Improvements of physical and mechanical properties of electron beam irradiation—crosslinked EVA foams

In this work, ethylene–vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer foams were prepared and crosslinked by using high‐energy electron beam (e‐beam) radiation (10 MeV). The effect of parameters such as irradiation dose, the contents of foaming agent, radiation activator, and radiation sensitizer on improvement of physical and mechanical properties of the EVA foamed samples were investigated. The foams were obtained through a four‐step process of melt mixing, forming, crosslinking, and foaming. During the melt mixing process EVA was compounded with different amounts of azodicarbonamide (ADCA) as a blowing agent, zinc oxide (ZnO) as a radiation activator, and trimethylol propane‐trimethacrylate (TMPTMA) as a radiation sensitizer. The samples were compression molded into flat sheets at low temperature (110°C) and were then radiation‐crosslinked by 20–80 kGy e‐beam. Finally, the crosslinked samples were converted to foams by a high temperature (210°C) compression molding process. The foamed samples were analyzed in terms of gel content, density, compression molding set, tensile properties, and micro‐structural features. It was found that an increase in absorbed radiation dosage increases crosslink density, elasticity, percentage recovery, tensile strength, and compression properties of the EVA foams. Due to the increased recovery the percentage of compression set was reduced. Similarly increasing the TMPTMA content in the formulation increased the crosslink density and the resulting mechanical properties. Contrary to these findings, addition of ADCA led to the formation of extra gases which in turn reduced the crosslink density, and resulted in the deterioration of the mechanical properties and hence an increase in the compression set. However, addition of ZnO and TMPTMA led to the formation of smaller and more uniform cell size with improved mechanical properties. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Generalizations of Polya's urn Problem

We consider generalizations of the classical Polya urn problem: Given finitely many bins each containing one ball, suppose that additional balls arrive one at a time. For each new ball, with probability p, create a new bin and place the ball in that bin; with probability 1–p, place the ball in an existing bin, such that the probability that the ball is placed in a bin is proportional to $ m^\gamma $, where m is the number of balls in that bin. For p=0, the number of bins is fixed and finite, and the behavior of the process depends on whether is greater than, equal to, or less than 1. We survey the known results and give new proofs for all three cases. We then consider the case p>0. When =1, this is equivalent to the so-called preferential attachment scheme which leads to power law distribution for bin sizes. When >1, we prove that a single bin dominates, i.e., as the number of balls goes to infinity, the probability that any new ball either goes into that bin or creates a new bin converges to 1. When p > 0 and < 1, we show that under the assumption that certain limits exist, the fraction of bins having m balls shrinks exponentially as a function of m. We then discuss further generalizations and pose several open problems.AMS Subject Classification: 05D40, 60C05, 60G20, 68R10, 91C99.     

A comparison of the coordination preferences of Zn, Co, and Cd(II) with the heteroscorpionate ligand (2-hydroxy-3-t-butyl-methylphenyl)bis (3,5-dimethylpyrazolyl)methane

Reaction of the Zn, Cd, or Co nitrate salts with the deprotonated ligand (2-hydroxy-3-t-butyl-methylphenyl)bis(3,5-dimethylpyrazolyl)methane (L1O^–) in methanol produced the following complexes: [(L1OH)Zn(NO₃)₂] in two isomorphs, a = 40.983(8) Å, b = 9.571(2) Å, c = 15.667(8) Å, = 90, = 106.38(1), = 90, C2/c, and a = 13.027(3) Å, b = 14.781(4) Å, c = 16.107(3) Å, = 90, = 105.30(1), = 90, P2₁/n; [(L1OH)Cd(pz)(NO₃)₂] a = 14.7476(2) Å, b = 13.5411(2) Å, c = 16.7223(2) Å, = 90, = 110.3840(10), = 90, P2₁/c; and [(L1O)Co(pz)(NO₃)] a = 11.4240(2) Å, b = 13.4498(2) Å, c = 13.8056(2) Å, = 105.2080(10), = 105.8130(10), = 112.7470(10), P . The Zn adopts a pseudotetrahedral four-coordinate geometry where the potentially tridentate ligand is actually bidentate with a protonated and uncoordinated phenoxy arm. The Co complex is pseudooctahedral six-coordinate where the phenoxy arm is deprotonated and coordinated. Finally the Cd complex is seven-coordinate but the metal is not coordinated through the phenoxy group that is again protonated.     

Synthesis of Novel 1,2,3-Triazole-dihydro[3,2-c]chromenones as Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors

A novel series of 1,2,3-triazole-dihydro[3,2-c]chromenone derivatives were synthesized through an efficient three-step reaction starting from 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde. All the newly synthesized compounds were characterized by infrared and NMR spectroscopy as well as elemental analysis and evaluated for their acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity.     

SYNTHESIS,REACTIVITY AND CONFORMATION OF 10,11-DIHYDRODIBENZO-[b,f]PHOSPHEPIN AND DIBENZO[b,f]PHOSPHEPIN DERIVATIVES. PHOSPHORUS ANALOGUES OF IMINOBIBENZYL ANTIDEPRESSANTS

Abstract

Derivatives of the novel dibenzo[b,f]phosphepin system are prepared from 10,11-dihydro-5-phenyl-5H-bibenzo[b,f]phosphepin 5-oxide (2). New members in the 10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo[b,f]phosphepin series, including phosphorus analogues (7, 10) of the andidepressant drug imipramine (30), are also reported. Products of nucleophilic substitution at tetrahedral phosphorus in 2 appear to be determined by the relative apicophilicity of the nucleophile. Conformational analysis based on ¹H NMR data suggests folded (“butterfly”) conformation for the tricyclic compounds. The twisted boat conformation of the central ring in the 10,11-dihydro compounds bears a pseudo-equatorial P[dbnd]O oxygen or a P[dbnd]S sulfur, in solution. Symmetric AA‘BB’ spin systems are found in 4,5 and 7, and their solution conformations appear to be similar to those of analogous 10,11-dihydrodibenzo[b,f]azepine derivatives. The interaction of some compounds with NMR shift reagents and their mass spectral fragmentations are discussed.     

Statistical mechanics of two-dimensional shuffled foams: prediction of the correlation between geometry and topology

We propose an analytical model for the statistical mechanics of shuffled two-dimensional foams with moderate bubble size polydispersity. It predicts without any adjustable parameters the correlations between the number of sides n of the bubbles (topology) and their areas A (geometry) observed in experiments and numerical simulations of shuffled foams. Detailed statistics show that in shuffled cellular patterns n correlates better with √A (as claimed by Desch and Feltham) than with A (as claimed by Lewis and widely assumed in the literature). At the level of the whole foam, standard deviations Δn and ΔA are in proportion. Possible applications include correlations of the detailed distributions of n and A, three-dimensional foams, and biological tissues.     

A new ab initio ground-state dipole moment surface for the water molecule

A valence-only (V) dipole moment surface (DMS) has been computed for water at the internally contracted multireference configuration interaction level using the extended atom-centered correlation-consistent Gaussian basis set aug-cc-pV6Z. Small corrections to these dipole values, resulting from core correlation (C) and relativistic (R) effects, have also been computed and added to the V surface. The resulting DMS surface is hence called CVR. Interestingly, the C and R corrections cancel out each other almost completely over the whole grid of points investigated. The ground-state CVR dipole of H(2) (16)O is 1.8676 D. This value compares well with the best ab initio one determined in this study, 1.8539+/-0.0013 D, which in turn agrees well with the measured ground-state dipole moment of water, 1.8546(6) D. Line intensities computed with the help of the CVR DMS shows that the present DMS is highly similar to though slightly more accurate than the best previous DMS of water determined by Schwenke and Partridge [J. Chem. Phys. 113, 16 (2000)]. The influence of the precision of the rovibrational wave functions computed using different potential energy surfaces (PESs) has been investigated and proved to be small, due mostly to the small discrepancies between the best ab initio and empirical PESs of water. Several different measures to test the DMS of water are advanced. The seemingly most sensitive measure is the comparison between the ab initio line intensities and those measured by ultralong pathlength methods which are sensitive to very weak transitions.     

1,1,2,2-Tetrahydroperoxy-1,2-diphenylethane as new oxidant for chemoselective and catalyst free oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides and sulfones

A catalyst free and chemoselective oxidation of sulfides to sulfoxides or sulfones was developed using 1,1,2,2-tetrahydroperoxy-1,2-diphenylethane as a new oxidant. This scope has shown the achievement of various sulfoxides and sulfones which were obtained selectively in high yields at room temperature.     

Thermal response of dielectric,impedance and modulus spectroscopy study of NCZA bulk ceramics

The Ni_0.27Cu_0.10Zn_0.63Fe_1.96Al_0.04O₄ (NCZA) magnetic bulk ceramics is prepared via conventional solid state reaction technique. X-ray diffraction study has confirmed the single phase spinel crystal structure. The surface morphology has been studied and found small grain size distributions that are separated by well-defined grain boundaries. Besides, to understand the thermal and frequency variation of the electrical and dielectric properties, the investigation has done at different selected temperatures (T_m = 300, 323, 373, 423, 473, 523 and 573) over a range of frequency (20 Hz to 2 MHz) throughout a non-destructive impedance spectroscopy technique. It is observed that the dielectric constant has increased with the increase of T_m as well as frequency. The impedance plot showed two semicircular arcs due to the distinguishing relaxation time constant of charge carrier of grain and grain boundaries. Modulus spectroscopy has been carried out to analyze the mechanism of electrical transport process in the ceramics.