Synthesis and adsorption properties of gold nanoparticles within pores of surface‐functional porous polymer microspheres

Mesoporous polymer microspheres with gold (Au) nanoparticles inside their pores were prepared considering their surface functionality and porosity. The Au/polymer composite microspheres prepared were characterized by transmission electron microscope (TEM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) techniques. The results showed that the adsorption of Au nanoparticles could be increased by imparting the pore structure and surface‐functional groups into the supporting polymer microspheres (in this study, poly (ethylene glycol dimethacrylate‐co‐acrylonitrile) and poly (EGDMA‐co‐AN) system). Above all, from this study, it was established that the porosity of the polymer microspheres is the most important factor that determines the distribution and adsorption amount of face‐centered cubic (fcc) Au nanoparticles in the final products. Our study showed that the continuous adsorption of Au nanoparticles with the aid of the large surface area and surface interaction sites formed more favorably the Au/polymer composite microspheres. The BET measurements of Au/poly(EGDMA‐co‐AN) composite microspheres reveals that the adsorption of Au nanoparticles into the pores kept the pore structure intact and made it more porous. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 5627–5635, 2004     

20-relative neighborhood graphs are hamiltonian

For any two points p and q in the Euclidean plane, define LUN_pq = { v | v ∈ R², d_pv < d_pq and d_qv < d_pq}, where d_uv is the Euclidean distance between two points u and v . Given a set of points V in the plane, let LUN_pq(V) = V ∩ LUN_pq. Toussaint defined the relative neighborhood graph of V, denoted by RNG(V) or simply RNG, to be the undirected graph with vertices V such that for each pair p,q ∈ V, (p,q) is an edge of RNG(V) if and only if LUN_pq (V) = ?. The relative neighborhood graph has several applications in pattern recognition that have been studied by Toussaint. We shall generalize the idea of RNG to define the k-relative neighborhood graph of V, denoted by kRNG(V) or simply kRNG, to be the undirected graph with vertices V such that for each pair p,q ∈ V, (p,q) is an edge of kRNG(V) if and only if | LUN_pq(V) | < k, for some fixed positive number k. It can be shown that the number of edges of a kRNG is less than O(kn). Also, a kRNG can be constructed in O(kn₂) time. Let E_c = {e_pq| p ∈ V and q ∈ V}. Then G_c = (V,E_c) is a complete graph. For any subset F of E_c, define the maximum distance of F as max_epq∈Fd_pq. A Euclidean bottleneck Hamiltonian cycle is a Hamiltonian cycle in graph G_c whose maximum distance is the minimum among all Hamiltonian cycles in graph G_c. We shall prove that there exists a Euclidean bottleneck Hamiltonian cycle which is a subgraph of 20RNG(V). Hence, 20RNGs are Hamiltonian.     

Modeling hyperelastic behavior of rubber: A novel invariant‐based and a review of constitutive models

A constitutive phenomenological model completing the Gent‐Thomas concept is carried out to formulate laws governing the hyperelastic behavior of incompressible rubber materials. It is shown that the phenomenological Gent‐Thomas model (1958) and the constrained chain model (1992) give similar precise results at small to moderate deformation. On the other hand, comparisons of the outcome of the proposed model with that of the molecular model from the combined concepts of Flory‐Erman and Boyce‐Arruda (2000), and with those of the phenomenological models of Ogden (1982), Yeoh‐Fleming (1997), Pucci‐Saccomandi (2002) and Beda (2005) are made. Residual inconveniences raised by attractive continuum models in rubber elasticity literature have been successfully overcome. Results from both the statistical and phenomenological mechanics concepts are compared with the data of some useful classical materials (rubbers of Treloar, Rivlin‐Saunders, Pak‐Flory and Yeoh‐Fleming). The results permit one to see salient equivalence of the two theories for a more reliable prediction of stress‐stretch response for all states of any mode of deformation. A complete and exhaustive analysis of the Mooney plot that combines small and very large extension‐compression has been quite essential in assessing the validity of models. A method of identification of material parameters is presented and data of the simple tension suffice for the determination of the parameter values. It is shown that the ordinary identification procedures, such as the usual least squares, a very much used numerical method in materials investigation, can be unsuitable in some cases of hyperelastic modeling. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 1713–1732, 2007     

Interference inspection of the aspherical components of an objective for nanolithography

Methods and schemes to inspect the EUV mirror shape are developed on the basis of a point diffraction interferometer with computer processing of interferograms. A measurement accuracy to within 0.001 of a wavelength in the visual range is achieved.     

Calculation of the Radiating Characteristics of a Thermodynamically Nonuniform Gas Medium

Passive methods of remote analysis of waste gases of industrial enterprises and aircrafts engines and gases ejected in eruptions of volcanos, in fires, and in other processes disturbing the atmosphere are now of limited utility because of the lack of well-developed mathematical techniques for solving the inverse problems of gas analysis. However, the advantage of these methods is obvious, since the equipment is limited to a receiving device and the gas medium serves as a radiator. At the same time, in modern techniques, the interpretation of measurements of emissivities of gases is performed using a phenomenological approach such that experimental data on radiation characteristics of various objects are approximated by simple polynomial relations whose coefficients are determined by minimization methods. This approach does not allow one to investigate the mechanism of the processes occurring in a radiating medium and gives no way of solving the inverse problem of monitoring the composition and thermodynamic parameters of a medium which disturbs the atmosphere by thermal effects. In elaborating theoretical methods of gas analysis, the elaboration of the direct problem of calculation of radiating characteristics of gases is of importance, since it is not clear how the emissivity of a gas medium depends on its thermodynamic parameters. This paper is devoted to the above problem. Here, the error is estimated that arises in modeling a nonuniform gas medium with an actual temperature distribution, which linearly depends on coordinate, by a uniform gas layer. It is shown that the difference between the radiation intensities calculated for uniform and nonuniform media can be significant in the practically important case where the recording device is in a zone of normal temperatures. This implies that the error of reconstruction of the spectroscopic and molecular parameters of gaseous compounds from high-temperature measurements of the radiating and absorbing characteristics should take into account the thermodynamic nonuniformity of the medium.     

The effect of olefinic terminal chains on the mesomorphic properties of 4,4'-disubstituted diphenyldiacetylenes

New diphenyldiacetylenes of the type with A, B = H and/or F; m = 0, 1; n = 1-4; and X = C n H 2n + 1 , F, CF 3 or CN were synthesized and their mesomorphic properties determined by hot stage polarizing microscopy and DSC. When m = 0, all of these compounds showed only a nematic phase except when X = CF 3 when both nematic and smectic A phases were seen. Both clearing and melting temperatures were higher than those reported for substitution with the corresponding alkyl chains but the much larger increase in clearing temperatures produced considerably wider nematic phases. Eutectic mixtures of a few of these olefins yielded nematic materials also having much wider temperature ranges and higher clearing temperatures than the eutectic mixtures of the alkyl compounds, while retaining their high birefringence and low viscosities. Such materials are of interest for beam-steering devices.

Four of the diacetylenes with m = 1 ( A, B = H) were also prepared ( X = C 6 H 13 , F, n = 2, 3). When X was C 6 H 13 ( n = 2), the nematic range was smaller in the 2- than in the 1-olefin but wider than in the alkyl series. When X = F, either no nematic phase or a monotropic one was observed, whereas the 1-olefins gave a much wider nematic phase. Both transition temperatures were lower than those for the corresponding 1-olefin and alkyl analogues. The compound with X = C 6 H 13 and n = 2 had a melting temperature below room temperature.     

A rapid and sensitive extractive spectrophotometric determination of copper(II) in pharmaceutical and environmental samples using benzildithiosemicarbazone.

Benzildithiosemicarbazone (BDTSC) is proposed as a sensitive and selective analytical reagent for the extractive spectrophotometric determination of copper(II). BDTSC reacts with copper(II) in the pH range 1.0-7.0 to form a yellowish complex. Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration range 0.5-0.4 microg cm(-3). The yellowish Cu(II)-BDTSC complex in chloroform shows a maximum absorbance at 380 nm, with molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity values of 1.63 x 10(4) dm3 mol(-1) cm(-1) and 0.00389 microg cm(-2), respectively. A repetition of the method is checked by finding the relative standard deviation (RSD) (n = 10), which is 0.6%. The composition of the Cu(II)-BDTSC complex is established as 1:1 by slope analysis, molar ratio and Asmus' methods. An excellent linearity with a correlation coefficient value of 0.98 is obtained for the Cu(II)-BDTSC complex. The instability constant of the complex calculated from Edmond and Birnbaum's method is 7.70 x 10(-4) and that of Asmus' method is 7.66 x 10(-4), at room temperature. The method is successfully employed for the determination copper(II) in pharmaceutical and environmental samples. The reliability of the method is assured by analyzing the standard alloys (BCS 5g, 10g, 19e, 78, 32a, 207 and 179) and by inter-comparison of experimental values, using an atomic absorption spectrometer.     

Sound propagation in an unstable atmospheric layer

The equation of sound propagation in an unstable medium produced by the presence of supersaturated water vapor in it, which can appear in a hurricane area, is derived. This equation takes into account the effects of sound velocity dispersion, amplification, damping, and nonlinear effects. Some solutions to this equation are presented, illustrating the specific features of sound propagation in an unstable medium. Published in Akusticheskiĭ Zhurnal, 2007, Vol. 53, No. 3, pp. 477–480.