Anisotropic crystal growth in aerosil/polymethylmethacrylate systems dispersed in dimethacrylate monomers

Complex organized crystals were shown to grow within the settled phase composed of aggregated aerosil/polymethylmethacrylate or aerosil/poly(cetyl vinyl ether-maleic anhydride) resulting from the supply of the corresponding homopolymer or the alternated copolymer to the aerosil initially dispersed in a mixture of dimethacrylate monomers. The basic suspending phase was realized by mixing 1,3-butanediol dimethacrylate and bisphenol A dimethacrylate. The crystal nucleation and growth were both extremely slow processes that developed over months. Small and large crystals were realized usually displaying the shape of hexagonal platelets. The dose of polymer initially supplied to the system exerted a structuring role in the crystalline organization. DCS determinations showed the enthalpy of fusion to depend on the polymer dose and molecular weight. AFM showed the basal and lateral phases to grow with developing steps of two different thicknesses. The monomer ordering was evidenced by the fact that the polymerization shrinkage only affected the sequence of monomers lying parallel to the basal phases, the polymerization of monomers along the perpendicular axis being prevented from any shrinkage.     

Lateral and vertical nanophase separation in Langmuir-Blodgett films of phospholipids and semifluorinated alkanes

It has recently been found that monodisperse surface micelles (hemimicelles) were formed in Langmuir monolayers of the semifluorinated alkane C8F17C16H33 (F8H16) after transfer onto silicon wafers. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction studies have demonstrated that compression of mixed Langmuir monolayers made from combinations of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylethanolamine (DPPE) and diblock F8H16 in various molar ratios resulted in the complete expulsion of the diblock molecule at high surface pressure. F8H16 then formed a second layer on top of a DPPE-only monolayer, demonstrating a novel type of reversible, pressure-induced, vertical phase separation. Using atomic force microscopy and X-ray reflectivity, we show now that mixed DPPE/F8H16 (1:1.3) Langmuir-Blodgett films transferred onto silicon wafers below 10 mN m(-1) are laterally phase separated and consist of domains of F8H16 surface micelles in coexistence with a monolayer of DPPE. The density of the network of F8H16 surface micelles increases when the surface pressure of transfer increases. Around 10 mN m(-1), the F8H16 surface micelles start to glide on the DPPE monolayer, progressively overlying it, until total coverage is achieved.     

Hygrometric Determination of Water Activities and Osmotic and Activity Coefficients of NH4Cl–KCl–H2O at 25°C

Relative humidities have been measured for mixed aqueous electrolyte system of ammonium and potassium chlorides by the hygrometric method at total molalities from 0.3 to 6 mol-kg^–1for ionic-strength fractions yof NH₄Cl of 1/3, 1/2, and 2/3 at 25°C. The data allow the calculation of new water activities and osmotic coefficients. The proposed ECA (extended composed additivity) rule of calculation of water activity in mixed aqueous electrolyte solutions from the water activities of a single component is extended to this system. The experimental results and the predictions of the ECA rule are compared with the Robinson–Stokes, Reilly–Wood–Robinson, the Pitzer, and the Lietzke–Stoughton II models. Predictions made using these models are, in general, consistent with our results. From these measurements, the Pitzer mixing ionic parameters are determined and used to predict the solute activity coefficients in the mixture for different ionic-strength fractions.     

Electronic Spectral Studies and Determination of the First Excited Singlet-State Dipole Moments of New Benzo[a]phenothiazine Derivatives

The room temperature (298 K) electronic absorption, and fluorescence excitation and emission spectra of seven new, pharmacologically-important benzo[a]phenothiazines (12H-benzo[a]phenothiazine ( 1 ), 9-methyl-12H-benzo[a] phenothiazine ( 2 ), 10-methyl-12H-benzo[a] phenothiazine ( 3 ), 11-methyl-12H-benzo[a]phenothiazine ( 4 ), 5-oxo-5H-benzo[a]phenothiazine ( 5 ), 6-hydroxy-5-oxo-5H-benzo[a]phenothiazine ( 6 ) and 6-methyl-5-oxo-5H-benzo[a] phenothiazine ( 7 ):) were measured in several solvents of different polarities and hydrogen bonding abilities. In combination with the ground state dipole moments of these benzo[a]phenothiazines, the spectral data were used to determine their first excited singlet-state dipole moments by means of the solvatochromic shift method. These excited singlet-state dipole moments were found to be significantly higher (1.9 to 2.5 Debye units) than their ground-state counterparts.     

Prediction of the decay resistance of heat treated wood on the basis of its elemental composition

The effect of heat treatment temperature on the elemental composition of Scots pine sapwood (Pinus sylvestris) has been investigated in the range of temperatures between 220 and 250 °C. The results revealed an important increase of carbon content, while oxygen content significantly decreases. Independently of the heat treatment temperature, elemental composition is strongly correlated with the mass losses due to thermal degradations. Carbon content as well as O/C ratio seem to represent valuable markers to estimate wood degradation after heat treatment. Heat treated specimens were exposed to fungal decay using the brown rot fungus Poria placenta and the weight losses due to fungal degradation were determined. Correlations between weight losses recorded after fungal exposure and elemental composition indicated that carbon content or O/C ratio can be used to predict wood durability conferred by heat treatment allowing us to envisage the development of a proper method to evaluate the quality of heat treated wood and predict its durability. These results also confirm that chemical modifications of wood cell wall polymers are the main factors responsible for wood durability improvement against fungal decay after heat treatment.     

Multi‐correlation Fourier transform spectroscopy with the resolved modes of a frequency comb laser

An instrument achieving 100 KHz spectral precision using multiple correlation Fourier transform spectroscopy has been demonstrated. The instrument can measure the individual frequency comb modes of 100 MHz frequency comb lasers in air. The experiments show ～400,000 resolved modes at linewidths of 85 MHz in the region of 829 nm and ～ 182,000 resolved modes at linewidths of 28 MHz in the region of 1.5 μm, with a recording time of few minutes. The precision of the instrument, defined by the frequency positioning, attains sub‐MHz even when the scan is performed in air.     

A convenient synthesis of linear pyridinoimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine and pyrroloimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine cores

Two new imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine derivatives, pyridinoimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine (10) and pyrroloimidazo[1,2-a]pyridine (16), were synthesised from 2-amino-4-methyl-5-nitropyridine (1) by linear cyclisation, making use of dimethylformamide dimethylacetal (DMFDMA) as an agent of vinylamine functionalisation. This report describes first the formation of pyridine and pyrroloimidazopyridine from (1), and then the formation of pyridine-fused and pyrrolo-fused pyridine by the Friedländer method and reductive cyclisation followed by treatment of the resulting adduct with chloroacetaldehyde.     

Diffusion processes of trimers on missing row surfaces: \mathrm{Cu }_{3}/\mathrm{Ag }(110) and \mathrm{Ag }_{3}/\mathrm{Cu }(110)

A semi-empirical potential according to the embedded atom, has been applied to investigate the diffusion of trimers by computing the energy barriers for different mechanisms. Our attention was more focused on the leapfrog process which is likely to occur on missing row surfaces. The activation barriers of this mechanism are calculated using drag method at 0K. These barriers are found to be 0.64 and 0.68 eV for hopping out the channel for $\mathrm{Cu }_{3}/\mathrm{Ag }(110) \mathrm{and Ag }_{3}/\mathrm{Cu }$ (110) respectively. While for hopping down at the other side they are about 0.42 and 0.32 eV. Moreover, a deep metastable position is observed during leapfrog diffusion leading to some spectacular trimer motion. At high temperature and essentially for $\mathrm{Cu }_{3}/\mathrm{Ag }$ (110), we also observed a competition between leapfrog process and concerted jump mechanism with a deformation of trimer geometry. Implications of these findings are briefly discussed.