Behavior and surface energies of polybenzoxazines formed by polymerization with argon,oxygen, and hydrogen plasmas

Polybenzoxazine (PBZZ) thin films can be fabricated by the plasma‐polymerization technique with, as the energy source, plasmas of argon, oxygen, or hydrogen atoms and ions. When benzoxazine (BZZ) films are polymerized through the use of high‐energy argon atoms, electronegative oxygen atoms, or excited hydrogen atoms, the PBZZ films that form possess different properties and morphologies in their surfaces. High‐energy argon atoms provide a thermodynamic factor to initiate the ring‐opening polymerization of BZZ and result in the polymer surface having a grid‐like structure. The ring‐opening polymerization of the BZZ film that is initiated by cationic species such as oxygen atoms in plasma, is propagated around nodule structures to form the PBZZ. The excited hydrogen atom plasma initiates both polymerization and decomposition reactions simultaneously in the BZZ film and results in the formation of a porous structure on the PBZZ surface. We evaluated the surface energies of the PBZZ films polymerized by the action of these three plasmas by measuring the contact angles of diiodomethane and water droplets. The surface roughness of the films range from 0.5 to 26 nm, depending on the type of carrier gas and the plasma‐polymerization time. By estimating changes in thickness, we found that the PBZZ film synthesized by the oxygen plasma‐polymerization process undergoes the slowest rate of etching in CF₄ plasma. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 4063–4074, 2004     

Electrospinning of ultrafine cellulose acetate fibers: Studies of a new solvent system and deacetylation of ultrafine cellulose acetate fibers

Electrospinning of cellulose acetate (CA) in a new solvent system and the deacetylation of the resulting ultrafine CA fibers were investigated. Ultrafine CA fibers (∼2.3 μm) were successfully prepared via electrospinning of CA in a mixed solvent of acetone/water at water contents of 10–15 wt %, and more ultrafine CA fibers (0.46 μm) were produced under basic pH conditions. Ultrafine cellulose fibers were regenerated from the homogeneous deacetylation of ultrafine CA fibers in KOH/ethanol. It was very rapid and completed within 20 min. The crystal structure, thermal properties, and morphology of ultrafine CA fibers were changed according to the degree of deacetylation, finally to those of pure cellulose, but the nonwoven fibrous mat structure was maintained. The activation energy for the deacetylation of ultrafine CA fibers was 10.3 kcal/mol. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 5–11, 2004     

Statistical thermodynamics evaluation of polymer–polymer miscibility

The Simha and Somcynsky (S–S) statistical thermodynamics theory was used to compute the solubility parameters as a function of temperature and pressure [δ = δ(T, P)], for a series of polymer melts. The characteristic scaling parameters required for this task, P*, T*, and V*, were extracted from the pressure–temperature–volume (PVT) data. To determine the potential polymer–polymer miscibility, the dependence of δ versus T (at ambient pressure) was computed for 17 polymers. Close proximity of the δ versus T curves for four miscible polymer pairs: PPE/PS, PS/PVME, and PC/PMMA signaled the usefulness of this approach. It is noteworthy, that the tabulated solubility parameters (derived from the solution data under ambient conditions) propounded the immiscibility of the PVC/PVAc pair. The computed values of δ also suggested miscibility for polymer pairs of unknown miscibility, namely PPE/PVC, PPE/PVAc, and PET/PSF. In recognizing the limitations of the solubility parameter approach (the omission of several thermodynamic contributions), these preliminary results are auspicious because they indicate a new route for estimating the miscibility of any polymeric material at a given temperature and pressure. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 2909–2915, 2004     

Kinetic Parameters of Ion-Exchange Membrane in Amino Acid Solutions

Kinetic parameters of amino acid cations in an MK-40 ion-exchange membrane are calculated from the conductivity data. A theoretical quantum-chemical analysis of experimental activation energies for conduction suggests a mechanism of elementary act of transport of amino acid cations in the membrane.     

A relaxed model and its homogenization for nematic liquid crystals in composite materials

We analyse a model for equilibrium configurations of composite systems of nematic liquid crystal with polymer inclusions, in the presence of an external magnetic field. We assume that the system has a periodic structure, and consider the relaxed problem on the unit length constraint of the nematic director field. The relaxation of the Oseen–Frank energy functional is carried out by including bulk as well as surface energy penalty terms, rendering the problem fully non‐linear. We employ two‐scale convergence methods to obtain effective configurations of the system, as the size of the polymeric inclusions tends to zero. We discuss the minimizers of the effective energies for, both, the constrained as well as the unconstrained models. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Classical versus Jennings model for the ground state of H near a metallic surface

We show that, contrary to earlier reports, application of the one-parameter variational technique to the classical (image) model for H in front of an Al surface leads to energy shifts for the ground state which are very close to those obtained numerically with a more sophisticated model of the system.     

Comparison of Thermodynamic Characteristics of a Potential Well under Quantum and Classical Approaches

The conjecture according to which the mean energy of an equilibrium system in quantum theory exceeds the mean energy of the corresponding classical system is considered. It is rigorously proved that the conjecture holds for the potential well. The estimates for the mean energy of the potential well at high and low temperatures are of special interest.     

Fractional programming and characterization of some vertices of the feasible region

This paper considers a problem of nonlinear programming in which the objective function is the ratio of two linear functions and the constraints define a bounded and connected feasible region. Using a coordinate transformation, this problem is transformed into a simpler one, whose geometric interpretation is of particular significance. The transformation leads to a characterization of some special vertices of the feasible region from both the theoretical and operational points of view.     

谐振子薛定谔方程的简单解法

物质的许多物理与化学性质都可以用线性谐振子模型解释，本文用简单的数学运算求解线性谐振子的薛定谔方程，避免了特殊函数等复杂的数学运算，得出了量子力学教材完全相同的结果。