ExoSOC. The higher volume expansions in the crosslinking of AllylSOC‐based copolymers were ascribable to the lower steric hindrance around the SOC moieties. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 7040–7053, 2006     

Tristimulus colorimetry using a digital still camera and its application to determination of iron and residual chlorine in water samples.

Tristimulus colorimetry using a digital still camera (DSC) as a colorimeter has been developed. A photograph of a sample and standard solutions was taken simultaneously with the DSC, and it was transferred to a PC. On the PC, the colors of the sample and of the standard solutions were analyzed and L* (brightness), a* (red-green component), and b* (yellow-blue component) values were determined with laboratory-made software. A dedicated light-box containing white-color LEDs as light source was made of white acrylic to make constant exposure at each photograph. Various settings of the DSC, such as exposure mode, white balance, and so on, that affect analytical figures, were studied with determination of iron with 1,10-phenanthroline. This method was successfully applied to the determinations of iron in a river water sample and of residual chlorine in tap water samples with N,N-diethylphenylenediamine (DPD).