Stroboscopic microscopy—direct imaging of structure development and phase separation during spin‐coating

Spin‐coated polymer blends possess a rich variety of accessible non‐equilibrium morphologies, formed through a process of phase separation and self‐assembly, the complexities of which remain incompletely understood. The technique of stroboscopic microscopy has now been developed to allow direct observations of microscopic and mesoscopic morphological development during spin‐coating and has afforded unequivocal information regarding morphological development. The technique so far has three modes of operation providing information on topographical, compositional, and crystal development. In this review, we look at the technique's development, its applications and comment on the future potential for this technique. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2014 , 52, 17–25     

Bootstrapping the empirical distribution of a linear process

The validity of the moving block bootstrap for the empirical distribution of a short memory causal linear process is established under simple conditions that do not involve mixing or association. Sufficient conditions can be expressed in terms of the existence of moments of the innovations and summability of the coefficients of the linear model. Applications to one and two sample tests are discussed.     

Irradiation of detonation nanodiamonds with γ-rays does not produce long living spin radicals

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Topological conjugacy of constant length substitution dynamical systems

Primitive constant length substitutions generate minimal symbolic dynamical systems. In this article we present an algorithm which can produce the list of injective substitutions of the same length that generate topologically conjugate systems. We show that each conjugacy class contains infinitely many substitutions which are not injective. As examples, the Toeplitz conjugacy class contains three injective substitutions (two on two symbols and one on three symbols), and the length two Thue–Morse conjugacy class contains twelve substitutions, among which are two on six symbols. Together, they constitute a list of all primitive substitutions of length two with infinite minimal systems which are factors of the Thue–Morse system.     

Improved self‐assembly of poly(dimethylsiloxane‐b‐ethylene oxide) using a hydrogen‐bonding additive

Block copolymers with increased Flory–Huggins interaction parameters (χ) play an essential role in the production of sub‐10 nm nanopatterns in the growing field of directed self‐assembly for next generation lithographic applications. A library of PDMS‐b‐PEO block copolymers were synthesized by click chemistry and their interaction parameters (χ) determined. The highest χ measured in our samples was 0.21 at 150 °C, which resulted in phase‐separated domains with periods as small as 7.9 nm, suggesting that PDMS‐b‐PEO is a prime candidate for sub‐10 nm nanopatterning. To suppress PEO crystallization, PDMS‐b‐PEO was blended with (l )‐tartaric acid (LTA) which allows for tuning of the self‐assembled morphologies. Additionally, it was observed that the order‐disorder transition temperature (T_ODT) of PDMS‐b‐PEO increased dramatically as the amount of LTA in the blend increased, allowing for further control over self‐assembly. To understand the mechanism of this phenomenon, we present a novel field‐based supramolecular model, which describes the formation of copolymer‐additive complexes by reversible hydrogen bonding. The mean‐field phase separation behavior of the model was calculated using the random phase approximation (RPA). The RPA analysis reproduces behavior consistent with an increase of the effective χ in the PDMS‐b‐(PEO/LTA suprablock). © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016 , 54, 2200–2208     

A comparison of best fit lines for data with outliers

Three techniques for determining a straight line fit to data are compared. The methods are applied to a range of datasets containing one or more outliers, and to a specific example from the field of chemistry. For the method which is the most resistant to the presence of outliers, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, as well as two Matlab routines, are included which can be used to determine the slope and intercept estimates.     

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     

Thermoresponsive poly(ionic liquid): Controllable RAFT synthesis,thermoresponse, and application in dispersion RAFT polymerization

The thermoresponsive poly(ionic liquid) of poly[1‐(4‐vinylbenzyl)‐3‐methylimidozolium tetrafluoroborate] trithiocarbonate (P[VBMI][BF₄]‐TTC) showing the soluble‐to‐insoluble phase transition in the methanol/water mixture at the upper critical solution temperature (UCST) was synthesized by solution RAFT polymerization and the synthesized P[VBMI][BF₄]‐TTC was employed as macro‐RAFT agent to mediate the RAFT polymerization under dispersion condition to afford the thermoresponsive diblock copolymer nanoparticles of poly[1‐(4‐vinylbenzyl)‐3‐methylimidozolium tetrafluoroborate]‐b‐polystyrene (P[VBMI][BF₄]‐b‐PS). The controllable solution RAFT polymerization was achieved as indicated by the linearly increasing polymer molecular weight with the monomer conversion and the narrow molecular weight distribution. The P[VBMI][BF₄]‐TTC macro‐RAFT agent mediated dispersion polymerization afforded the P[VBMI][BF₄]‐b‐PS nanoparticles, the size of which was uncorrelated with the polymerization degree of the P[VBMI][BF₄] block. Several parameters including the polymerization degree, the polymer concentration and the water content in the solvent of the methanol/water mixture were found to be correlated with the UCST of the poly(ionic liquid). The synthesized poly(ionic liquid) is believed to be a new thermos‐responsive polymer and will be useful in material science. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016 , 54, 945–954     

以聚乙二醇-b-聚四乙烯基吡啶为模板制备聚联苯胺微/纳米颗粒及其电容特性

以两亲性嵌段共聚物聚乙二醇-b-聚四乙烯基吡啶(PEO-b-P4VP)为模板制备聚联苯胺微/纳米颗粒,调节模板剂胶束溶液pH,得到了一系列形貌和尺寸可控的聚联苯胺微/纳米颗粒。利用红外光谱、核磁共振、透射电镜、循环伏安、恒电流放电、交流阻抗等测试对材料的结构和性能进行了表征。模板法合成的聚联苯胺为平均直径小于200nm的亚微米至纳米级棒状颗粒,其直径随着模板剂胶束溶液pH的降低而增加。所得聚联苯胺颗粒均显示了一定的电化学活性,当电流密度为1A/g时,聚联苯胺的比电容量达到306.3F/g,经过长时间的充放电测试,不同条件下合成的聚联苯胺的容量衰减率均很小,表现出良好的循环稳定性且各样品电化学性能呈现出随着直径的减小而增强的趋势。