Interpretation of the polyelectrolyte and antipolyelectrolyte effects of poly(N‐vinylimidazole‐co‐sodium styrenesulfonate) hydrogels

Hydrogels of N‐vinylimidazole (VI) and sodium styrenesulfonate (SSS) were synthesized in aqueous solution by radical crosslinking copolymerization with N,N′‐methylene‐bis(acrylamide) as crosslinker. Swelling in several saline solutions was measured for hydrogel samples synthesized with different comonomer concentrations (C_T = 10, 25, or 40%) and with SSS mole fractions covering a broad range (f_SSS = 0–0.7), while the crosslinker ratio was 2 wt % in all cases. The degree of swelling in aqueous solution with a specific ionic strength (μ), plotted versus the SSS composition of the feed, shows a minimum for any set of samples synthesized with a fixed C_T. The dependence of swelling on μ shows both polyelectrolyte (f_SSS beyond the minimum) and antipolyelectrolyte behaviors (in the low f_SSS limit). It was found that the nonGaussian factor of the crosslinking density and the polymer‐solvent interaction parameter increase with f_SSS for any C_T. Moreover, in the low f_SSS limit, the osmotic swelling pressure is governed not only by the ionic contribution, but also by the polymer‐solvent mixing and, the concentration of mobile counterions inside the gel is not proportional to the net fixed charge but to the addition of cationic and anionic side groups, what discards the formation of ionic pairs. The antipolyelectrolyte effect is interpreted as due to the increasing protonation of VI as μ goes up. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 1683–1693, 2007     

Patterns in parabolic problems with nonlinear boundary conditions

We obtain existence of asymptotically stable nonconstant equilibrium solutions for semilinear parabolic equations with nonlinear boundary conditions on small domains connected by thin channels. We prove the convergence of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Laplace operator in such domains. This information is used to show that the asymptotic dynamics of the heat equation in this domain is equivalent to the asymptotic dynamics of a system of two ordinary differential equations diffusively (weakly) coupled. The main tools employed are the invariant manifold theory and a uniform trace theorem.     

Interpolation and extrapolation of gamma detection efficiency curve as a function of distance

Summary The paper deals with the common mistake of interpolating calculation of the efficiency of gamma-detectors by the inverse square law of the distance of the source from the detector cap and suggests the use of the distance from the virtual point detector instead.     

Asymptotic Directions for Best Approximations of n-Dimensional Linear Forms

Some results about asymptotic directions for best approximations of linear forms similar to known results on best simultaneous approximations are obtained.     

Reflection of light by a slab containing electrically small dielectric spheres

Theoriginal and theenhanced Maxwell-Garnett estimates for the permittivity of a particulate medium are applied to the reflection of light by a composite dielectric slab. The reflection coefficients for incident s and p polarizations are calculated and some curves are plotted and discussed.     

Preparative synthesis of the stable α-fluorosulfatotetrafluoro-ethylbis(perfluoroisopropyl)methyl radical

Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 10, pp. 2450–2451, October, 1990.