Time‐resolved in situ tomography for the analysis of evolving metal‐foam granulates

An experimental setup has been developed that allows for capturing up to 25 tomograms s^?1 using the white X‐ray beam at the experimental station EDDI of BESSY II, Berlin, Germany. The key points are the use of a newly developed, precise and fast rotation stage, a very efficient scintillator and a fast CMOS camera. As a first application, the foaming of aluminium alloy granules at 923 K was investigated in situ. Formation and growth of bubbles in the liquid material were observed and found to be influenced by the limited thermal conductivity in the bulk granules. Changes that took place between two tomographic frames separated in time by 39 ms could be detected and analysed quantitatively.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Hydrophilic Trityl Radical TFO for Biomedical and Biophysical Applications

Tetrathiatriarylmethyl (TAM, trityl) radicals have found wide applications as spin probes/labels for EPR spectroscopy and imaging, and as polarizing agents for dynamic nuclear polarization. The high hydrophilicity of TAM radicals is essential for their biomedical applications. However, the synthesis of hydrophilic TAM radicals (e.g., OX063) is extremely challenging and has only been reported in the patent literature, to date. Herein, an efficient synthesis of a highly water-soluble TAM radical bis(8-carboxyl-2,2,6,6-tetramethylbenzo[1,2-d:4,5-d′]bis([1,3]dithiol-4-yl)-mono-(8-carboxyl-2,2,6,6-tetrakis(2-hydroxyethyl)benzo[1,2-d:4,5-d′]bis([1,3]dithiol-4-yl)methyl (TFO), which contains four additional hydroxylethyl groups, relative to the Finland trityl radical CT-03, is reported. Similar to OX063, TFO exhibits excellent properties, including high water solubility in phosphate buffer, low log P, low pK_a, long relaxation times, and negligible binding with bovine serum albumin. On the other hand, TFO has a sharper EPR line and higher O₂ sensitivity than those of OX063. Therefore, in combination with its facile synthesis, TFO should find wide applications in magnetic resonance related fields and this synthetic approach would shed new light on the synthesis of other hydrophilic TAM radicals.     

Multipod structures of lamellae‐forming diblock copolymers in three‐dimensional confinement spaces: Experimental observation and computer simulation

The three‐dimensional (3D) confinement effect on the microphase‐separated structure of a diblock copolymer was investigated both experimentally and computationally. Block copolymer nanoparticles were prepared by adding a poor solvent into a block copolymer solution and subsequently evaporating the good solvent. The 3D structures of the nanoparticles were quantitatively determined with transmission electron microtomography (TEMT). TEMT observations revealed that various complex structures, including tennis‐ball, mushroom‐like, and multipod structures, were formed in the 3D confinement. Detailed structural analysis, showed that one block of the diblock copolymer slightly prefers to segregate into the particle surface compared with the other block. The observed structures were further elaborated using cell dynamics computer simulation. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2016 , 54, 1702–1709     

Dynamic modeling of the morphology of latex particles with in situ formation of graft copolymer

Modification of the polymer–polymer interfacial tension is a way to tailor‐make particle morphology of waterborne polymer–polymer hybrids. This allows achieving a broader spectrum of application properties and maximizing the synergy of the positive properties of both polymers, avoiding their drawbacks. In situ formation of graft copolymer during polymerization is an efficient way to modify the polymer–polymer interfacial tension. Currently, no dynamic model is available for polymer–polymer hybrids in which a graft copolymer is generated during polymerization. In this article, a novel model based on stochastic dynamics is developed for predicting the dynamics of the development of particle morphology for composite waterborne systems in which a graft copolymer is produced in situ during the process. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Preliminary communication Liquid crystalline cardanyl β-D-glucopyranosides

Two novel aryl glycosides were synthesized, which varied in the extent of unsaturation in the lipophilic part, from plant/crop-based renewable resource materials. Their liquid crystalline properties were characterized by optical polarizing microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction. All the mesophases are identified as lamellar in structure.     

A Pd4Br4 macrocycle trapped by cocrystallization from a highly dynamic equilibrium of η3‐cycloheptatrienide complexes

In the coordination chemistry of palladium, dimers bridged via halides are a common motif. Higher oligomers, however, are still rare. We report the structure of an alternating eight‐membered [Pd₄Br₄]⁴⁻ ring framed by cycloheptatrienide ligands, which was obtained by cocrystallization of dimers and tetramers of the complex salt bromido{η³‐[3‐(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl)imidazolium‐1‐yl]cycloheptatrienido}palladium(II) tetrafluoroborate, namely bis[di‐μ‐bromido‐bis({η³‐[3‐(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl)imidazolium‐1‐yl]cycloheptatrienido}palladium(II))] cyclo‐tetra‐μ‐bromido‐tetrakis({η³‐[3‐(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl)imidazolium‐1‐yl]cycloheptatrienido}palladium(II)) octakis(tetrafluoroborate) dichloromethane octasolvate, [Pd₄Br₄(C₂₂H₂₆N₂)₄][Pd₂Br₂(C₂₂H₂₆N₂)₂]₂(BF₄)₈·8CH₂Cl₂. These dimers and tetramers form a highly dynamic equilibrium in solution which was studied by low‐temperature NMR spectroscopy. In the light of the presented results, tetrameric Pd^II species can be assumed to co‐exist as a second species in many cases where by current knowledge only a dimeric compound would be expected.     

Recursive dynamics simulator (ReDySim): A multibody dynamics solver

Recursive formulations have significantly helped in achieving real-time computations and model-based control laws. The recursive dynamics simulator (ReDySim) is a MATLAB-based recursive solver for dynamic analysis of multibody systems. ReDySim delves upon the decoupled natural orthogonal complement approach originally developed for serial-chain manipulators. In comparison to the commercially available software, dynamic analyses in ReDySim can be performed without creating solid model. The input parameters are specified in MATLAB environment. ReDySim has the capability to incorporate any control algorithm with utmost ease. In this work, the capabilities of ReDySim for solving open-loop and closed-loop systems are shown by examples of robotic gripper, KUKA KR5 industrial manipulator and four-bar mechanism. ReDySim can be downloaded for free from http://www.redysim.co.nr and can be used almost instantly.     

A simplified adaptive Cartesian grid system for solving the 2D shallow water equations

This paper presents a new simplified grid system that provides local refinement and dynamic adaptation for solving the 2D shallow water equations (SWEs). Local refinement is realized by simply specifying different subdivision levels to the cells on a background uniform coarse grid that covers the computational domain. On such a non‐uniform grid, the structured property of a regular Cartesian mesh is maintained and neighbor information is determined by simple algebraic relationships, i.e. data structure becomes unnecessary. Dynamic grid adaptation is achieved by changing the subdivision level of a background cell. Therefore, grid generation and adaptation is greatly simplified and straightforward to implement. The new adaptive grid‐based SWE solver is tested by applying it to simulate three idealized test cases and promising results are obtained. The new grid system offers a simplified alternative to the existing approaches for providing adaptive mesh refinement in computational fluid dynamics. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Polymer chain diffusion in polymer blends: A theoretical interpretation based on a memory function formalism

The diffusion of polymer chains in miscible polymer blends with large dynamic asymmetry—those where the two blend components display very different segmental mobility—is not well understood yet. In the extreme case of the blend system of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(methyl methacrylate)(PMMA), the diffusion coefficient of PEO chains in the blend can change by more than five orders of magnitude while the segmental time scale hardly changes with respect to that of pure PEO. This behavior is not observed in blend systems with small or moderate dynamic asymmetry as, for instance, polyisoprene/poly(vinyl ethylene) blends. These two very different behaviors can be understood and quantitatively explained in a unified way in the framework of a memory function formalism, which takes into account the effect of the collective dynamics on the chain dynamics of a tagged chain. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019 , 57, 1239–1245