Physical aging in amorphous poly(ethylene furanoate): Enthalpic recovery,density, and oxygen transport considerations

The current work utilizes three separate techniques to study the physical aging process in amorphous poly(ethylene furanoate) (PEF), which is a recently introduced engineering thermoplastic with enhanced properties compared to petroleum‐sourced poly(ethylene terephthalate). Differential scanning calorimetry aging experiments were conducted at multiple aging temperatures and times, and the resultant enthalpic recovery values compared to the theoretical maximum enthalpy loss evaluated from calculations involving extrapolation of the equilibrium liquid line. Density measurements reveal densification of the matrix for the aged versus unaged samples, and provide an estimate for the reduction in free volume for the aged samples. Complementary oxygen permeation and pressure‐decay sorption experiments provide independent verification of the free volume reduction mechanism for physical aging in glassy polymers. The current work provides the first detailed aging study for PEF. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 389–399     

Controlled synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles from a Zn(II) coordination polymer: Structural characterization,optical properties and photocatalytic activity

A zinc coordination polymer derived from pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylate (PDC), {[Zn₂(PDC)₂]}_n, was successfully prepared via conventional, sonication and microwave-irradiation methods. The composition and characteristics of the obtained coordination polymers (CPs) were investigated by elemental analysis, TGA/DTA, X-ray diffraction and spectroscopic techniques. The so obtained CPs were heat-treated in the air at 600 °C for 2 h to produce ZnO of nanosized particles (NPs). It is of interest to note that the synthesis approach of the precursor greatly affects both the nanoparticle size and the structure of the resulting ZnO NPs. Moreover, the smallest particle size was associated with the sample derived from the ultrasonically prepared precursor. TEM analysis revealed that all samples have sphere-like morphologies. Structural analysis of the prepared ZnO samples was conducted and compared using Rietveld analysis of their PXRD patterns. Optical band gap calculations based on analysis of the UV–vis spectra of ZnO samples using Tauc's power law were achieved. The highest band gap of 3.63 eV was observed for ZnO sample obtained from the ultrasonically prepared precursor. Furthermore, the photocatalytic activity of ZnO NPs for the removal of Eosin Y color was monitored. The highest removal efficiency was recorded for ZnO originated from the ultrasonically synthesized precursor. Enhancement of removal efficiency that reached 98% was attained in only a period of 8 min. Its recycling test showed that it can be reused without structural changes over four cycling experiments.     

Synthesis,Crystal Structure,and Magnetic Properties of a New Dinuclear Iron Complex with Schiff Base Ligand

A new dinuclear iron(Ⅲ) complex has been synthesized and structurally characterized by X-ray crystallography: [FeⅢ2(L)(C6H5COO)(SO4)(CH3OH)2]·CH3CN·CH3OH(1, H3 L = N,N'-bis(salicylidene)-1,3-diamino-2-propanol). Complex 1 belongs to orthorhombic space group Pna21 with a = 11.4400(8), b = 22.9705(2), c = 12.5712(9) , V = 3303.5(4) 3, Z = 4, F(000) = 1576, Dc = 1.531 g·cm–3, Mr = 761.36, μ = 1.007 mm–1, S = 1.014, the final R = 0.0505 and wR = 0.1018. The crystal packing is stabilized by intermolecular O–H···O hydrogen bonds, forming an extended one-dimensional chain structure. The temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibility measurement shows that antiferromagnetic interaction is propagated between the metal centers. Fit as dinuclear arrangement gave parameters of J = 19.7 cm-1, g = 1.89 and R2 = 0.9999.     

Decay rate for viscoelastic wave equation of variable coefficients with delay and dynamic boundary conditions

In this paper, we consider a viscoelastic wave equation of variable coefficients in the presence of past history with nonlinear damping and delay in the internal feedback and dynamic boundary conditions. Under suitable assumptions, we establish an explicit and general decay rate result without imposing restrictive assumption on the behavior of the relaxation function at infinity by Riemannian geometry method and Lyapunov functional method.     

Designing spirobifullerene core based three-dimensional cross shape acceptor materials with promising photovoltaic properties for high-efficiency organic solar cells

The development of organic electron acceptor materials is one of the key factors for realizing high-performance organic solar cells (OSCs). Nonfullerene electron acceptors, compared to traditional fullerene acceptor materials, have gained much impetus owing to their better optoelectronic tunabilities and lower cost, as well as higher stability. Therefore, 5 three-dimensional (3D) cross-shaped acceptor materials having a spirobifullerene core flanked with 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole are designed from a recently synthesized highly efficient acceptor molecule SF(BR) ₄ and are investigated in detail with regard to their use as acceptor molecules in OSCs. The density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) calculations have been performed for the estimation of frontier molecular orbital (FMO) analysis, density of states analysis, reorganization energies of electron and hole, dipole moment, open-circuit voltage, photo-physical characteristics, and transition density matrix analysis. In addition, the structure-property relationship is studied, and the influence of end-capped acceptor modifications on photovoltaic, photo-physical, and electronic properties of newly selected molecules ( H1-H5 ) is calculated and compared with reference ( R ) acceptor molecule SF(BR) ₄ . The structural tailoring at terminals was found to effectively tune the FMO band gap, energy levels, absorption spectra, open-circuit voltage, reorganization energy, and binding energy value in selected molecules H1 to H5 . The 3D cross-shaped molecules H1 to H5 suppress the intermolecular aggregation in PTB7-Th blend, which leads to high efficiency of acceptor material H1 to H5 in OSCs. Consequently, better optoelectronic properties are achieved from designed molecules H1 to H5 . It is proposed that the conceptualized molecules are superior than highly efficient spirobifullerene core-based SF(BR) ₄ acceptor molecules and, thus, are recommended to experiments for future developments of highly efficient solar cells.     

电路过渡过程的计算机辅助分析

电路过渡过程所列方程是微分方程，本文中采用的是方框图模型分析法，即将微分方程的复杂示解分解成最基本的加（减）、乘（除）、积分（微分）、增益等运算，采用VB设计用户界面产进行计算，并给出了一算例。     

Schwinger boson mapping of SO(8) fermion model

The Schwinger representation of the SO(8) fermion pair algebra in terms ofd and quasispin vector (u, s, v) bosons is used in deriving a microscopic boson coherent state having both particle-hole and pair excitations. The coherent state is the exact boson image of the HFB variational solution. We can study the shape phase transition and pairing behaviour of the nuclear ground states using the coherent states.     

Ti_(1-x)(Hf_(0·919)Zr_(0·08))_xNiSn的制备及热电性能

采用固相反应法合成了单相的Ti_(1-x)(Hf_(0·919)Zr_(0·08))_xNiSn(x=0·00—0·15),并用放电等离子烧结方法制备出密实块体材料.研究了Hf和Zr同时在Ti位上的等电子合金化对Ti基半Heusler化合物热电性能的影响规律.结果表明:少量的Hf和微量的Zr在Ti位上的等电子合金化,显著地降低了体系的热导率κ,同时显著地提高了体系的Seebeck系数α.组成为Ti_(1-x)(Hf_(0·919)Zr_(0·08))_(0.15)NiSn的试样室温热导率为3·72W·m-1K-1,在700K时ZT值达到最大为0·56.与三元TiNiSn相比,在相同温度下ZT值的提高率为190%—310%.     

Stabilizing management of fluctuating resources

We consider a resource management problem in which the management objective is to minimize fluctuations in resource stocks. Stabilizing management policies constitute the designing of memoryless state feedback control strategies for a discrete time resource model which contains unknown but bounded fluctuations. We also show that the problem of maximizing sustainable yield in an uncertain fishery can be considered as the problem of stabilizing of the stock level.The paper corresponds to an invited talk at the 14th Symposium on Operations Research, Ulm, September 6–8, 1989.The support by Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.This work was supported by NSF and AFOSR under grant ECS 8602524.     

Infra-red free-carrier absorption due to impurity scattering in semiconducting quantum well structures

The theory of free-carrier absorption (FCA) is developed, in the extreme quantum limit when the carriers are assumed to populate only the lowest quantized energy level, for quasi-two and one-dimensional semiconducting quantum well structures where the carriers are scattered by ionized impurities. The radiation field is assumed to be polarized in the plane of the layer in the quasi-two-dimensional case and along the length of the wire in the quasi-one-dimensional case. Expressions for FCA are obtained for the cases where the impurities are either in the well (background impurities) or outside the well (remote impurities). Variation of FCA is numerically studied with photon frequency and well width.