Comparison Between Different Syntesis Methods of PMMA/HA Using Ultrasonic Radiation

Summary: The use of PMMA as dental and osseous cement and also in the fabrication of intraocular lenses has been widely reported. The combination of its excellent properties with those of hydroxyapatite (HA) to form a composite material, can result in very interesting properties as a biomaterial. The key is to obtain a good filler dispersion and interface bonding. Ultrasonic radiation seems to be a very versatile method for the synthesis of these materials, since the use of conventional initiators can be avoided, the filler dispersion improved and the interface interaction can be promoted. In the present work PMMA/HA composite materials were prepared by three different synthesis routes using ultrasonic radiation, in order to study the effect of the synthesis method on the final microstructure. Method I : in situ synthesis of PMMA and HA, under ultrasonic radiation by emulsion polymerization of MMA and HA precursors. Method II : in situ synthesis of HA, (from its precursors) by high frequency ultrasound in commercial PMMA solution Method III : in situ polymerization of MMA under high frequency ultrasonic radiation and adding HA to the solution and Method IV Mixing of hydroxyapatite nanocrystals, in different proportions, in a solution of commercial PMMA, by different periods from 10 min to 7 h, under low frequency (conventional) ultrasonic radiation, to compare the effect of high frequency and conventional ultrasound radiation. The different materials were characterized by FTIR, SEM, TEM, DRX, ¹H NMR and TGA. The results showed that, all the composites prepared by in situ synthesis showed an interaction between HA and PMMA, manifested by a bonding of the phosphate groups with the polar groups of the polymer matrix observed by FTIR. On the other hand, when the synthesis was carried out simultaneously adding HA and PMMA precursors a inhibition of the polymerization reaction of MMA was observed.     

Entanglement of Fermi gases in a harmonic trap

For both cases with and without interactions, bipartite entanglement of two fermions from a Fermi gas in a trap is investigated. We show how the entanglement depends on the locations of the two fermions and the total particle number of the Fermi gas. Fermions at the edge of trap have longer entanglement distance (beyond it, the entanglement disappears) than those in the center. We derive a lower limitation to the average overlapping for two entangled fermions in the BCS ground state, it is shown to be , a function of Cooper pair number Q and the total number of occupied energy levels M.     

AN EMBEDDED BOUNDARY METHOD FOR ELLIPTIC AND PARABOLIC PROBLEMS WITH INTERFACES AND APPLICATION TO MULTI-MATERIAL SYSTEMS WITH PHASE TRANSITIONS

The embedded boundary method for solving elliptic and parabolic problems in geometrically complex domains using Cartesian meshes by Johansen and Colella （1998, J. Comput. Phys. 147, 60） has been extended for elliptic and parabolic problems with interior boundaries or interfaces of discontinuities of material properties or solutions. Second order accuracy is achieved in space and time for both stationary and moving interface problems. The method is conservative for elliptic and parabolic problems with fixed interfaces. Based on this method, a front tracking algorithm for the Stefan problem has been developed. The accuracy of the method is measured through comparison with exact solution to a two-dimensional Stefan problem. The algorithm has been used for the study of melting and solidification problems.     

Polymer–Clay Nanocomposites Based on Blends of Various Types of Polyethylenes and PE-g-MA: Morphology,Thermal Properties,Microhardness, and Transparency

Polymer–clay nanocomposites have been prepared by melt blending of commercial organoclay Cloisite 15A with blends of polyethylenes (PE) and maleic-anhydride-grafted PE (PE/PE-g-MA) with wide range of composition. Three types of PE/PE-g-MA blends with different molecular structure, namely blends of high-density PE (HD) with HD-g-MA (HDMA), blends of low-density PE (LD) with LD-g-MA (LDMA), and blends of linear low-density PE (LL) with LL-g-MA (LLMA) were used. The influence of the molecular structure of the PE matrixes and the compatibility between the blend components on the morphology of the nanocomposites was studied. The thermal properties, microhardness, and transparency of the nanocomposites were investigated. The influence of the degree of exfoliation/intercalation on the materials characteristics is discussed.     

Effect of Surface Structure of Nano-CaCO3 Particles on Mechanical and Rheological Properties of PVC Composites

To study the effect of different surface structures on resultant mechanical and rheological properties, nano-CaCO₃ particles were treated with isopropyl tri-stearyl titanate (H928), isopropyl tri-(dodecylbenz-enesulfonyl) titanate (JN198), and isopropyl tri-(dioctylpyrophosphato) titanate (JN114). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and dynamic mechanic analysis (DMA), carried out to characterize the effective interfacial interaction between the nano-CaCO₃ particles and a poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) matrix, indicated that JN114 treated nano-CaCO₃ particles had the strongest interfacial interaction with a PVC matrix, while H928 treated nano-CaCO₃ had the weakest. The rheological and mechanical properties of PVC/nano-CaCO₃ composites were investigated as a function of surface structure and filler volume fraction. The tensile yield stress and elongation at break decreased with the increasing of calcium carbonate content while tensile modulus increased. PVC filled with JN114 treated nano-CaCO₃ had the highest tensile modulus and tensile yield stress, while those filled with H928 treated nano-CaCO₃ had the highest elongation at break at the same filler content. The impact strength of PVC/nano-CaCO₃ composites increased with the increasing of CaCO₃ content, and PVC composites filled with JN198 treated nano-CaCO₃ particle had a higher impact strength than those with JN114 or H928 treated, with the value reaching 23.9 ± 0.7 kJ/m² at 11 vol% CaCO₃, four times as high as that of pure PVC. Rheological properties indicated that a suitable interfacial interaction and a good dispersion of inorganic filler in a PVC matrix could reduce the viscosity of PVC/nano-CaCO₃ composites. The interfacial interaction was quantitatively characterized by semiempirical parameters calculated from the tensile strength of PVC/nano-CaCO₃ composites to confirm the results from the SEM and DMA experiments.     

Theoretical characterization of axial deformation effects on hydrogen storage of Ti decorated armchair (5,5) SWCNT

Theoretical calculations have been performed in the framework of density functional theory to characterize the effect of axial deformation on hydrogen storage of Ti decorated armchair (5,5) SWCNT. The theoretical characterization has been carried out in terms of H₂ adsorption energies that are lying in the desirable energy window (?0.2 to ?0.6?eV) recommended by DOE, as well as a variety of physicochemical properties. A remarkable and significant change in H₂ adsorption energy is observed under the effect of only (1%) axial strain. Axial relaxation leads to H₂ adsorption energies within the recommended energy range for hydrogen storage, in contrast to axial compression. Simultaneous weakening of π and σ interactions, due to the effect of axial relaxation and loss of spatial orbital overlap, is in favor of hydrogen adsorption in the recommended energy range, and dominates the effect of charge transfer from Ti 3d to C 2p of the SWCNT. The calculated pairwise and non pairwise additive components confirm that the role of the SWCNT is not restricted to supporting the metal. Polarizability and hperpolarizabilty calculations as well as spectral analysis characterize the relaxed structure (Z?=?1.02), for which H₂ adsorption energy (?0.34?eV) is in the recommended energy range for hydrogen storage, to be energetically more preferable than the compressed structure (Z?=?0.99). The results offer a way to control and characterize the hydrogenation process of metal functionalized SWCNTs by strain loading.     

Ultrathin oxide films and interfaces for electronics and spintronics

Oxides have become a key ingredient for new concepts of electronic devices. To a large extent, this is due to the profusion of new physics and novel functionalities arising from ultrathin oxide films and at oxide interfaces. We present here a perspective on selected topics within this vast field and focus on two main issues. The first part of this review is dedicated to the use of ultrathin films of insulating oxides as barriers for tunnel junctions. In addition to dielectric non-magnetic epitaxial barriers, which can produce tunneling magnetoresistances in excess of a few hundred percent, we pay special attention to the possibility of exploiting the multifunctional character of some oxides in order to realize ‘active’ tunnel barriers. In these, the conductance across the barrier is not only controlled by the bias voltage and/or the electrodes magnetic state, but also depends on the barrier ferroic state. Some examples include spin-filtering effects using ferro- and ferrimagnetic oxides, and the possibility of realizing hysteretic, multi-state junctions using ferroelectric barriers. The second part of this review is devoted to novel states appearing at oxide interfaces. Often completely different from those of the corresponding bulk materials, they bring about novel functionalities to be exploited in spintronics and electronics architectures. We review the main mechanisms responsible for these new properties (such as magnetic coupling, charge transfer and proximity effects) and summarize some of the most paradigmatic phenomena. These include the formation of high-mobility two-dimensional electron gases at the interface between insulators, the emergence of superconductivity (or ferromagnetism) at the interface between non-superconducting (or non-ferromagnetic) materials, the observation of magnetoelectric effects at magnetic/ferroelectric interfaces or the effects of the interplay and competing interactions at all-oxide ferromagnetic/superconducting interfaces. Finally, we link up the two reviewed research fields and emphasize that the tunneling geometry is particularly suited to probe novel interface effects at oxide barrier/electrode interfaces. We close by giving some directions toward tunneling devices exploiting novel oxide interfacial phenomena.     

Physics and applications of aligned carbon nanotubes

Ever since the discovery of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) by Iijima in 1991, there have been extensive research efforts on their synthesis, physics, electronics, chemistry, and applications due to the fact that CNTs were predicted to have extraordinary physical, mechanical, chemical, optical, and electronic properties. Among the various forms of CNTs, single-walled and multi-walled, random and aligned, semiconducting and metallic, aligned CNTs are especially important since fundamental physics studies and many important applications will not be possible without alignment. Even though there have been significant endeavors on growing CNTs in an aligned configuration since their discovery, little success had been realized before our first report on growing individually aligned CNTs on various substrates by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) [Science 282 (1998) 1105–1108]. Our report spearheaded a new field on growth, characterization, physics, and applications of aligned CNTs. Up to now, there have been thousands of scientific publications on synthesizing, studying, and utilizing aligned CNTs in various aspects. In this communication, we review the current status of aligned CNTs, the physics for their alignment, their applications in field emission, optical antennas, subwavelength light transmission in CNT-based nanocoax structures, nanocoax arrays for novel solar cell structures, etc.

The focus of this review is to examine various aligned CNT systems, either as an individual or as an array, either the orientation is vertical, parallel, or at other angles to the substrate horizon, either the CNT core structures are mostly hollow channels or are composed of complex compartments. Major fabrication methods are illustrated in detail, particularly the most widely used PECVD growth technique on which various device integration schemes are based, followed by applications whereas current limitations and challenges will also be discussed to lay down the foundation for future developments.     

Relationship between Dispersive Surface Tension and Density and Molecular Weight of Solvents and Polymers

The surface and interfacial properties of polymers are important for their applications. Generally, the surface property is quantitatively characterized by the surface tension or surface tension component parameters, which are obtained with the contact angle technique. However, the contact angle technique has an inherent problem, contact angle hysteresis phenomenon, which will result in many incredible surface tension data. In order to find a simple and easy method to estimate the rationality of a surface tension result, the relationship between dispersive surface tension component and density and molecular weight is researched in this work. It is found that for 30 organic solvents, there is a good relationship between the dispersive surface tension r^d and the parameter . In addition, for 12 polymers, when the molecular weight is replaced with the molecular weight of the repeat unit, there is still the same relationship as for small liquids. However, because it is difficult to judge the accuracy of the published dispersive data of the polymers, the found experiential relationship needs further confirmation, requiring more reliable published data.