Influence of chloride anions on the electrodeposition and electroactivity of the polymer matrix in polypyrrole,poly(<Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-methylpyrrole) and polypyrrole derivatives functionalized by titanocene centers,in dry non-aqueous solutions

We report electrochemical studies on the influence of a small concentration of chloride ions on the electroactivity of the polymer matrix of polypyrrole (PPy), poly(N-methylpyrrole) [p(N-MePy)] and a poly(titanocene-propyl-pyrrole) derivative, p(Tc3Py) [Tc(CH₂)₃NC₄H₄; Tc=CpCpTiCl₂; Cp=C₅H₅; Cp=C₅H₄] in acetonitrile (AN), tetrahydrofuran (THF) and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF). The polymer films were obtained on Pt disc electrodes from AN solutions of the monomers containing 0.1 M tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate (TBAPF₆) as the supporting electrolyte and then transferred to the corresponding monomer-free solution. Studies in Cl^–-containing solutions have shown that the p(Tc3Py) matrix is very sensitive to the presence of Cl^– ions in all the above solvents, namely that it was subjected to electrochemical degradation at potentials above 0.1 V vs. a Ag/0.01 M Ag⁺ in AN reference electrode. Degradation of the p(Tc3Py) matrix was also observed in chloride-free DMF+TBAPF₆ solutions. Addition of chloride ions to the AN solution containing pyrrole, N-methylpyrrole or Tc3Py inhibits the deposition of the polymer films. On the other hand, we have found that PPy and p(N-MePy) matrices after their deposition in chloride-free AN solutions show much more stable redox responses in contact with chloride and/or DMF solutions. Possible mechanisms of these effects are discussed.Abbreviations AN acetonitrile - Cp cyclopentadienyl - DMF N,N-dimethylformamide - N-MePy N-methylpyrrole - p(N-MePy) poly(N-methylpyrrole) - PPy polypyrrole - p(Tc3Py) poly[Tc(CH₂)₃NC₄H₄] - Py pyrrole - Tc titanocene=bis(cyclopentadienyl)titanium dichloride, Cp₂TiCl₂, or its radical CpCpTiCl₂ (Cp=C₅H₄) - Tc3Py titanocene-propyl-pyrrole, Tc(CH₂)₃NC₄H₄ - THF tetrahydrofuran Contribution to the 3rd Baltic Conference on Electrochemistry, Gdansk-Sobieszewo, Poland, 23–26 April 2003Dedicated to the memory of Harry B. Mark, Jr. (28 February 1934–3 March 2003)     

The effects of polymer chain rigidification, zeolite pore size and pore blockage on polyethersulfone (PES)-zeolite A mixed matrix membranes

The polyethersulfone (PES)-zeolite 3A, 4A and 5A mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) were fabricated with a modified solution-casting procedure at high temperatures close to the glass transition temperatures (T_g) of polymer materials. The effects of membrane preparation methodology, zeolite loading and pore size of zeolite on the gas separation performance of these mixed matrix membranes were studied. SEM results show the interface between polymer and zeolite in MMMs experiencing natural cooling is better (i.e., less defective) than that in MMMs experiencing immediate quenching. The increment of glass transition temperature (T_g) of MMMs with zeolite loading confirms the polymer chain rigidification induced by zeolite. The experimental results indicate that a higher zeolite loading results in a decrease in gas permeability and an increase in gas pair selectivity. The unmodified Maxwell model fails to correctly predict the permeability decrease induced by polymer chain rigidification near the zeolite surface and the partial pore blockage of zeolites by the polymer chains. A new modified Maxwell model is therefore proposed. It takes the combined effects of chain rigidification and partial pore blockage of zeolites into calculation. The new model shows much consistent permeability and selectivity predication with experimental data. Surprisingly, an increase in zeolite pore size from 3 to 5 Å generally not only increase gas permeability, but also gas pair selectivity. The O₂/N₂ selectivity of PES-zeolite 3A and PES-zeolite 4A membranes is very similar, while the O₂/N₂ selectivity of PES-zeolite 5A membranes is much higher. This implies the blockage may narrow a part of zeolite 5A pores to approximately 4 Å, which can discriminate the gas pair of O₂ and N₂, and narrow a part of zeolites 3A and 4A pores to smaller sizes. It is concluded that the partial pore blockage of zeolites by the polymer chains has equivalent or more influence on the separation properties of mixed matrix membranes compared with that of the polymer chain rigidification.     

CARRIER PHOTOGENERATION IN POLY（N-VINYL-CARBAZOLE）-BASED PHOTOCONDUCTIVE THIN-FILM DEVICES

In this paper, photoexcitation processes in the bilayer devices based on inorganic materials and poly（N-vinylcarbazole） （PVK） were investigated. In order to clarify the roles of inorganic materials in photoconductive properties of bilayer devices, TiO2 and ZnS were chosen to combine with PVK. A model for generation of photocurrent （Iph） in single layer device of PVK was obtained. It is deduced that the recombination rate constant （Pcomb） and the ionization rate constant （y） ofexcitons should be considered as the most important factors for Iph. For inorganic materials （TiO2 or ZnS）/PVK bilayer devices, in reverse bias of-4 V, the photocurrent of 115 mA/cm^2 in the TiO2/PVK device was observed, but the photocurrent in the ZnS/PVK device was only 10 mA/cma under the illumination light of 340 nm and the light intensity of 14.2 mW/cm^2. The weaker photocurrent is attributed to the absorption of ZnS within UV region and the energy offset at the interface between PVK and ZnS, which impedes the transport of charge carriers.     

Polymer diffusion in quenched disorder: A renormalization group approach

We study the diffusion of polymers through quenched short-range correlated random media by renormalization group (RG) methods, which allow us to derive universal predictions in the limit of long chains and weak disorder. We take local quenched random potentials with second momentv and the excluded-volume interactionu of the chain segments into account. We show that our model contains the relevant features of polymer diffusion in random media in the RG sense if we focus on the local entropic effects rather than on the topological constraints of a quenched random medium. The dynamic generating functional and the general structure of its perturbation expansion inu andv are derived. The distribution functions for the center-of-mass motion and the internal modes of one chain and for the correlation of the center of mass motions of two chains are calculated to one-loop order. The results allow for sufficient cross-checks to have trust in the one-loop renormalizability of the model. The general structure as well as the one-loop results of the integrated RG flow of the parameters are discussed. Universal results can be found for the effective static interactionwu–v0 and for small effective disorder coupling on the intermediate length scalel. As a first physical prediction from our analysis, we determine the general nonlinear scaling form of the chain diffusion constant and evaluate it explicitly as for .     

Determination of heavy metal concentration in feed and permeate streams of polymer enhanced ultrafiltration process

Polymer enhanced ultrafiltration (PEUF) is a newly developed method for the removal of heavy metals from aqueous solutions. This method was applied for the removal of mercury and cadmium with the presence of polyethyleneimine (PEI) as a water soluble polymer. After ultrafiltration experiments for metal–polymer mixtures, two separate streams, namely, retentate and permeate, former of which contains mainly metal–polymer complex and free polymer molecules while latter of which mainly contains free metal ions, were obtained. At the end of PEUF experiments, performance of operation was determined by concentration analyses which was achieved by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) applied in a different way for permeate and retentate streams considering the effect of presence of polymer. For mercury analysis, cold vapor AAS was applied. It was observed that the presence of PEI did not affect the atomic absorption signal when 10% HCl was added to the sample solutions. For calcium and cadmium, flame AAS was used. It was observed that change in PEI concentration results in change in measured concentration of calcium and cadmium. Therefore, two new approaches were developed for accurate measurement of concentrations of calcium and cadmium. It was also observed that presence of other metals did not affect the accuracy of the measurement of a particular metal in the concentration range studied.     

End-functionalized polyethylene oxide coated silica particles for packed capillary column supercritical fluid chromatography

Summary Polyethylene oxide (PEO)-based polymers with hydroxy, methoxy, and aminopropoxy terminal groups were coated on diol functionalized and hexamethyldisilazane end-capped silica particles. Proton-donor and proton-acceptor test solutes, including carboxylic acids, hydroxy-containing compounds, arylamines, and alkylamines were used to evaluate the chromatographic performances of these polymer coated particles under SFC conditions with neat CO₂ as mobile phase. It was found that the particles coated with hydroxy-terminated PEO were suitable for the separation of proton-donor compounds such as hydroxy-containing compounds and carboxylic acids, and the particles coated with aminopropoxy-terminated PEO could be used for the separation of amines. That is, the proton-accepting stationary phase is suitable for the separation of proton accepting solutes, including strong basic alkylamines (pK_b4), using neat CO₂ as mobile phase, while the protondonating stationary phase is suitable for the separation of proton-donating compounds such as carboxylic acids (pK_a4). Hydrogen bond basicity was found to be a critical factor for the chromatography of basic amines. Low volatility acidic and basic drugs were chromatographed using the new stationary phases. The stability of the PEO coated particles was determined by measuring the loss of organic carbon under SFC conditions. It was found that approximately 18 % of the coating (average molecular weight of 15,000) was washed out of the particles by supercritical CO₂ after 7 h at 350 atm and 50°C     

Synthesis of new crosslinkable co-polymers containing a push-pull zinc porphyrin for non-linear optical applications

In this paper, the synthesis of a crosslinkable co-polymer containing new push-pull arylethynyl zinc porphyrins is described. The synthesis of porphyrin chromophores, analogous to Therien's porphyrin (J. Am. Chem. Soc.1996, 118, 1497-1503) functionalized with a methacrylic polymerizable group and a carboxylic acid crosslinking group was achieved with a new synthetic procedure leading to a higher overall yield compared to what was previously reported in the literature for similar and simpler structures. Radical copolymerization of the porphyrin chromophore with glycidyl methacrylate has then been carried out with success. This work opens a perspective on the possibility to integrate porphyrinic chromophore with high first-order molecular quadratic hyperpolarizability coefficient in opto-electronic devices.     

多相高分子快离子导体阻抗谱的研究

研究了以ＬｉＣｌＯ４掺杂的聚乙二醇聚氨酯双离子导体及磺酸型聚乙二醇聚氨酯离聚物单一离子导体的阻抗谱，给出了多相快离子导体交流阻抗测试系统的等效电路．通过阻抗谱计算机解析，计算得出了样品的基本电学参数．通过讨论界面阻抗的色散现象，计算出样品的离子电导率，和阻抗谱解析法得到的结果相一致．     

Heat transfer in polymer composites filled with inorganic hollow micro-spheres: A theoretical model

The heat transfer mechanisms in inorganic hollow micro-spheres filled polymer composites are analyzed in the present paper. This heat transfer includes mainly three mechanisms: (1) thermal conduction between solid and gas; (2) thermal radiation between the hollow micro-sphere surfaces; and (3) natural thermal convection of the gas in the micro-hollow spheres. A theoretical model of heat transfer in polymer/inorganic hollow micro-sphere composites is established based on the law of minimal thermal resistance and the equal law of the specific equivalent thermal conductivity, and a corresponding equation of effective thermal conductivity is derived. The effective thermal conductivity (k_eff) of hollow glass bead-filled polypropylene composites is estimated by using this equation, and is compared with the numerical simulations by means of a finite element method. The results show that the variation of the theoretical estimations of k_eff are similar to the numerical simulations at lower filler volume fraction (φ_f20%). Moreover, k_eff decreases linearly with increasing φ_f, and reduces somewhat with increase of filler size.     

Paracrystalline order in polymers

Summary A brief review of one and three dimensional models of paracrystalline superstructures in polymers, as used for analysing the small angle scattering, is given.

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Zusammenfassung Es wird ein knapper überblick über die bei der Analyse der Kleinwinkelstreuung von Polymeren verwendeten einund dreidimensionalen Modelle der Überstruktur gegeben.