TG of polytetrahydrofuran/ isophoronediisocyanate reaction products

TG, swelling, and viscometric studies are presented for the residues, PTHF/IPDI polymer networks, and the extracts, the linear polymers and unreacted IPDI, after Soxhlet extraction of PTHF/IPDI reaction products. The products are obtained by reacting PTHF with 650, 1400, (2×650+1×2900), or 2900 of molecular mass with IPDI at various concentrations in bulk. The results on the swelling and the viscosity experiments suggest that the PTHF/IPDI reaction products have a usual expectable structure. All the TG curves are a double stage curve. The initial stage and the last stage seem to reflect decomposition of PTHF chains and vaporization of the remainder, IPDI, respectively. These are analyzed by a trial-and-error construction, supposing double event behavior. The values of ratio of mass loss associated with the initial event, W0₁, to the mass loss associated with the last event, W0₂, are smaller than the expectable those. This suggests that Event 2 involves vaporization of the decomposition products of PTHF moieties bonded to IPDI in addition to vaporization of IPDI. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Thickness decrease of a grafted polyelectrolyte membrane exposed to shear flow

The effect of the shear flow on the thickness change of a polyelectrolyte membrane grafted onto a glass substrate was directly investigated with a flow cell combined with a confocal laser scanning microscope. The membrane thickness decreased proportionally to an increase in the shear stress of the flow when the shear rate exceeded a critical value of 1 s^?1. The higher the ionic strength was of the fluid, the greater the thinning effect was. The correlation between the critical shear rate and the relaxation of the polymer in the gel membrane was examined. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 2808–2815, 2003     

Optical characterization of CdTe/ZnSe fractional monolayer structures grown by atomic layer epitaxy

Luminescence properties of CdTe/ZnSe fractional monolayer grown by atomic layer epitaxy have been investigated. To investigate the origin of the highly efficient luminescence, various optical spectroscopic methods such as, photoluminescence (PL), temporal/spatial resolved PL, temperature dependence PL, and excitation power dependence PL have been used. It is found that structural inhomogeneities affect dominant influence on the line width and line shape of luminescence. The luminescence intensity greatly enhanced by the localization of exciton at the disorder induced localized states.     

Excess noise generation during spectral broadening in a microstructured fiber

We observe that nanojoule femtosecond pulses that are spectrally broadened in a microstructured fiber acquire excess noise. The excess noise is manifested as an increase in the noise floor of the rf spectrum of the photocurrent from a photodetector illuminated by the pulse train from the laser oscillator. Measurements are made of the intensity dependence of the excess noise for both 100 fs and sub-10 fs pulses. The excess noise is very strong for 100 fs pulses, but barely measurable for sub-10 fs pulses. A rigorous quantum treatment of the nonlinear propagation of ultrashort pulses predicts that, for a fixed generated bandwidth, the amount of excess noise decreases with pulse duration, in agreement with the experimental results.     

Evaluation of Zn and Fe in diets of patients with chronic renal failure

Having in mind the importance of Fe and Zn content in the diets of nondialyzed patients with chronic renal failure, diets of 39 patients with ages varying from 18 to 79 years under a conservative treatment were analyzed by INAA. The 24-hour recall method was used for sample collection. The content of proximate composition was also determined. The average daily dietary intake was compared to the new recommended values by the Food and Nutrition Board. It was observed that the diets were deficient for these elements and, therefore, there should be a nutritional follow-up to avoid possible negative effects. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Sulfur Concentration in Nanoporous Alumina Membrane

Nanoporous alumina membrane prepared by anodic oxidation using sulfuric acid electrolyte was subjected to TG-DTA and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS or ESCA) to further study the distribution of sulfur. In XPS study, Ar⁺ ion bombardment was performed on the sample to etch the surface at a rate of 3 nm min^-1. As a result, sulfur was found to be concentrated within a depth of 3nm from the surface. The S content of the surface was found to be 2.7±0.5 wt%, and that at a depth of ca. 3 nm and ca. 10 nm was found to be as low as about 0.6±0.11 wt% (5.37±1.0 wt%→ 1.26±0.2wt% SO₂). In TG-DTA, the mass loss of 7.3% was in fair agreement with that calculated on XPS results (7.1±1.2%). This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Low-temperature magnetoresistance due to weak localization in lightly doped semiconductors

The first observation of low-temperature magnetoresistance (MR) of interference nature in the case of a light doping is reported. The MR occurs in n- and p-type Ge samples at a frequency of 10 GHz at temperatures below 30 K in weak magnetic fields on the background of the classical MR effect associated with electrons in different valleys (n-Ge) and with heavy and light holes (p-Ge).     

Adsorption of the Cu<Superscript>2+</Superscript> ions from aqueous solutions on the active carbon oxidized with hydrogen peroxide and impregnated with nitrogen-containing compounds

Adsorption of the copper ions from aqueous solutions, benzene, and water on the active carbon obtained by chemical activation from walnut shells was studied. The active carbon was additionally oxidized with hydrogen peroxide and then impregnated with nitrogen-containing compounds. As a result of impregnation with melamine, a secondary porosity is formed within the oxidized active carbon, leading to an increase in the specific surface of the sorbent. A modified carbon surface is heterogeneous, and the carbons themselves exhibit catalytic activity in the oxidation of luminol and decomposition of hydrogen peroxide.