SYNTHESIS OF CONDUCTIVE POLYANILINE VIA OXIDATION BY MnO2

A unique process of chemical oxidation polymerization of aniline using manganese dioxide (MnO2) as the oxidizing agent in an aqueous medium is described. The reaction between aniline and MnO2 follows a mechanism by which the organic monomer is oxidized while the metal oxide undergoes reductive dissolution. The effects of the amount of oxidizing agent and aniline, pH and temperature of the reactive system, type of acid on the yield and conductivity of polyaniline are discussed. The resulting polyaniline was characterized by [R and UV-Vis spectrometry. Polyaniline with a conductivity of 12.5 S/cm was obtained using 0.033 tool of aniline oxidized by 0.023 tool MnO2 in the presence of 100 mL of 2.7 mol/L HCI at 25℃ for 4 h.     

The quality of leadership (QL): the EFQM leadership criterion in relation to the 360° feedback evaluation method

The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) integral quality management model covers nine issues: five so-called enabler criteria and four so-called result-oriented criteria. The first enabler criterion concerns leadership and covers all kind of strategic management aspects. However, directly or indirectly, the leadership of the board of directors or its individual members is characterized and scored. An even more explicate technique, originated in a totally different way, is the 360° feedback evaluation method. In this paper both methods are compared and practiced on various individuals. A checklist was developed to facilitate scoring in the EFQM leadership submodel. Both methods, although from a different origin, could be linked easily, covered very similar aspects and gave results that were in excellent agreement with each other. The scoring showed almost identical results, supporting in large the use of the integral EFQM model. Received: 25 May 2002 Accepted: 17 July 2002 Presented at the European Conference on Quality in the Spotlight in Medical Laboratories, 7–9 October 2001, Antwerp, Belgium Correspondence to H. M. J. Goldschmidt     

Intrinsically flame retardant epoxy resin - Fire performance and background - Part I

The flame retardant effect of newly synthesized phosphorus-containing reactive amine, which can be used both as crosslinking agent in epoxy resins and as a flame retardant, was investigated. The effect of montmorillonite and sepiolite additives on the fire induced degradation was compared to pristine epoxy resin. The effect of combining the organophosphorous amine with clay minerals was also studied. It could be concluded that the synthesized phosphorus-containing amine, TEDAP can substitute the traditional epoxy resin curing agents providing additionally excellent flame retardancy: the epoxy resins flame retarded this way reach 960 °C GWFI value, 33 LOI value and V-0 UL-94 rating - compared to the 550 °C GWFI value, 21 LOI value and “no rate” UL-94 classification of the reference epoxy resin. The peak of heat release was reduced to 1/10 compared to non-flame retarded resin, furthermore a shift in time was observed, which increases the time to escape in case of fire. The flame retardant performance can be further improved by incorporating clay additives: the LOI and the HRR results showed that the optimum of flame retardant effect of clay additives is around 1 mass% filler level in AH-16-TEDAP system. Applying a complex method for mechanical and structural characterization of the intumescent char it was determined that the flame retarded system forms significantly more and stronger char of better uniformity with smaller average bubble size. Incorporation of clay additives (owing to their bubble nucleating activity) results in further decrease in average bubble diameter.     

On guaranteed stability of uncertain linear systems via linear control

This paper addresses the problem of stabilizing an uncertain linear system. The uncertaintyq(·) which enters the dynamics is nonstistical in nature. That is, noa priori statistics forq(·) are assumed; only boundsQ on the admissible variations ofq(·) are taken as given. The results given here applied to so-called matched systems differ from previous results in two ways. Firstly, the stabilizing control in this paper is linear; for this same class of problems, many of the existing results would require a nonlinear control. Furthermore, those results which do in fact yield linear controls are only valid when a certain matrix (q) (formed using the given data) is negative definite for allq Q. In contrast, the theory given here only requires compactness of the bounding setQ. Secondly, we show that the so-called matching conditions (used in earlier work) can be generalized so as to encompass a larger class of dynamical systems.This research was supported by the US Department of Energy under Contract No. ET-78-S-01-3390.     

Interfacial reciprocal grafting by free radical reactions in polymer blends

Recent developments in the field of reactive compatibilization of polymer blends prepared by melt processing focus on the addition of low molecular weight compounds. This work deals with in situ compatibilization through the formation of graft or crosslinked copolymers at the interface. Mixtures of semicrystalline hydrocarbon polymers have been subjected to free radical reactivity, in a co-rotating twin screw extruder (ZSK 30) in a single step. The particular system, high density polyethylene and polyamide 6, was blended in the presence of a peroxide and a reactive bifunctional monomer, maleic anhydride. Because of a combined effect, the reaction appears to occur mainly at the interface, where the resulting grafted copolymer acts as an anchor for the final stabilization of the biphasic system. Different analytical techniques, such as differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy and tensile testing, helped in characterizing the resulting blends and confirmed the high level of interfacial grafting and the expected improvement in mechanical properties.     

NMR Spectroscopic Observation of a Metal‐Free Acetylide Anion

A metal‐free acetylide was observed by using NMR spectroscopy. Metal‐free acetylides are closely related to reactive intermediates (carbanions) in solution; therefore, they have been regarded as unobservable species. However, we generated this highly reactive and unstable species through the deprotonation of phenylacetylene by using the strong nonmetallic phosphazene base tBu‐P4. In the presence of tBu‐P4, the J coupling between the ethynyl carbon and hydrogen nuclei (¹J_C,H) of phenylacetylene disappeared; this indicates the deprotonation of the alkyne terminal. Furthermore, a large low‐field shift (approximately 90 ppm) of the alkyne carbon resonance was observed. We concluded that we have observed a metal‐free carbanion with a formal charge on an sp‐hybridized carbon atom for the first time.     

Millettia ferruginea extract attenuates cisplatin-induced alterations in kidney functioning,DNA damage,oxidative stress,and renal tissue morphology

This study aimed to investigate the beneficial role of Millettia ferruginea extract (MF) in preventing cisplatin (Cisp) induced nephrotoxicity in rats. A total of 55 metabolites were identified using LC-MS analysis. The in vivo results indicated that MF pretreatment for 4 weeks (20 mg/kg b.w.) remarkably attenuated the altered renal biomarkers by decreasing the levels of plasma creatinine, urea, and uric acid when compared to the Cisp-group. The nephroprotective capacity of MF was further strengthened by histopathological observations, where Cisp + MF treated rats showed lower number of inflammatory cells and tubular degenerative changes than the Cisp-group. The harmful effects of cisplatin on renal oxidative stress indicators (MDA, SOD, CAT, and GPx), were restored by the treatment of MF. In addition, the reduction of inflammatory markers (IL-6 and TNF-α), associated with alleviating DNA fragmentation, highlighted the preventive effect of MF in kidney tissue. Additionally, MF components presented lower binding energies when docked into the active site of TNF-α and IL-6. The present findings concluded that M. ferruginea extract exhibited nephroprotective potential, which may be attributed to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Further work is recommended to confirm the current results, explore the involved mechanism of action, and determine the therapeutic doses and time.     

Multiple steady states in a CSTR with total condenser: Comparison of equilibrium and nonequilibrium models

Comparison of equilibrium and nonequilibrium models of a CSTR with total condenser focused on the multiple steady states and dynamic behaviour was carried out. The steady-state behaviour of the model system, MTBE synthesis from methanol and isobutene in a reactive distillation column, was studied in terms of the input parameters, i. e. feed flow rate of methanol or butenes, reflux ratio, and mass of catalyst. The dynamic behaviour of the system during the start-up was investigated and perturbations of manipulated variables were found to cause transitions between the parallel steady states. Presented at the 33rd International Conference of the Slovak Society of Chemical Engineering, Tatranské Matliare, 22–26 May 2006.     

On the Mechanical Properties of Popgraphene-Based Nanotubes: a Reactive Molecular Dynamics Study

Carbon-based tubular materials have sparked a great interest in future electronics and optoelectronics device applications. In this work, we computationally studied the mechanical properties of nanotubes generated from popgraphene (PopNTs). Popgraphene is a 2D carbon allotrope composed of 5-8-5 rings. We carried out fully atomistic reactive (ReaxFF) molecular dynamics for PopNTs of different chiralities ( and ) and/or diameters and at different temperatures (from 300 up to 1200 K). Results showed that the tubes are thermally stable (at least up to 1200 K). All tubes presented stress/strain curves with a quasi-linear behavior followed by an abrupt drop of stress values. Interestingly, armchair-like PopNTs ( ) can stand a higher strain load before fracturing when contrasted to the zigzag-like ones ( ). Moreover, it was obtained that Young's modulus (Y_Mod) (750–900 GPa) and ultimate strength (σ_US) (120–150 GPa) values are similar to the ones reported for conventional armchair and zigzag carbon nanotubes. Y_Mod values obtained for PopNTs are not significantly temperature-dependent. While the σ_US values for the showed a quasi-linear dependence with the temperature, the exhibited no clear trends.     

The Degree Preserving Spanning Tree Problem: Valid Inequalities and Branch-and-cut method

Given a connected undirected graph G, the Degree Preserving Spanning Tree Problem (DPSTP) consists in finding a spanning tree T of G that maximizes the number of vertices that have the same degree in T and in G. In this paper, we introduce Integer Programming formulations, valid inequalities and a Branch-and-cut algorithm for the DPSTP. Reinforced with new valid inequalities, the upper bounds provided by the formulation behind our Branch-and-cut method dominate previous DPSTP bounds in the literature.