Field-induced structural ordering in electrorheological fluids

Structural relaxations of an electrorheological fluid (ERF) due to changes in the applied electrical field strength or shear rate are observed on time scales 1 s<t<40 000 s. Commercial ERFs consisting of mesoscopic polyurethane particles in a silicone oil matrix were studied by three different experimental techniques in order to obtain and compare the characteristic relaxation times. It is demonstrated that dielectric spectroscopy, viscosimetry and light transmission experiments represent the same results concerning the structural relaxation phenomena of ERFs when electrical fields are applied. The tendency of strong induced dipoles to align the particles in the direction of the field increases the effective dipole moment and therefore , the shear viscosity and the amount of light transmitted along the field direction in an ITO/glass sandwich cell. The optical experiment is capable of resolving fast processes within the first 1 ms if large electrical fields are applied. The effects of electrophoresis and shearing, which both counteract the field induced structures, are also addressed.     

Criticality and phase transitions in ionic fluids

Recent experimental investigations of criticality and phase separation in ionic fluids have revealed behavior of great theoretical interest. In seeking to understand the experiments, some of which appear to exhibit argonlike criticality and some of which exhibit classical (mean-field) criticality, a convenient starting point is the restricted primitive model (RPM) of symmetrically charged hard spheres, all of equal diameter , each sphere bearing a positive or negative charge of magnitudeq. There is overall charge neutrality, so that the expected number densities of the anions and cations are equal, ₊= _-. Studies of RPM charge-charge and density-density correlation functions indicate that the fluctuation-suppressing mechanism that yields mean-field critical behavior in nonionic systems with long-range interparticle potentials is not operative in the RPM. On the basis of plausible assumptions, Ising-like behavior is instead expected. The above work is summarized. New work of Zhang and the author is outlined, showing that when one loses the RPM symmetry (through, e.g., different valence, diameter, or dipole moment of anions and cations) a strong coupling between charge-charge and density-density correlation ensues. The way in which this can be expected to give rise to mean-field or mean-field-like behavior is noted. Other new observations concern the mean-field analogy found by Høye and the author between the parameter 2/(d–2) (d is the dimensionality) in that model and the monomer number in high polymers, with respect to the coexistence-curve shape dependence on those parameters.     

Synthesis of magnetic DDAB vesicles

The synthesis of magnetic vesicles is described. The vesicles are constituted by didodecyldimethylammonium bromide and have a diameter of about 1 m. An aqueous magnetic fluid, constituted by charged magnetic nanoparticles dispersed in water without surfactant, is encapsulated in the vesicle with a volume fraction in particles that may range up to 10%. The first step of the encapsulation is the synthesis of a multiple emulsion the intermediate oily phase being evaporated to obtain the DDAB bilayer. The magnetic vesicles thus synthesized align and change shape when a magnetic field is applied.     

Classical fluids of negative heat capacity

It is shown that new parametersX can be defined such that the heat capacity C_xT(S/T)_x is negative, even when the canonical ensemble [i.e., at fixed T=(U/S)_Y and YX] is stable. This implies an extension of the classical theory of polytropes from ideal gases to general fluids. As examples of negative heat capacity systems we treat blackbody radiation and general gas systems with nonsingular _T. For the case of a simple ideal gas we even exhibit an apparatus which enforces a constraint X(p, V)=const that makes C_x<0. We then show that it is possible to infer the statistical mechanics of canonicallyunstable systems-for which even the traditional heat capacities are negative-by imposing constraints that stabilize the associated noncanonical ensembles. Two explicit models are discussed.     

Physicochemical Principles of Extraction with Supercritical Gases

The present review considers some physicochemical properties of fluid mixtures that are of importance for fluid extraction and supercitical fluid chromatography (SFC). Firstly, the important types of phase diagrams are treated, the occurrence of solid phases also being considered in some simple cases. Specific examples are given of mixtures of a highly volatile component I (e.g. CO₂, C₂H₆) with a relatively involatile component II (e.g. squalane) of very different molecular size, shape, structure, and/or polarity, and it is shown how the rather complicated types of phase diagrams can be calculated and correlated. The importance of fluid mixtures extends far beyond the fields of science and technology reviewed.     

Surface chemistry of nanoscale Fe_3O_4 dispersed in magnetic fluids

The interaction between stabilizers and nanoparticles is one of the important factors to prepare stable magnetic fluids. The magnetic nano-size Fe3O4 core with single domain and the average grain size around 8-12 nm were prepared by chemical precipitation method. The O/Fe molar ratio of the particle surface was measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The heat effects of stabilizers ad- sorption on nanoparticles were measured by solution calorimetry. The excess amount of oxygen was possibly the result of the hydroxygen formed on the surface of the nanoparticles. The heat effects showed that compounds containing carboxyl groups can be adsorbed chemically on magnetite by forming chemical bonds. The other stabilizers involving NH-groups, such as polyethylene-imine, can be adsorbed physically. The exothermic value is about half of the former case.     

Thermodynamics of natural selection

It is shown that biological-natural-selection-like behavior can occur, as a general type of time evolution, in a statistical system where detailed balance is violated owing to the presence of metastable energy states. A model of a non-equilibrium phase transition corresponding to the spontaneous origin of self-reproduction in the system is suggested. After a phase transition, the system passes from one quasistationary distribution of self-reproducing subsystems to another, with an increase in the total organization, as long as the growth of the energy flow through the system or a reduction of energy dissipation in the system is possible. The entropy production is calculated for this process in terms of selective values of Eigen's theory for self-organization in autocatalytic systems. Correspondence of the extremal principle of Eigen's theory with the criterion of evolution in Prigogine's thermodynamics is established.     

Isolation of new quinidine metabolites and simultaneous determination of quinidine and its metabolites in blood and urine by direct injection HPLC analysis

Summary New quinidine metabolites, including 10,11-dihydrodiol quinidine N-oxide, 10,11-dihydrodiol quinidine and their glucuronides, were found in human urine. A quinidine monitoring HPLC method including these metabolites, is proposed by the direct injection of body fluid samples onto the precolumn for deproteinization followed by reverse phase separation in the analytical column with a column switching technique. The recovery of spiked quinidine and its metabolites in plasma was quantitative (98–102%) with good reproducibility (C.V.: 1.6–4.0%). Several clinical samples such as whole blood and urine were analyzed by the present method.     

Sample preparation for organic acids in biological fluids

A review of sample preparation methods for organic acids in biological fluids, in particular serum and urine, is presented. It covers techniques on organic acid determination without sample preparation, release of organic acids from binding locations, removal of proteins by protein precipitation and ultrafiltration, isolation of the organic acids by liquid-liquid and liquid-solid extraction, purification of the extract, derivatization and pre-fractionation. The various alternative sample preparation steps are compared and critically discussed. Examples of applications including profile analysis of organic acids by gas chromatography (GC), determination of particular organic acids by GC or liquid chromatography and determination of fatty acids as a distinct chemical class of acids demonstrate that the kind of sample preparation chosen depends strongly on the analytical aims.     

N-(2-羧基-1,3,4-噻二唑-5-基)-N''-芳酰基硫脲与芳氧乙酰基硫脲的合成与生物活性

为了寻找高活性的杂环农药,用5-氨基-1,3,4-噻二唑-2-羧酸与芳酰基异硫氰酸酯及芳氧乙酰基异硫氰酸酯反应,合成出18种新的芳酰基硫脲与芳氧乙酰基硫脲,采用红外光谱、核磁共振氢谱和元素分析证明了其结构,初步的生物活性测定试验表明,部分目标化合物具有良好的植物生长调节活性,其中2c,2d,3b和3g具有良好的生长素活性.