Clicked (AB)2C‐type miktoarm terpolymers: Synthesis,thermal and self‐assembly properties,and preparation of nanoporous materials

A well‐defined (PEO‐PS)₂‐PLA miktoarm terpolymer ( 1 ) was synthesized by stepwise click reactions of individually prepared poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), polystyrene (PS, polymerized by atom transfer radical polymerization), and polylactide (PLA, polymerized by ring‐opening polymerization) blocks. As characterized by differential scanning calorimetry and small‐angle X‐ray scattering techniques, the terpolymer self‐assembled into a hexagonal columnar structure consisting of PLA/PEO cylindrical cores surrounded by PS chains. In contrast, the ion‐doped sample ( 1‐Li⁺ ) with lithium concentration per ethylene oxide = 0.2 exhibited a three‐phase lamellar structure, which was attributed to the microphase separation between PEO and PLA blocks and to the conformational stabilization of the longest PLA chain. The two‐phase columnar morphology before the ion doping was used to prepare a nanoporous material. PLA chains in the cylindrical core region were hydrolyzed by sodium hydroxide, producing nanopores with a pore diameter of about 14 nm. The resulted nanoporous material sank to the bottom in water, because of water‐compatible PEO chains on the walls. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2013     

The minimum squared euclidean distance of multi-h phase codes

The minimum squared Euclidean distance(MSED) of binary multi-h phase codes is presented. The signal segregation degree(SSD) has been put forward to determine MSED of multi-h phase codes. In order to maximize MSED, SSD should be as large as possible. The necessary and sufficient conditions of maximizing SSD are derived. Finally, SSD and the exact formulae for MSED of binary 2-h phase codes are also presented.     

Preparation of Chiral Amino Esters by Asymmetric Phase‐Transfer Catalyzed Alkylations of Schiff Bases in a Ball Mill

The asymmetric alkylation of Schiff bases under basic conditions in a ball mill was performed. The starting Schiff bases of glycine were prepared beforehand by milling protected glycine hydrochloride and benzophenone imine, in the absence of solvent. The Schiff base was then reacted with a halogenated derivative in a ball mill in the presence of KOH. By adding a chiral ammonium salt derived from cinchonidine, the reaction proceeded asymmetrically under phase‐transfer catalysis conditions, giving excellent yields and enantiomeric excesses up to 75 %. Because an equimolar amount of starting material was used, purification was greatly simplified.     

Bioactive materials for bone regeneration based on zinc-modified hydroxyapatite

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Emergent biaxiality in nematic microflows illuminated by a laser beam

Anisotropic fluids (e.g. liquid crystals) offer a remarkable promise as optofluidic materials owing to the directional, tunable, and coupled interactions between the material, flow, and the optical fields. Here we present a comprehensive in silico treatment of this anisotropic interaction by performing nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. We quantify the response of a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) undergoing a Poiseuille flow in the Stokes regime, while being illuminated by a laser beam incident perpendicular to the flow direction. We adopt a minimalistic model to capture the interactions, accounting for two features: first, the laser heats up the NLC locally; and second, the laser polarises the NLC and exerts an optical torque that tends to reorient molecules of the nematic phase. Because of this reorientation the liquid crystal exhibits small regions of biaxiality, where the nematic director is one symmetry axis and the axis of rotation for the reorientation of the molecules is the other one. We find that the relative strength of the viscous and the optical torques mediates the flow-induced response of the biaxial regions, thereby tuning the emergence, shape and location of the regions of enhanced biaxiality. The mechanistic framework presented here promises experimentally tractable routes toward novel optofluidic applications based on material-flow-light interactions.     

A comparison of numerical and analytical radiative-transfer solutions for plane albedo of natural waters

Several numerical and analytical solutions of the radiative transfer equation (RTE) were compared for plane albedo in a problem of solar light reflection by sea water. The study incorporated the simplest case—a semi-infinite one-dimensional plane—parallel absorbing and scattering homogeneous layer illuminated by a monodirectional light beam. Inelastic processes (such as Raman scattering and fluorescence), polarization and air-water surface refraction-reflection effects, were not considered. Algorithms were based on the invariant imbedding method and two different variants of the discrete ordinate method (DOM). Calculations were performed using parameters across all possible ranges (single-scattering albedo ω₀ and refracted solar zenith angle θ₁), but with a special emphasis on natural waters. All computations were made for two scattering phase functions, which included an almost isotropic Rayleigh phase function and strongly anisotropic double-peaked Fournier-Forand-Mobley phase function. Models were validated using quasi-single-scattering (QSSA) and exponential approximations, which represent the extreme cases of ω₀→0 and ω₀→1, respectively. All methods yielded relative differences within 1.8% for modeled natural waters. An analysis of plane albedo behavior resulted in the development of a new extended QSSA approximation, which when applied in conjunction with the extended Hapke approximation developed earlier, resulted in a maximum relative error of 2.7%. The study results demonstrated that for practical applications, the estimation of inherent optical properties from observed reflectance can best be achieved using an extended Hapke approximation.