Electrochromic and Conductivity Behavior of Tris[Ester-Substituted Bipyridine]Ruthenium[II] Polymers on Electrodes

Complexes of ruthenium with 2,2′-bipyridines having electron-withdrawing ester functions in the 5,5′ positions have been prepared, and they are polymerizable. Films can be cast on electrodes from solutions of the monomer and then polymerized thermally. Once formed, the films are electroactive and quite stable in the absence of O₂. The ruthenium complexes in this polymer have a rich electrochemistry and can exist in seven stable oxidation states. The spectral properties of the polymer are such that, as the oxidation state of the complex is changed successively from 2+ to 4-, the polymer undergoes vivid changes in color. The material is thus of interest as an electrochromic material. Additionally, when the polymer is reduced to the formal zero-valent form it becomes an ohmic conductor with semiconductorlike properties.     

Thermal behaviour of metal soaps from biodegradable rubber seed oil

Soaps are a class of surface active compounds derived from natural oils and fats. Double decomposition reactions permit the synthesis of metallic soaps, which are long-chain carboxylates of metal ions, from alkaline ones such as sodium, potassium or ammonium soaps. Metallic soaps are commercially important as they find use in diverse applications such as driers in paints or inks, components of lubricating greases, heat stabilizers for plastics (especially PVC), catalysts and water proofing agents, fuel additives and cosmetic products amongst others. Many of these applications are related to the thermal properties of these compounds and the thermal behaviour of metal soaps in terms of decomposition processes is of great importance. Rubber seed oil (RSO) which is an unsaturated triglyceride abundantly available in Nigeria, India and Australia is an excellent starting material for metal soaps. In this study rubber seed oil having 2.2% myristic acid, 7.6% palmitic acid, 10.7% stearic acid, 20.61% oleic acid, 36.62% linoleic acid, 22.5% linolenic acid was used in making barium, calcium, cadmium and zinc soaps. The thermal behaviour of soaps (Ba, Ca, Cd and Zn) of rubber seed oil for use as additives in the processing of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) was investigated by thermal gravimetry and differential scanning calorimetry. The stability of the soaps was examined by thermogravimetry up to 873 K at a constant heating rate of 10 °C min⁻¹. The soaps were found to be thermally stable up to 473 K as they recorded less than 5% mass loss at this temperature with values of apparent activation energy for decomposition varying from 52 to 96 kJ mol⁻¹. Differential scanning calorimetric studies of the soaps revealed melting and decomposition behaviour of metal soaps.     

Electron mobility in compensated VPE GaAs films

Electron Hall mobilities were measured on a series of intentionally compensated vapor phase epitaxy (VPE) GaAs layers. Using Sn and Zn as dopants, compensation ratiosK=(N_D+N_A)/(N_D-N_A) as high as 50 were obtained. Already for samples with the lowestK values the 300 K mobilities are higher than the 77 K values. In the range 20<T<100 [K] the data may be represented by μ∼T ^α with α increasing from 0.6 to 1.1 with compensation. The experimental μ values are smaller than those predicted from current models in all cases. It appears that scattering at ionized impurities is the dominant process also at temperatures well above 77 K, and that this scattering process is quantitatively underestimated in current models.     

A Study of Adsorption of Water Vapour on Wool under Static and Dynamic Conditions

Adsorption of water vapour on wool provides not only textile comfort, but also convenience in transportation due to increase in its bulk density. The adsorption and desorption isotherms of water vapour for wool were determined by both volumetric technique using a Coulter Omnisorp 100CX instrument and gravimetric method employing a Cahn 2000 electronic microbalance. Adsorption isotherm fitting to B.E.T. model and hysteresis on desorption was observed. The average effective diffusion coefficient of water in wool was found to be 8.4 × 10^-14 m²s^-1 at 25°C from gravimetric data. The effects of packing height and air velocity on the breakthrough curves were also investigated in the wool packed columns. For pseudo first order model, k values changing between 0.33 × 10^-6 – 69 × 10^-6 s^-1 was obtained for 2.2–6.4 cm s^-1 air velocity and 0.05–0.20 m packing height ranges.     

Analysis of substances to be used as internal standards in MEKC

The use of internal standards (ISs) improves the quantitative performance of CE. However, ISs chosen for use in CZE often cannot be used for micellar EKC (MEKC). Therefore 22 substances were investigated as potential ISs in MEKC. These substances were selected based upon a literature search. The substances were investigated using a method similar to the standard operating conditions for MEKC as recommended by S. Terabe. Furthermore, the migration time and the corrected migration time (k(S)) were determined for each substance to establish the migration position relative to other peaks in the electropherograms. A combination of eight substances, selected according to the obtained results (t(m) = 4 up to 12 min), was tested for practical benefit and applicability. The peak area precision was in the range of 0.8 and 1.2% (n = 60), and the peaks were well shaped for all the investigated substances. The selected substances covered a wide migration time window and therefore they can be regarded as suitable for future analysis at any required migration position.     

Local thermal conductivity of polycrystalline AlN ceramics measured by scanning thermal microscopy and complementary scanning electron microscopy techniques

The local thermal conductivity of polycrystalline aluminum nitride (AlN) ceramics is measured and imaged by using a scanning thermal microscope (SThM) and complementary scanning electron microscope (SEM) based techniques at room temperature.The quantitative thermal conductivity for the AlN sample is gained by using a SThM with a spatial resolution of sub-micrometer scale through using the 3ω method.A thermal conductivity of 308 W/m·K within grains corresponding to that of high-purity single crystal AlN is obtained.The slight differences in thermal conduction between the adjacent grains are found to result from crystallographic misorientations,as demonstrated in the electron backscattered diffraction.A much lower thermal conductivity at the grain boundary is due to impurities and defects enriched in these sites,as indicated by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.     

Water vapour adsorption on organic and inorganic polymers

Water vapour adsorption on polymers affects their processing behaviour and useful properties. Water vapour adsorption on organic polymers, silk, Nylon 6 fibres in undrawn and permanent set forms, polyester micro fibres, plasticised PVC films with 60 phr dioctylphthalate (DOP) and inorganic polymer sepiolite particles were investigated in this study. The materials were examined using the BET equation. The surface areas of silk, cast Nylon 6 and muss Nylon 6 were determined as 108, 46 and 23 m² g^–1, respectively. Sepiolite did not fit BET equation. Polyester and PVC adsorbed very small amounts of moisture.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.