Organic soluble deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) bearing carbazole moieties and its blend with phosphorescent Ir(III) complexes

A functionalized deoxyribonucleic acid (Cz‐DNA) was prepared with carbazolyl ammonium lipid as a triplet host material for phosphorescent material system. It is soluble in organic solvents, which facilitates the sample preparation for the absorption and luminescent properties in solid states. A highly soluble iridium complex, Ir(Cz‐ppy)₃ with carbazolyl‐substituted 2‐phenylpyridine ligands was employed for studying the phosphorescence in Cz‐DNA. There is a good overlap between the photoluminescence spectrum of Cz‐DNA and the metal‐to‐ligand charge transfer (MLCT) absorption bands of the iridium complex. This overlap enables efficient energy transfer from the excited state in the host to the MLCT band of Ir(Cz‐ppy)₃. In addition, photoluminescence quantum yield of Cz‐DNA was found to be relatively larger than the copolymer (PCzSt) with vinylcarbazole and styrene. Thus, Cz‐DNA was employed as a triplet host material for fabricating multilayered electrophosphorescence devices via modification of its property by doping 5,4‐tert‐butylhexyl‐1,3,4‐oxadiazole (PBD). After doping 30 wt % PBD and 10 wt % Ir(Cz‐ppy)₃ into Cz‐DNA, we achieved much improvement in electron injection/transport from an adjacent carrier transport layer, resulting in much improved device performances. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 1913–1918, 2010     

Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching measurements of polymers in a surface forces apparatus

The surface forces apparatus has been combined with fluorescence recovery after photobleaching to measure translational diffusion of polymer confined between mica sheets. This article presents findings using polydimethylsiloxane with number‐average molecular weight M_n = 2200 g mol^?1, the chains end‐labeled with soluble fluorescent dye. Melts with thickness 10 nm display a translational diffusion coefficient (D) with a bulk component and a slower component assigned to surface diffusion. Reduction of thickness to 1.8 nm causes mobility to split into two populations—an immobile fraction (immobile on the time scale of 30–60 min) and a mobile fraction who's D slow only weakly with diminishing film thickness. However, when load causes the confining mica sheets to flatten, D of the mobile fraction drops by up to an additional order of magnitude, depending on the local pressure that squeezes on the polymer. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2010     

Preparation and characterization of a poly(vinylbenzyl sulfonic acid)‐grafted FEP membrane

In this study, a novel polymer electrolyte membrane, poly(vinylbenzyl sulfonic acid)‐grafted poly(tetrafluoroethylene‐co‐hexafluoropropylene) (FEP‐g‐PVBSA), has been successfully prepared by simultaneous irradiation grafting of vinylbenzyl chloride (VBC) monomer onto a FEP film and taking subsequent chemical modification steps to modify the benzyl chloride moiety to the benzyl sulfonic acid moiety. The chemical reactions for the sulfonation were carried out via the formation of thiouronium salt with thiourea, base‐catalyzed hydrolysis for the formation of thiol, and oxidation with hydrogen peroxide. Each chemical conversion process was confirmed by FTIR, elemental analysis, and SEM‐EDX. A chemical stability study performed with Fenton's reagent (3% H₂O₂ solution containing 4 ppm of Fe²⁺) at 70 °C revealed that FEP‐g‐PVBSA has a higher chemical stability than the poly(styrene sulfonic acid)‐grafted membranes (FEP‐g‐PSSA). © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 563–569, 2010     

Synthesis and characterization of poly(1,4‐bis((E)‐2‐(3‐dodecylthiophen‐2‐yl)vinyl)benzene) derivatives

New amorphous semiconducting copolymers, poly(9,9‐dialkylfluorene)‐alt‐(3‐dodecylthienyl‐divinylbenzene‐3‐dodecylthienyl) derivatives (PEFTVB and POFTVB), were designed, synthesized, and characterized. The structure of copolymers was confirmed by H NMR, IR, and elemental analysis. The copolymers showed very good solubility in organic solvents and high thermal stability with high T_g of 178–185 °C. The weight average molecular weight was found to be 107,900 with polydispersity of 3.14 for PEFTVB and 76,700 with that of 3.31 for POFTVB. UV–vis absorption studies showed the maximum absorption at 428 nm (in solution) and 435 nm (in film) for PEFTVB and at 430 nm (in solution) and 436 nm (in film) for POFTVB. Photoluminescence studies showed the emission at 498 nm (in solution) and 557 nm (in film) for PEFTVB and at 498 nm (in solution) and 536 nm (in film) for POFTVB. The solution‐processed thin‐film transistors showed the carrier mobility of 2 × 10^?4 cm² V^?1 s^?1 for PEFTVB‐based devices and 2 × 10^?5 cm² V^?1 s^?1 for POFTVB‐based devices. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 3942–3949, 2010     

Multigrid algorithms for symmetric discontinuous Galerkin methods on graded meshes

We study a class of symmetric discontinuous Galerkin methods on graded meshes. Optimal order error estimates are derived in both the energy norm and the L ₂ norm, and we establish the uniform convergence of V-cycle, F-cycle and W-cycle multigrid algorithms for the resulting discrete problems. Numerical results that confirm the theoretical results are also presented.     

Synthesis of three new 1‐(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl)‐2,5‐di(2‐thienyl) pyrrole‐based donor polymers and their bulk heterojunction solar cell applications

A series of three new 1‐(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl)‐2,5‐di(2‐thienyl)pyrrole‐based polymers such as poly[1‐(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl)‐2,5‐di(2‐thienyl)pyrrole] ( PTPT ), poly[1,4‐(2,5‐bis(octyloxy)phenylene)‐alt‐5,5'‐(1‐(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl)‐2,5‐di(2‐thienyl)pyrrole)] ( PPTPT ), and poly[2,5‐(3‐octylthiophene)‐alt‐5,5'‐(1‐(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl)‐2,5‐di(2‐thienyl)pyrrole)] ( PTTPT ) were synthesized and characterized. The new polymers were readily soluble in common organic solvents and the thermogravimetric analysis showed that the three polymers are thermally stable with the 5% degradation temperature >379 °C. The absorption maxima of the polymers were 478, 483, and 485 nm in thin film and the optical band gaps calculated from the onset wavelength of the optical absorption were 2.15, 2.20, and 2.13 eV, respectively. Each of the polymers was investigated as an electron donor blending with PC₇₀BM as an electron acceptor in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. BHJ solar cells were fabricated in ITO/PEDOT:PSS/polymer:PC₇₀BM/TiO_x/Al configurations. The BHJ solar cell with PPTPT :PC₇₀BM (1:5 wt %) showed the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.35% (J_sc = 7.41 mA/cm², V_oc = 0.56 V, FF = 33%), measured using AM 1.5G solar simulator at 100 mW/cm² light illumination. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2010     

An efficient indium-mediated 2-bromoallylation of aldehydes at low temperature in aqueous DMF

An efficient synthesis of 2-bromohomoallylic alcohols was carried out via an indium-mediated Barbier-type 2-bromoallylation of aldehydes in moderate yields. The reaction was performed at low temperature (−20 °C) in aqueous DMF in order to minimize decomposition of 2-bromoallylindium reagent to allene.