Gas-Chromatographic Study of the Polarity and Selectivity of Nematic Liquid Crystals

The sorption properties of stationary phases based on nematic p-substituted azoxybenzenes were studied. Correlations were revealed between the structural selectivity of mesogens, chemical nature of terminal substituents, capability for dispersion interactions and polarity of the sorbents, temperature gradient of the retention indices, and thermodynamic parameters of solution of xylene isomers in the sorbents.     

On the equivalence of linear equations under nonlocal transformation

Linear nth order (n?3) ordinary differential equations have been shown to possess n+1, n+2 or n+4 Lie point symmetries. Each class contains equations which are equivalent under point transformation. By taking the example of third order equations, we show that all linear equations are equivalent if the class of transformation is broadened to include nonlocal transformations and hence the representative of this class of equations is y⁽ⁿ⁾=0.     

Group Representation of Relativistic Quantum Crystal Optics

A group representation of radiation propagation in an anisotropic medium is developed. The system of wave equations for electromagnetic potentials, obtained from the Maxwell equations with account for the constitutive equations, has been factorized. It is shown that the linear differential operator of the factorized system is orthogonal in transparent crystals and unitary in gyrotropic ones and is represented through the momentum operator. On the basis of the commutation relations for the components of this operator, the eigenvalue problem has been solved and the expression for the change in the radiant energy in the crystal in the form of spherical waves has been obtained. The dependences of the ray and phase velocities and the polarization vectors of waves on the birefringence anisotropy and gyrotropy as well as on the angular momentum, displacement current, and bound charge determining them have been analyzed. It has been established that in the general case of gyrotropic crystals where the nonreciprocity phenomenon takes place and in magnetoelectrics Maxwell equations are represented in a form similar to the Dirac equations and the electromagnetic radiation is correctly described by means of bispinors and is quantized as fermions.     

Exciton Molecules in Quantum Wells: Influence of the Well Width Fluctuations

The influence of the well width fluctuations on the dependence of the binding energy of excitonic complexes in quantum wells is studied by using the path-integral Monte-Carlo technique. The results are compared with available experimental data and a good agreement is found.Postdoctoral researcher of FWO-Vlaanderen     

Synthesis and properties of the nanocomposite of zink oxide and poly(amic acid)

The composite comprised of zinc oxide quantum dots and poly(amic acid) (PAAc) was prepared and studied by X-rays diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, light scattering, UV absorbance and UV fluorescence. The UV absorbance of the ZnO/PAAc composite was found to be much larger than that of its components taken separately. The fluorescence of the ZnO/PAAc composite was found to be shifted to longer wavelengthes in comparison with pure ZnO. The presence of the dopant dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid was found to affect the observed fluorescence.     

A short and efficient synthesis of (+)-disparlure and its enantiomer

A short and highly efficient approach was applied for the total synthesis of the gypsy moth sex pheromone (+)-disparlure and its enantiomer from isopropylidene D- and L-erythrose, using a common strategy.     

The “corset effect” of spin-lattice relaxation in polymer melts confined in nanoporous media

Linear polyethylene oxides with molecular weightsM _w of 1665 and 10170 confined in pores with variable diameters in a solid methacrylate matrix were studied by proton field-cycling nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry. The pore diameter was varied in the range of 9–57 nm. In all cases, the spin-lattice relaxation time shows a frequency dependence close toT ₁∞ v^3/4 in the range ofv=3·10^?1-2·10¹ MHz as predicted by the tube-reptation model. This protonT ₁ dispersion essentially reproduces that found in a previous deuteron study (R. Kimmich, R.-O. Seitter, U. Beginn, M. Möller, N. Fatkullin: Chem. Phys. Lett. 307, 147, 1999). As a feature particularly characteristic for reptation, this finding suggests that reptation is the dominating chain dynamics mechanism under pore confinement in the corresponding time range. The absolute values of the spin-lattice relaxation times indicate that the diameter of the effective tubes in which reptation occurs is much smaller than the pore diameters on the time scale of spin-lattice relaxation experimens. An estimation leads to a valued ^*～0.5 nm. The impenetrability of the solid pore walls, the uncrossability of polymer chains (“excluded volume”) and the low value of the compressibility in polymer melts create the “corset effect” which reduces the lateral motions of polymer chains to a microscopic scale of only a few tenths of a nanometer.