Achieving flame retardancy and mechanical integrity via phosphites in bio-based resins

Bio-based flame retardant (FR) resins typically exhibit diminished mechanical properties compared with their petroleum-based counterparts. Recent experiments identified a promising FR phosphorus-bearing vanillin-based epoxy resin, EP2, that exhibited superior thermomechanical properties compared to that of petroleum-based diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A. However, the structure/property relationships of such phosphorus-containing bio-based resins are relatively under-explored and cannot be resolved via experiments alone. Here, molecular simulations are used to explore these relationships for a resin comprising EP2 cured with 4,4-diaminodiphenylmethane. The predicted thermomechanical properties are consistent with experimental observations, and critically, the structural analysis reveals the importance of the pendant phosphite group in the monomer as central to maintaining extensive hydrogen-bonding networks, giving rise to the excellent Young's modulus. This work provides the foundation for knowledge-based strategies to systematically improve the structure/property relationships in FR bio-based epoxy resins.     

Electrical field effects on dipole moment, structure and energetic of (H2O)n (2 n 15) cluster

The effect of an external electric field on water clusters of the (H₂O)_n type, with [1 n 15], in the ground state was analyzed at the B3LYP/cc-pVTZ level of theory. The calculations showed that an external electric field changes the number of hydrogen bonds, reduces the cluster sizes and increases the strength of the inter-cluster hydrogen bonds. The particular symmetry of the cluster and the null dipole moment in these specific configurations suggest that their stability can be associated with a perfect alignment of the water molecules, maximizing attractive electrostatic interactions caused by changes in the charge distribution of the clusters.     

Characterization of Nano-Structured Poly(D,L-lactic acid) Nonwoven Mats Obtained from Different Solutions by Electrospinning

Two different solvent mixtures, chloroform/dimethylformamide (DMF) and chloroform/ acetone, in 60/40 v/v concentrations, were used to electrospin poly(D,L-lactic acid) (PDLLA). The influence of solvent type, solution concentration, and processing conditions on the morphology and properties of the electrospun mats was studied. The nanofibers characterization was done by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The smallest nanofibers’ diameters from both mixtures were obtained from solutions with 5 wt%/v PDLLA concentration using a 1.0 kV/cm electrical field. In general the nanofibers from the chloroform/DMF mixture had smaller diameters than the nanofibers from the chloroform/acetone mixture. However, the latter ones were porous, while the nanofibers from the chloroform/DMF mixtures were not. All the PDLLA nanofibers, independent of solvent mixture, had a very low amount of crystallinity and were composed of very small and imperfect α and β crystals.     

The correlation of proton affinities with atomic charges and electronegativities for the group 14 to 17 hydrides

Proton affinities for hydrides of formula $\mathrm{AH}^{-}_{n-1}$ containing the elements A from the second to the fifth period of the periodic table and groups 14 to 17 are predicted at the Hartree–Fock, MP2 and B3LYP levels of theory employing both core potential basis sets and the 3‐21G basis set. The core potential methods perform well when compared with all electron calculations using the 3‐21++G** basis set. The proton affinities of the hydrides containing elements from groups 15 and 16 of the periodic table are more accurate than those with elements from groups 14 and 17. A cancellation of errors appears to occur more completely if the protonated and nonprotonated molecules contain both bond and lone pairs before and after the protonation reaction. Proton affinities correlate nearly linearly with the atomic charges on the hydrogen atoms when these charges are determined by the generalized atomic polar tensor (GAPT) method. This tendency can be associated, in principle, with the group electronegativities as introduced by Iczkowski and Margrave. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 21: 1119–1131, 2000     

Evolution of primordial black holes in a radiation and phantom energy environment

In this work we extend previous work on the evolution of a primordial black hole (PBH) to address the presence of a dark energy component with a super-negative equation of state as a background, investigating the competition between the radiation accretion, the Hawking evaporation and the phantom accretion, the latter two causing a decrease on black hole mass. It is found that there is an instant during the matter-dominated era after which the radiation accretion becomes negligible compared to the phantom accretion. The Hawking evaporation may become important again depending on a mass threshold. The evaporation of PBHs is quite modified at late times by these effects, but only if the generalized second law of thermodynamics is violated.     

Assessment of a composite method based on selected density functional theory methods and complete basis set extrapolation formulas

Extrapolation formulas based on power and exponential formulas, as well as alternatives from a Taylor series, were tested and used with density functional theory (DFT) for the calculation of enthalpies of formation. The following four functionals were analyzed: B3LYP, BMK, M06-2X, and B2PLYP. Preliminary tests pointed to B2PLYP and B3LYP as the best and worst functionals, respectively. Taylor series expressions were as accurate as the power formulas and presented better performance than the exponential equation. The power formula (Equation (2)) and one of the simplest Taylor expressions (Equation (13)) were selected for the calculations with B3LYP and B2PLYP, with further empirical adjustments based on the higher level correction (HLC) and scaling of the experimental atomization energies used to calculate enthalpies of formation. HLC improved the B3LYP mean absolute error (MAE) from approximately 4.3 to 3.5 kcal mol⁻¹ using both extrapolation alternatives. For B2PLY, the MAEs were improved from 2.7 to 2.6 kcal mol⁻¹. Regarding the G3/05 test set, a significant improvement in the MAEs around 2.5 and 1.5 kcal mol⁻¹ were achieved using B3LYP and B2PLYP, respectively. The accuracy obtained from these empirical corrections was equivalent to other composite methods. The MAEs from B3LYP and B2PLYP may be suggested as ranges for the possible accuracy to be achieved by some DFT methods. The empirical corrections suggested in this work are improvements that may be considered to provide acceptable accuracy for enthalpies of formation and possibly other properties.     

The Evolution of Primordial Black Hole Masses in the Radiation-Dominated Era

We discuss in this work the behaviour of primordial black holes (PBHs) in the radiation era. Taking into account the Hawking evaporation and the absorption of energy we revisit the complete differential equation for the evolution of the mass of a PBH. We show that the mass can grow in this cosmological phase in a very slow fashion (even when considering the very high temperature of the radiation) if at all, and give a strong upper limit to the maximum accretion of mass. We evaluate relativistic effects due to the peculiar motion relative to the CMBR and show that the existence of relativistic black holes with very high mass absorption is highly unlikely. Finally we demonstrate that thermodynamic equilibrium between black holes and the cosmic radiation can not exist for finite times, and therefore initially non-evaporating PBHs must jump to the evaporating regime. This analysis supports the several efforts performed to look for signatures of evaporating holes.     

An electron transfer mechanism of O4 formation

A resonating valence bond electron transfer mechanism of combining two O₂ molecules to form an O₄ molecule is presented. The predicted molecular states of the reaction path D_∞h→C_2v→D_2h are supported by the present ab initio molecular orbital calculations. The CASPT2 BSSE calculations yield a stable diamagnetic D_2h O₄ molecule with a very weak chemical bond between the monomers, in good agreement with experiments. A low activation barrier energy of 26 cal/mol for the O₄ formation is found.