Preparation and characterization of polyaniline+TiO2 composite films

In this work, we have prepared electrochemically and studied a composite materials based on an organic conducting polymer, polyaniline (PANI), in which inorganic semiconductor titanium dioxide (TiO₂) particles were incorporated with different concentrations. The polyaniline/titanium dioxide composite material which had been deposited by cyclic voltammetry on substrates of indium tin oxide was then characterized. The cyclic voltammogram showed one redox couple characteristic of the oxidation and reduction states of the produced composite material. The impedance spectroscopy study showed that the resistance of the film increases with the TiO₂ cocntent incorporated in the polymer. The incorporation of TiO₂ in PANI covering the surfaces was confirmed by the scanning electron microscopy and the energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The morphological analysis of the film surfaces showed that the TiO₂ nanoparticle increased the roughness. These observations allow to consider a new approach to improve the physicochemical properties of the interface between the organic and inorganic material. The I–V characteristics of PANI+TiO₂ heterostructure diode showed the nonlinear nature of the I–V curve of PANI+TiO₂ heterostructure device.     

Synthesis of triblock copolymers from glycolysed poly(ethylene terephthalate) by living radical polymerization

Valorization of poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) waste has been achieved using glycolysis. The resulting diols were employed for the synthesis of triblock copolymers by atom transfer radical polymerization using copper (I) bromide and (1,1,4,7,10,10)‐hexamethyltriethylenetetramine as catalyst system. Macroinitiator was obtained after depolymerization of PET waste followed by functionalization of the obtained glycolysate with 2‐bromoisobutyrate bromide. Polymerization of styrene (S) and glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) has been achieved leading to PS‐b‐PETG‐b‐PS and (PS‐stat‐PGMA)‐b‐PETG‐b‐(PS‐stat‐PGMA) triblock copolymers. Best results were obtained at 100 °C. At this temperature, termination reaction were negligible and the measured number‐average molar mass of the product increased linearly with monomer conversion in agreement with the theoretical M_n with low polydispersity products achieved. Polymers were also characterized by ¹H NMR. This work presents a original valorization of PET waste as (PS‐stat‐PGMA)‐b‐PETG‐b‐(PS‐stat‐PGMA) copolymer could be used as heat curable coatings. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 433–443, 2008     

Laplace Equation on a Domain With a Cuspidal Point in Little Hölder Spaces

In this paper, we give new results about existence, uniqueness and regularity properties for solutions of Laplace equation $$\Delta u = h \quad {\rm in} \, \Omega$$ where Ω is a cusp domain. We impose nonhomogeneous Dirichlet conditions on some part of ?Ω. The second member h will be taken in the little Hölder space ${h^{2 \sigma}(\bar{\Omega})}$ with ${\sigma \, \in \, ]0, \, 1/2[}$ . Our approach is based essentially on the study of an abstract elliptic differential equation set in an unbounded domain. We will use the continuous interpolation spaces and the generalized analytic semigroup theory.     

Energy decay in a Timoshenko-type system of thermoelasticity of type III

In this paper we consider a one-dimensional linear thermoelastic system of Timoshenko type, where the heat conduction is given by Green and Naghdi theories. We prove the exponential stability by using the energy method.     

Weak versus strong harmonic-expansion analyses of self-pulsing lasers: II—the inhomogeneously broadened system

A simple harmonic expansion method is applied to investigate some aspects of the dynamic properties of the integro-differential ‘Maxwell-Bloch’ equations that describe the self-pulsing regime of a single-mode inhomogeneously broadened laser. First, we show that the usual small perturbative methods only describe the transient relaxation oscillations, characteristic of the signal relaxing towards its permanent state, either stable or unstable. Second, we show that an adapted strong harmonic expansion analysis applied to the permanent pulsing solutions yields an accurate evaluation of the pulsing frequencies.