Heat capacity of poly(trimethylene terephthalate)

The heat capacity of poly(trimethylene terephthalate) (PTT) has been measured using adiabatic calorimetry, standard differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC). The heat capacities of the solid and liquid states of semicrystalline PTT are reported from 5 to 570 K. The semicrystalline PTT has a glass transition temperature of 331 K. Between 340 and 480 K, PTT can show exothermic ordering depending on the prior degree of crystallization. The melting endotherm of semicrystalline samples occurs between 480 and 505 K, with a typical onset temperature of 489 K (216°C). The heat of fusion of the semicrystalline samples is about 15 kJ mol⁻¹. For 100% crystalline PTT the heat of fusion is estimated to be 30 ± 2 kJ mol⁻¹. The heat capacity of solid PTT is linked to an approximate group vibrational spectrum and the Tarasov equation is used to estimate the heat capacity contribution due to skeletal vibrations (θ₁ = 550.5 K and θ₂ = θ₃ = 51 K, N_skeletal = 19). The calculated and experimental heat capacities agree to better than ±3% between 5 and 300 K. The experimental heat capacities of liquid PTT can be expressed by: $ C^L_p(exp) $ = 211.6 + 0.434 T J K⁻¹ mol⁻¹ and compare to ±0.5% with estimates from the ATHAS data bank using contributions of other polymers with the same constituent groups. The glass transition temperature of the completely amorphous polymer is estimated to be 310–315 K with a ΔC_p of about 94 J K⁻¹ mol⁻¹. Knowing C_p of the solid, liquid, and the transition parameters, the thermodynamic functions enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs function were obtained. With these data one can compute for semicrystalline samples crystallinity changes with temperature, mobile amorphous fractions, and resolve the question of rigid-amorphous fractions.© 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J. Polym. Sci. B Polym. Phys. 36: 2499–2511, 1998     

Ring-opened metathesis polymers from cyclohexenylnorbornene and related Diels-Alder adducts of cyclopentadiene with vinyl and divinyl cyclohydrocarbons

5-(3-Cyclohexen-1-yl)-2-norbornene [CHNB] has been shown to form a very lightly crosslinked polymer (T_g = 127°C) with good elongation via ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP). Based on swelling behavior with added norbornadiene dimer, the low crosslink density is ascribed to ≪0.5% participation by the cyclohexenyl ring. Compared to dicyclopentadiene (DCPD), CHNB polymerizations were less exothermic, required less catalyst, and exhibited greater molding latitude, which are advantageous for Reaction Injection Molding (RIM). Styrene-isoprene and styrene-ethylene/butylene block copolymers were effective impact modifiers for polyCHNB, forming large particle morphologies. Small rubber particles formed from styrene-butadiene block copolymers were not effective for impact enhancement of polyCHNB, in contrast to polyDCPD. Rubber-modified polyCHNB retained impact resistance four to six times longer than polyDCPD samples when aged in air at 50–70°C. Related RIM-ROMP of liquid monomer mixtures prepared by cyclopentadiene cycloadditions with 4-vinyl-1-cyclohexene, cis-1,3-divinylcyclopentane, 3,5-divinylcyclopentene or cis-2,4-divinylbicyclo[3.3.0]oct-6-ene formed highly crosslinked, less ductile copolymers with T_gs as high as 206°C. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 35: 3049–3063, 1997     

Impact of a Post-OTDM-Demultiplexing Optical Filter on Dense OOK OTDM-WDM Transmission

The impact of a post-OTDM-demultiplexing optical filter on the performance of dense on-off keying (OOK) optical time division multiplexing (OTDM)—wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems was studied. For return-to-zero (RZ) modulation, it was found that the additional filter working in a double-tier filter configuration did not offer any significant improvements to performance when the signal pulse width is optimized. Improvements generally increase only when the signal pulse width deviates from its optimal value and only for low spectral densities. For ideal non-return-to-zero (NRZ) modulation, however, significant improvements of around 1 dB are obtained using the double-tier configuration over a large range of spectral densities.     

Evaluation of the hybridization effect on the thermal and thermo-oxidative stability of bamboo/kenaf/epoxy hybrid composites

Bamboo-/kenaf-reinforced epoxy hybrid composites were prepared by hand layup method. The aim of this study is to look into the hybridization effect of bamboo and kenaf fibers at different ratios on thermal and thermo-oxidative (TOD) stabilities of hybrid composites. Three types of hybrid composites were fabricated with different mass ratios of bamboo fiber mat (B) to kenaf fiber mat (K), namely B/K 70:30, B/K 50:50 and B/K 70:30 while maintaining total fiber loading of 40% by mass. The thermal stability and thermo-oxidative (TOD) stability were analyzed by thermogravimetric analyzer. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to investigate the oxidation onset temperature (OOT) of all the composites. The results reveal that bamboo composite shows higher thermal stability than kenaf composite in both inert and oxidative atmospheres. An increase in bamboo fibers mass ratio in the hybrid composite improved the thermal and TOD stability. The thermal and TOD stabilities of the hybrid composites follow the sequence of B/K 70: 30?>?B/K 50:50?>?B/K 30:70. Pure epoxy composite recorded the highest OOT at 197.50 °C. The results show that the addition of natural fiber in the epoxy matrix has significantly reduced the OOT compared to the pure epoxy. Data obtained from this work will help us to fabricate a sustainable and biodegradable component for automotive or building materials.

     

Link layer retransmission schemes for circuit-mode data over the CDMA physical channel

In the last few years, wide-area data services over North American digital (TDMA and CDMA) cellular networks have been standardized. The standards were developed under three primary constraints: (i) compatibility with existing land-line standards and systems, (ii) compatibility with existing cellular physical layer standards that are optimized for voice, and (iii) market demands for quick solutions. In particular, the IS-95 CDMA air interface standard permits multiplexing of primary traffic (e.g., voice or circuit data) and secondary traffic (e.g., packet data) or in-band signaling within the same physical layer burst. In this paper, we describe two radio link protocols for circuit-mode data over IS-95. The first protocol, Protocol S, relies on a single level of recovery and uses a flexible segmentation and recovery (FSAR) sublayer to efficiently pack data frames into multiplexed physical layer bursts. We next describe Protocol T, that consists of two levels of recovery. Protocol T has been standardized for CDMA circuit-mode data as IS-99 (Telecommunications Industry Association, 1994). We provide performance comparisons of the two protocols in terms of throughput, delay and recovery from fades. We find that the complexity of the two level recovery mechanism can buy higher throughput through the reduced retransmission data unit size. However, the choice of TCP (and its associated congestion control mechanism) as the upper layer of recovery on the link layer, leads to long fade recovery times for Protocol T. The two approaches also have significant differences with respect to procedures and performance at handoff and connection establishment. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Holomorphic sections of pre-quantum line bundles on

Let be the Iwasawa decomposition of a complex connected semi-simple Lie group . Let be a parabolic subgroup containing , and let be its commutator subgroup. In this paper, we characterize the -invariant Kähler structures on , and study the holomorphic sections of their corresponding pre-quantum line bundles.

     

Time‐domain equalizer for multicarrier systems in impulsive noise

In multicarrier communication systems, a time‐domain equalizer (TEQ) can be applied to shorten the channel impulse response and to eliminate inter‐symbol interference (ISI). However, the presence of impulsive noise in the channel may paralyze the operation of TEQs and subsequently lead to poor error performance. In this paper, a multicarrier receiver that incorporates a constant false alarm rate algorithm and an iterative estimation technique (CFAR‐IET) in conjunction with a TEQ is proposed to increase the robustness of the receiver against impulsive noise. Furthermore, an improved version of the CFAR‐IET‐TEQ scheme, which uses the buffering, sorting, removing and amplitude averaging (BSRA) processes, is presented. Performance comparisons of the proposed schemes with the existing Gaussian‐optimized schemes are made. Simulation results show that the BSRA‐IET‐TEQ scheme is an effective approach to reduce symbol error rate (SER) in impulsive channels while performing satisfactorily in Gaussian channels. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Film-pore-concentration-dependent surface diffusion model for the adsorption of dye onto palm kernel shell activated carbon

The rate of dye adsorption from aqueous effluents onto palm kernel shell (PKS) activated carbon has been studied experimentally using the batch adsorption method. The adsorption rates of methylene blue on PKS for systems of different initial dye concentrations are modeled using a film-pore-concentration dependent surface diffusion (FPCDSD) model. The FPCDSD model is sufficiently general and can be reduced easily to describe other simplified models. Using the FPCDSD model, only a single set of mass transfer parameters is required to describe the methylene blue/PKS system for different initial concentrations. A different set of mass transfer parameters are needed to obtain the best fitting if the pore diffusion is not included in the model.