Recovery of Butadiene-Styrene Rubber from Latex at Low Temperature with Various Coagulants

The influence of the charge of a metal cation and the nature of a coagulant on the recovery of butadiene-styrene rubber and properties of rubber stocks and vulcanizates was examined.     

Numerical study of simultaneous natural convection heat transfer from both surfaces of a uniformly heated thin plate with arbitrary inclination

 Numerical studies were conducted to investigate the natural convection heat transfer around a uniformly heated thin plate with arbitrary inclination in an infinite space. The numerical approach was based on the finite volume technique with a nonstaggered grid arrangement. For handling the pressure–velocity coupling the SIMPLE-algorithm was used. QUICK scheme and first order upwind scheme were employed for discretization of the momentum and energy convective terms respectively. Plate width and heating rate were used to vary the modified Rayleigh number over the range of 4.8×10⁶ to 1.87×10⁸. Local and average heat transfer characteristics were compared with regarding to the inclination angle. The empirical expressions for local and average Nusselt number were correlated. It has been found that for inclination angle less than 10^∘, the flow and heat transfer characteristics are complicated and the average Nusselt number can not be correlated by one equation while for inclination angle larger than 10^∘, the average Nusselt number can be correlated into an elegant correlation. Received on 18 April 2001 / Published online: 29 November 2001     

Molecular Complexes of Crown Ethers in Crystals and Solutions

A review of the experimental and theoretical studies of the crown ether complexes with polar molecules in their crystals, solutions, and in a gas phase is given. The type of the molecular bonds in the complexes, their stoichiometry, and the change in the macrocycle conformation during complex formation are considered, as well as the effect of the macrocycle structure and the nature of the medium on the efficiency of the molecular bonding. New data are given on the enthalpies of transfer of the crown ethers from tetrachloromethane into solvents capable of forming hydrogen bonds. The enthalpies of specific interactions of macrocycles with the molecules of the solvents in the medium of the same solvents are characterized. The conformations of the crown ethers in the media under study are discussed.     

Inverse Problem with Free Boundary for Heat Equation

We establish conditions for the existence and uniqueness of a solution of the inverse problem for a one-dimensional heat equation with unknown time-dependent leading coefficient in the case where a part of the boundary of the domain is unknown.     

Growth and study of single crystals of (Na,K)NbO<Subscript>3</Subscript> solid solutions

(Na, K)NbO₃ crystals with a perovskite structure and a KNbO₃ content up to 40 mol % were grown from flux with the use of the solvent NaBO₂. The dielectric measurements of the crystals grown revealed phase transitions that had never been observed before in ceramic samples.     

On path lengths modulo three

We show that between any two nodes of a cubic, planar, three-connected graph there are three paths whose lengths are 0, 1, and 2 modulo 3, respectively. The proof is by a rather extensive case analysis. Counterexamples show that all three hypotheses (i.e., planarity, degree-three, and three-connectivity) are necessary.     

Substitution of calcium by strontium within selected calcium phosphates

Sr incorporation in the molecules of amorphous calcium phosphate, apatitic tricalcium phosphate, hydroxyapatite, octacalcium phosphate and dicalcium phosphate dihydrate was investigated. The concentration of Sr ranged from 225 to 1010 μ g / g, i.e. it overlapped with the physiological range of Sr concentrations in human bone. The leading experimental technique was extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) at the Sr K edge. Results of these studies demonstrated the following: (1) Sr incorporation in the calcium phosphates is compound-dependent, (2) the coordination of incorporated Sr atoms in the Ca-P molecules is similar to that of Ca atoms, but interatomic distances are ≈0.015 nm larger, (3) in apatitic tricalcium phosphate, hydroxyapatite and octacalcium phosphate lattices Sr atoms may occupy selected Ca sites, which was not the case for dicalcium phosphate dihydrate, (4) in the apatite lattice Sr atoms are coordinated by 6 PO₄ tetrahedrals and (5) EXAFS spectra at the K edge of the incorporated Sr may be used to distinguish the structures of amorphous calcium phosphate, dicalcium phosphate dihydrate as well as apatite and its derivatives (apatitic tricalcium phosphate, octacalcium phosphate).