Effect of additive length and chemistry on the morphology of blends of conjugated thiophenes and fullerene derivative acceptor molecules

Small molecule additives have been shown to increase the device efficiency of conjugated polymer (donor) and fullerene derivative (acceptor) based organic solar cells by modifying the morphology of the device active layer. In this paper we conduct a systematic study of how additives affect the donor‐acceptor morphology using molecular dynamics simulations of blends of thiophene‐based oligomers, mimicking poly(3‐dodecylthiophene) (P3DDT) or poly(2,2′:5′,2”‐3,3”‐didocyl‐terthiophene) (PTTT), and fullerene derivatives with additives of varying length and chemical functionalization, mimicking experimentally used additives like methyl ester additives, diiodooctane, and alkanedithiols. We find that functionalization of additives with end groups that are attracted to acceptor molecules are necessary to induce increased donor‐acceptor macrophase separation. In blends where acceptors intercalate between oligomer alkyl side chains, functionalized additives decrease acceptor intercalation. Functionalized additives with shorter alkyl segments increase acceptor macrophase separation more than additives with same chemical functionalization but longer alkyl segments. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 1046–1057     

An M/G/1 Retrial Queueing System with Two-Phase Service and Preemptive Resume

An M/G/1 retrial queueing system with additional phase of service and possible preemptive resume service discipline is considered. For an arbitrarily distributed retrial time distribution, the necessary and sufficient condition for the system stability is obtained, assuming that only the customer at the head of the orbit has priority access to the server. The steady-state distributions of the server state and the number of customers in the orbit are obtained along with other performance measures. The effects of various parameters on the system performance are analysed numerically. A general decomposition law for this retrial queueing system is established.     

Index Heuristics for Multiclass M/G/1 Systems with Nonpreemptive Service and Convex Holding Costs

We consider the optimal service control of a multiclass M/G/1 queueing system in which customers are served nonpreemptively and the system cost rate is additive across classes and increasing convex in the numbers present in each class. Following Whittle's approach to a class of restless bandit problems, we develop a Langrangian relaxation of the service control problem which serves to motivate the development of a class of index heuristics. The index for a particular customer class is characterised as a fair charge for service of that class. The paper develops these indices and reports an extensive numerical investigation which exhibits strong performance of the index heuristics for both discounted and average costs.     

多重休假的带启动--关闭期的Geom/G/1排队

本研究多重休假的带启动——关闭期的Geom／G／1离散时间排队，给出稳态队长，等待时间分布的母函数及其随机分解结果，推导出忙期的全假期的母函数，给出该模型的几个特例。     

Fractional Brownian Heavy Traffic Approximations of Multiclass Feedforward Queueing Networks

We consider multiclass feedforward queueing networks under first in first out and priority service disciplines driven by long-range dependent arrival and service time processes. We show that in critical loading the normalized workload, queue length and sojourn time processes can converge to a multi-dimensional reflected fractional Brownian motion. This weak heavy traffic approximation is deduced from a deterministic pathwise approximation of the network behavior close to constant critical load in terms of the solution of a Skorokhod problem. Since we model the doubly infinite time interval, our results directly cover the stationary case.AMS subject classification: primary 90B15, secondary 60K25, 68M20     

Self-bonding in an amorphous polymer below the glass transition: A T-peel test investigation

Films of amorphous polystyrene (PS) with a weight-average molecular weight (M_w) of 225 × 10³ g/mol were bonded in a T-peel test geometry, and the fracture energy (G) of a PS/PS interface was measured at the ambient temperature as a function of the healing time (t_h) and healing temperature (T_h). G was found to develop with (t_h)^1/2 at T_h = T_g-bulk − 33 °C (where T_g-bulk is the glass-transition temperature of the bulk sample), and log G was found to develop with 1/T_h at T_g-bulk − 43 °C ≤ T_h ≤ T_g-bulk − 23 °C. The smallest measured value of G = 1.4 J/m² was at least one order of magnitude larger than the work of adhesion required to reversibly separate the PS surfaces. These three observations indicated that the development of G at the PS/PS interface in the temperature range investigated (<T_g-bulk) was controlled by the diffusion of chain segments feasible above the glass-transition temperature of the interfacial layer, in agreement with our previous findings for fracture stress development at several polymer/polymer interfaces well below T_g-bulk. Close values of G = 8–9 J/m² were measured for the symmetric interfaces of polydisperse PS [M_w = 225 × 10³, weight-average molecular weight/number-average molecular weight (M_w/M_n) = 3] and monodisperse PS (M_w = 200 × 10³, M_w/M_n = 1.04) after healing at T_h = T_g-bulk − 33 °C for 24 h. This implies that the self-bonding of high-molecular-weight PS at such relatively low temperatures is not governed by polydispersity. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 1861–1867, 2004     

Vacations in GI X/M Y/1 systems and Riemann boundary value problems

We consider systems of GI/M/1 type with bulk arrivals, bulk service and exponential server vacations. The generating functions of the steady-state probabilities of the embedded Markov chain are found in terms of Riemann boundary value problems, a necessary and sufficient condition of ergodicity is proved. Explicit formulas are obtained for the case where the generating function of the arrival group size is rational. Resonance between the vacation rate and the system is studied. Complete formulas are given for the cases of single and geometric arrivals. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Forced-air precooling of spherical foods in bulk: A parametric study

In this paper, a mathematical model for forced-air precooling of spherical food products in bulk is developed. The foods are arranged in horizontal layers stacked one above the other to form a rectangular parallelepiped with a vertical gap in between the product layers. The foods are cooled by chilled air blown along the height of the package. The governing equations for the conduction heat transfer in the foods, simultaneous heat and mass transfer at the food-air interface and in the air stream are solved numerically using finite-difference methods. A comprehensive numerical study is performed by varying the process parameters over a wide range. Typical results showing the variation of moist air properties along the height of the package and the effect of each parameter on the process time are presented. The ranges of parameters for advantageous operation of the precooling system are identified. Correlations are obtained for the process time based on the product center and mass-averaged temperatures in terms of process parameters.     

Polling systems in heavy traffic: Exhaustiveness of service policies

We study the expected delay in cyclic polling models with general ‘branching-type’ service disciplines. For this class of models, which contains models with exhaustive and gated service as special cases, we obtain closed-form expressions for the expected delay under standard heavy-traffic scalings. We identify a single parameter associated with the service discipline at each queue, which we call the ‘exhaustiveness’. We show that the scaled expected delay figures depend on the service policies at the queues only through the exhaustiveness of each of the service disciplines. This implies that the influence of different service disciplines, but with the same exhaustiveness, on the expected delays at the queues becomes the same when the system reaches saturation. This observation leads to a new classification of the service disciplines. In addition, we show monotonicity of the scaled expected delays with respect to the exhaustiveness of the service disciplines. This induces a complete ordering in terms of efficiency of the service disciplines. The results also lead to new rules for optimization of the system performance with respect to the service disciplines at the queues. Further, the exact asymptotic results suggest simple expected waiting-time approximations for polling models in heavy traffic. Numerical experiments show that the accuracy of the approximations is excellent for practical heavy-traffic scenarios. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Electronic properties of model quantum-dot structures in zero and finite magnetic fields

We have computed electronic structures and total energies of circularly confined two-dimensional quantum dots and their lateral dimers in zero and finite uniform external magnetic fields using different theoretical schemes: the spin-density-functional theory (SDFT), the current-and-spin-density-functional theory (CSDFT), and the variational quantum Monte Carlo (VMC) method. The SDFT and CSDFT calculations employ a recently-developed, symmetry-unrestricted real-space algorithm allowing solutions which break the spin symmetry. Results obtained for a six-electron dot in the weak confinement limit and in zero magnetic field as well as in a moderate confinement and in finite magnetic fields enable us to draw conclusions about the reliability of the more approximative SDFT and CSDFT schemes in comparison with the VMC method. The same is true for results obtained for the two-electron quantum dot dimer as a function of inter-dot distance. The structure and role of the symmetry-breaking solutions appearing in the SDFT and CSDFT calculations for the above systems are discussed. Received 16 October 2001 and Received in final form 17 January 2002