Eutectic mixtures as a green alternative for efficient catalyst recycling in atom transfer radical polymerizations

A new solvent mixture, based on ethanol/reline (EM: eutectic mixture), was investigated for the supplemental activator and reducing agent atom transfer radical polymerization (SARA ATRP) of methyl acrylate (MA) near room temperature, for the first time, affording complete catalyst recovery and reuse. The kinetic results revealed that the polymerizations were controlled, with polymers having narrow molecular weight distributions (? < 1.2). The “living” character of the resultant PMA was confirmed by the synthesis of a well‐defined PMA‐b‐PBA block copolymer. Remarkably, it was demonstrated that the Cu(0)/CuBr₂/Me₆TREN (Me₆TREN: tris[2‐(dimethylamino)ethyl]amine) could be recovered from the final reaction mixture and reused for new successful SARA ATRP of MA, suggesting that the reported system could be very attractive from both the economic and environmental perspectives. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55 , 371–381     

Net,excess and absolute adsorption in mixed gas adsorption

The formulation of a thermodynamic framework for mixtures based on absolute, excess or net adsorption is discussed and the qualitative dependence with pressure and fugacity is used to highlight a practical issue that arises when extending the formulations to mixtures and to the Ideal Adsorbed Solution Theory (IAST). Two important conclusions are derived: the correct fundamental thermodynamic variable is the absolute adsorbed amount; there is only one possible definition of the ideal adsorbed solution and whichever starting point is used the same final IAST equations are obtained, contrary to what has been reported in the literature.     

On a conjecture on maximal planar sequences

Let d1 d2 dp denote the nonincreasing sequence d₁, …, d₁, d₂, …, d₂, …, d_p, …, d_p, where the term d_i appears k_i times (i = 1, 2, …, p). In this work the author proves that the maximal 2-sequences: 7³6¹5¹⁵, 7⁵6¹5¹⁷, 7⁷6¹5¹⁹ are planar graphical, in contrast to a conjecture by Schmeichel and Hakimi.     

Evolution of the deposition rate during pulsed laser deposition of hydroxyapatite coatings and its relation with target morphology

The evolution of the deposition rate during pulsed laser deposition of hydroxyapatite coatings with a KrF excimer laser was studied. This evolution was related to the changes produced on the target morphology during laser irradiation. Laser fluences in the 1.0–5.2 J/cm² range, typical for the deposition of hydroxyapatite coatings, were investigated. Deposition rates were measured through a quartz-crystal microbalance, and the target surface was observed by scanning electron microscopy. At the lowest fluences, the deposition rate decreases as the number of pulses increases. At the same time, a cone structure is developed on the target surface. At the highest fluences, the deposition rate increases with the number of pulses. In this case, the target surface becomes rough but cones are not formed. In all cases, an enlargement of the effective irradiated area results. This enlargement produces the effect of fluence dilution and also an increase of the emitting area. These opposite effects could account for the different evolutions found for the deposition rate. At low fluences the effect of fluence dilution would predominate over the increase of the emitting area, and at high fluences the second effect would predominate over the first. Received: 28 September 2000 / Accepted: 4 October 2000 / Published online: 10 January 2001     

Global Comparison Principles for the <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Laplace Operator on Riemannian Manifolds

We prove global comparison results for the p-Laplacian on a p-parabolic manifold. These involve both real-valued and vector-valued maps with finite p-energy. Further L ^q comparison principles in the non-parabolic setting are also discussed.     

Differentiability of Intrinsic Lipschitz Functions within Heisenberg Groups

We study the notion of intrinsic Lipschitz graphs within Heisenberg groups, focusing our attention on their Hausdorff dimension and on the almost everywhere existence of (geometrically defined) tangent subgroups. In particular, a Rademacher type theorem enables us to prove that previous definitions of rectifiable sets in Heisenberg groups are natural ones.