The state of the art and prospects of detonation-synthesis nanodiamond applications in Belarus

Technological features of the commercial production of detonation-synthesis nanodiamonds at the SINTA Joint-Stock Company and the characteristics of the nanodiamonds and diamond-containing mixtures produced are considered. Nanodiamond applications in the production of composite electrolytic coatings that are based on chromium, nickel, gold, and silver, exhibit good service properties, and save on the use of noble metals and electric power are exemplified. Nanodiamond applications for the modification of plastics, antifriction lubricants, and oxide coatings grown by microarc oxidation of aluminum alloys are also considered. The prospective application of nanodiamonds as a raw material in the synthesis of diamond powders and superhard composites by static and shock-wave loading is demonstrated.     

Electrical Conductivity Oscillations in Laminated Charge-Ordered Crystals with a Monotonic Negative Reluctance

In the present paper, the Shubnikov–de Haas oscillation frequencies arising in laminated charge-ordered crystals with a monotonic negative reluctance due to scattering of current carriers on charged impurities with a short-range potential are calculated and classified. It is demonstrated that non-semiclassical oscillation frequencies can be a measure of charge ordering.     

Vibrations of excited molecules at combination and difference frequencies

In the context of the theory of molecular vibrations, by applying the direct product operation of matrices, an equation for the vibrations of vibrationally excited molecules at combination and difference frequencies is obtained. From the solution of this equation, elements of vibration patterns and expressions that can be used for the study of changes in the molecular structural parameters and the coefficients of kinematic interactions are determined. The formulas obtained are applied to the calculation of the anharmonic electro-optical parameters of the molecules of water H₂O and its two isotopes H₂ ¹⁷O and H₂ ¹⁸O. These calculations are performed in terms of the semiempirical quantum-chemical CNDO/2 method and by numerical differentiation of dipole moment functions by employing a cubic spline approximation.     

Rod–coil block copolymers: An iterative synthetic approach via living free-radical procedures

A modular approach has been developed for the synthesis of rod–coil block copolymers involving the initial preparation of a macroinitiator based on the rod block followed by the growth of the coil segment with living free-radical procedures. The key feature of this strategy is the utilization of an alkoxyamine group from the beginning of the synthesis, which serves as a solubilizing group and ensures that each rod block contains a single initiating fragment. Using this approach permits block copolymers based on insoluble biphenyl ester oligomers to be conveniently prepared with coil segments that range from styrenes to acrylates to 1,3-dienes. The tendency of the rod segments to crystallize is strongly dependent on the weight fraction of the rod segment and the chemical nature of the coil segment. Rod–coil molecules containing at least 25–35 wt % polystyrene or poly(n-butyl acrylate) coil segments show a two-dimensional hexagonal arrangement of rod aggregates, as characterized by transmission electron microscopy and small-angle X-ray scattering. Polyisoprene block copolymers exhibit a lamellar microstructure with short rigid domains in which the rod units lie in an interdigitated smectic C arrangement. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 3640–3656, 2003     

On the Definition of Temperature in FPU Systems

It is usually assumed, in classical statistical mechanics, that the temperature should coincide, apart from a suitable constant factor, with the mean kinetic energy of the particles. We show that this is not the case for Fermi–Pasta–Ulam systems, in conditions in which energy equipartition between the modes is not attained. We find that the temperature should be rather identified with the mean value of the energy of the low frequency modes.     

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