Additive‐like amounts of HDPE prevent creep of molten LDPE: Phase‐behavior and thermo‐mechanical properties of a melt‐miscible blend

Low‐density polyethylene (LDPE) is the preferred type of polyolefin for many medical and electrical applications because of its superior purity and cleanliness. However, the inferior thermo‐mechanical properties as compared to, for example, high‐density polyethylene (HDPE), which arise because of the lower melting temperature of LDPE, constitute a significant drawback. Here, we demonstrate that the addition of minute amounts of HDPE to a LDPE resin considerably improves the mechanical integrity above the melting temperature of LDPE. A combination of dynamic mechanical analysis and creep experiments reveals that the addition of as little as 1 to 2 wt% HDPE leads to complete form stability above the melting temperature of LDPE. The investigated LDPE/HDPE blend is found to be miscible in the melt, which facilitates the formation of a solid‐state microstructure that features a fine distribution of HDPE‐rich lamellae. The absence of creep above the melting temperature of LDPE is rationalized with the presence of tie chains and trapped entanglements that connect the few remaining crystallites. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017 , 55, 146–156     

Preparation of Protected Serinol

. An effective procedure for the preparation of the benzylidene protected serinol, 5-amino-2-phenyl-1,3-dioxane, is described. Catalytic reductive amination of O,O'-benzylidene dihydroxyacetene, BDHA, with ammonia in anhydrous ethanol gave the pure product in high yield.     

High‐order CFD methods: current status and perspective

After several years of planning, the 1st International Workshop on High‐Order CFD Methods was successfully held in Nashville, Tennessee, on January 7–8, 2012, just before the 50th Aerospace Sciences Meeting. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the German Aerospace Center provided much needed support, financial and moral. Over 70 participants from all over the world across the research spectrum of academia, government labs, and private industry attended the workshop. Many exciting results were presented. In this review article, the main motivation and major findings from the workshop are described. Pacing items requiring further effort are presented. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Decay heat studies for nuclear energy

The energy associated with the decay of fission products plays an important role in the estimation of the amount of heat released by nuclear fuel in reactors. In this article we present results of the study of the beta decay of some refractory isotopes that were considered important contributors to the decay heat in reactors. The measurements were performed at the IGISOL facility of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. In these studies we have combined for the first time a Penning trap (JYFLTRAP), which was used as a high resolution isobaric separator, with a total absorption spectrometer. The results of the measurements as well as their consequences for decay heat summation calculations are discussed.     

Demonstration of a single-photon router in the microwave regime

We have embedded an artificial atom, a superconducting transmon qubit, in an open transmission line and investigated the strong scattering of incident microwave photons (～6 GHz). When an input coherent state, with an average photon number N?1 is on resonance with the artificial atom, we observe extinction of up to 99.6% in the forward propagating field. We use two-tone spectroscopy to study scattering from excited states and we observe electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). We then use EIT to make a single-photon router, where we can control to what output port an incoming signal is delivered. The maximum on-off ratio is around 99% with a rise and fall time on the order of nanoseconds, consistent with theoretical expectations. The router can easily be extended to have multiple output ports and it can be viewed as a rudimentary quantum node, an important step towards building quantum information networks.