Study on radiation-induced polymerization of vinyl monomers adsorbed on inorganic substances. I. Radiation-induced polymerization of styrene adsorbed on several inorganic substances

The radiation-induced polymerization of styrene adsorbed on silica gel, white carbon, silicic acid anhydride, zeolite, and activated alumina was carried out to elucidate the effect of properties of inorganic substances on the polymerization. The rate of adsorbed state polymerization on these inorganic substances was very fast in comparison with that of bulk-state polymerization. The amount of unextractable polymer depends on the specific surface area and chemical compositions of these inorganic substances. Inorganic substances which contain aluminum as a component element are more likely to be grafted than those which consist of SiO₂ alone. The molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of unextractable polymer and extractable polymer differ from one another in each inorganic substance. In case of silicic acid anhydride, unextractable polymer has smaller molecular weight than extractable polymer. These results suggest that unextractable polymer cannot be extracted due to chemical bonds with the inorganic surface.     

Synthesis, structure and thermal stability of fully hydrophobic porphyrin-DNA conjugates

The DNAs modified with tetraphenyl porphyrin at the center of 13mer oligonucleotide were synthesized using phosphoramidite chemistry and automated DNA synthesis. When the porphyrin modified oligonucleotide was annealed with its complementary strand, they formed a standard B-form duplex. The porphyrin moiety intercalated in the duplex, and moderately lowered the thermal stability.     

Formation mechanism of element distribution in glass under femtosecond laser irradiation

We report on the formation mechanism of element distribution in glass under high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser irradiation. We simultaneously focused two beams of femtosecond laser pulses inside a glass and confirmed the formation of characteristically shaped element distributions. The results of the numerical simulation in which we considered concentration- and temperature-gradient-driven diffusions were in excellent qualitative agreement with the experimental results, indicating that the main driving force is the sharp temperature gradient. Since the composition of a glass affects its refractive index, absorption, and luminescence property, the results in this study provide a framework to fabricate a functional optical device such as optical circuits with a high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser.     

Stress distribution in poly‐p‐phenylenebenzobisoxazole (PBO) fiber estimated from vibrational spectroscopic measurement under tension. II. Analysis of inhomogeneous stress distribution in PBO fiber

Fourier transform Raman spectra were measured for poly‐p‐phenylenebenzobisoxazole (PBO) fiber subjected to a tensile stress, and the Raman shift factor (the frequency shift caused by 1 GPa tensile stress) depended strongly on the sample‐preparation condition. To clarify the reasons of this dependency, a mechanical series parallel model was adopted that could successfully and quantitatively explain the observed Raman shift factors and gave a concreate heterogeneous stress distribution in the PBO fibers. As a result, a mechanical series model was reasonable for PBO fiber. Broadening of Raman bands, which was observed when the PBO fiber was tensioned, could also be interpreted on the basis of an idea of heterogeneous stress distribution. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 40: 1281–1287, 2002     

Reproduction of distance matrices and original time series from recurrence plots and their applications

We propose a method to reproduce distance matrices and original time series from recurrence plots. The procedure is to (i)convert a recurrence plot to a weighted graph and (ii)calculate a distance between each pair of nodes on this weighted graph. We demonstrate this method by reproducing the topological shape of original time series. We also propose two applications. The first application is to obtain the maximal Lyapunov exponent from a recurrence plot without reproducing the shapes of original time series. The second application is to reconstruct a common deterministic driving force from observations of forced systems. Thus, the method opens new fields in data analysis.     

Thermal decomposition of butylindium thiolates and preparation of indium sulfide powders

Thermal properties of organoindium thiolates were investigated by means of thermogravimetric (TG) and differential thermal (DT) analysis. Dibutyl-indium propylthiolates (Buⁿ₂InSPrⁿ, Buⁿ₂InSPrⁱ, Buⁱ₂InSPrⁿ and Buⁱ₂InSPrⁱ) decomposed up to 280°C along with an exothermic DT peak and gave indium(I) sulfide (InS) powders. Although the arylthiolate Buⁿ₂InSPh also afforded InS powders, it decomposed at a slightly higher temperature. In contrast, the dithiolate and the dithiocarbamate complexes [BuⁿIn(SPrⁱ)₂ and In (S₂CNBu₂)₃] gave indium(III) sulfide (In₂S₃) powders.     

Universal Schwinger cocycles of current algebras in (D+1)-dimensions: Geometry and physics

We discuss the universal version of the Schwinger terms of current algebra (we call it the universal Schwinger cocycle) forp=3 (herep denotes the class of the Schatten idealI _p , which is related to the (D+1) space-time dimensions byp=(D+1)/2) in detail, and give a conjecture of the general form of the cocycle for anyp. We also discuss the infinite charge renormalizations, the highest weight vector and state vectors forp=3. Last, we give brief comments on the problems caused by the difficulties to construct the measure of infinite-dimensional Grassmann manifolds.     

Laccase‐catalyzed polymerization of lignocatechol and affinity on proteins of resulting polymers

For the synthesis of a new biologically functional polymer from a natural resource by an environment‐friendly method, the laccase‐catalyzed polymerization of a lignin‐based macromonomer, lignocatechol, was carried out for the first time in ethanol–phosphate buffer solvent system to give crosslinked polymers in good yields. Lignocatechol was prepared by the phase separation system of lignin and catechol in aqueous sulfuric acid. The copolymerization was also performed with urushiol to afford the corresponding copolymers in high yields. The polymerization mechanism was estimated by the IR and pyrolysis GC‐MS measurements, suggesting that the polymerization proceeded mainly at the catechol ring through a quinone radical intermediate. The thermal properties were measured by the DSC, TG, and TMA analyses, indicating that the polymers had high thermal stabilities because of the crosslinked structures. In addition, it was found that the resulting polymers had the affinity of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and glucoamylase. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 824–832, 2009