The Isoelectric Point of Lead Magnesium Niobate

Lead magnesium niobate (PMN) is an important relaxor ferroelectric material commonly used in multilayer capacitor and actuator manufacturing owing to its high dielectric constant and superior electrostrictive properties. However, the isoelectric point of this material in water is not known and there is justification for a detailed investigation. In this work, the isoelectric point (IEP) of aqueous PMN suspensions were determined as a function of solids concentration. Results showed that IEP of the PMN suspensions strongly depended on the solids loading. The IEP was between pH 9 and 10 at particle concentrations between 10 to 20 vol%. The IEP shifted gradually to a lower pH value as the particle concentration decreased. Solubility experiments showed that Pb²⁺ and Mg²⁺ ions dissolved from the PMN surface, especially in the acidic pH range. The study provides a new insight on the aqueous stability of perovskite materials which possess more than one soluble cation in their structure .     

Effect of outdoor exposure and bleaching on surface color and chemical structure of scots pine

This study was carried out in order to investigate the changes on chemical structure and surface color of scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) after exterior conditioning followed by bleaching process. Specimens were first exposed to exterior conditions for 12 months, and then bleached with three different solutions: 18% NaOH + H₂O₂, NaSiO₃ + H₂O₂, and CaOH₂ + H₂O₂. Afterwards, specimens were re-exposed to exterior conditions for 12 months. Measurement of color differences and changes in chemical structures of finishing after the process of exposure to outdoors and bleaching were made according to the ASTM D-2244 standard. As a result, it was deduced that exposure to exterior conditions causes color differences in specimens while bleaching with given solution groups reduces that affect and reverts the surface color to that of natural control specimens. However, specimens exposed to 12 months exterior conditioning had more discoloration than that of natural control specimens. This finding leads to a conclusion that in restoration of uncoated or unfinished wood exposed to exterior conditions for 12 months, bleaching process could increase service and economic life of material.     

Synthesis and characterization of hydroxyl terminated poly(butadiene)-g-poly(glycidyl azide) copolymer as a new energetic propellant binder

Summary Poly(glycidyl azide), PGA, was grafted onto Hydroxyl Terminated Poly(butadiene), HTPB, via free radical mechanism. PGA-macro azoinitator and HTPB polymer mixture was casted from solution and the polymer film was kept at 90°C for 4 hours. The grafted polymer was isolated from the product by fractional precipitation and characterized by NMR and FT-IR spectroscopy. Graft copolymer structure was also confirmed that volume ratio of nonsolvent to the solution of the graft copolymer was between those of corresponding homopolymers. TGA traces of the block polymers were containing two different maxima at 253°C (for PGA units) and 469°C (for HTPB units). Because of the incompatibility of the blocks, DSC curve showed two T_g's which belong to the related segments.     

New conjugated azomethine oligomers obtained from bis-(hydroxyphenyl)methylenediamine via oxidative polycondensation and their complexes with metals

A new conjugated aromatic oligo(azomethine) derivative was synthesized by oxidative polycondensation of 1,4-bis[(2-hydroxyphenyl)methylene]phenylenediamine (HPMPDA) by air, H₂O₂ and NaOCl oxidants in an aqueous alkaline medium. The structures of 1,4-bis[(2-hydroxyphenyl)methylene]phenylenediamine and oligo-1,4-bis[(2-hydroxyphenyl)methylene]phenylenediamine (OHPMPDA) were confirmed by FT-IR, UV–vis, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and elemental analysis. The characterization was made by TGA–DTA, size exclusion chromatography (SEC), magnetic moment and solubility tests. The ¹H NMR and ¹³C NMR data showed that the polymerization was proceeded by C–C coupling according to ortho and para positions of –OH group of 1,4-bis[(2-hydroxyphenyl)methylene]phenylenediamine. Metal complex compounds of OHPMPDA were synthesized with metal salts of Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Mn, Cr, Pb and Hg. Elemental analyses of oligomer–metal complexes suggested that the ratio of metal to oligomer is 1:1. Thermal stabilities of the oligomer–metal complexes were determined by thermogravimetric analyses (TGA). According to TG analyses, oligomer–metal complexes were fairly stable against temperature and thermal decomposition. Also, electrical conductivities of OHPMPDA and oligomer–metal complexes were measured by four-point technique. The results of this study showed that aromatic oligoazomethine and its metal complexes were an interesting class of conjugated compounds of which electronic structure and the other properties can be regulated over a wide range by using different oxidation reagents.     

Poly(methyl methacrylate)/POSS hybrid networks by type II photoinitiated free radical polymerization

A new strategy for organic–inorganic hybrid networks is presented through in‐situ Type II photoinitiated polymerization of methyl methacrylate with diethanolamino‐functionalized polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS‐DEA). The diethanolamino groups are simply incorporated onto POSS nanoparticles by nucleophilic ring‐opening reaction of commercially available epoxycyclohexyl POSS and diethanol amine. The photoinitiated polymerization of methyl methacrylate in the presence of benzophenone as photosensitizer and POSS‐DEA as hydrogen donor leads to poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/POSS hybrid networks under UV light irradiation. The morphology and thermal properties of hybrid networks are investigated by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and transmission electron microscopy. The morphology results confirm that POSS cages are homogeneously distributed in PMMA matrix at the molecular levels, whereas the thermal analyses shows that the obtained hybrid networks have higher glass transition temperatures and better thermal stabilities compared to parent PMMA homopolymer. POLYM. COMPOS., 35:1614–1620, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers     

An approach for automated fault diagnosis based on a fuzzy decision tree and boundary analysis of a reconstructed phase space

Although reconstructed phase space is one of the most powerful methods for analyzing a time series, it can fail in fault diagnosis of an induction motor when the appropriate pre-processing is not performed. Therefore, boundary analysis based a new feature extraction method in phase space is proposed for diagnosis of induction motor faults. The proposed approach requires the measurement of one phase current signal to construct the phase space representation. Each phase space is converted into an image, and the boundary of each image is extracted by a boundary detection algorithm. A fuzzy decision tree has been designed to detect broken rotor bars and broken connector faults. The results indicate that the proposed approach has a higher recognition rate than other methods on the same dataset.     

Synthesis and characterizations of poly(ether)/poly(phenol)s including azomethine coupled benzothiazole side chains: the effect of reaction conditions on the structure,optical, electrochemical,electrical and thermal properties

A new Schiff base, 4-((6-ethoxybenzothiazole-2-ylimino)methyl)benzene-1,2-diol (3,4-HBAEBT) was synthesized by the condensation reaction of 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde (3,4-HBA) and 2-amino-6-ethoxybenzothiazole. The Schiff base, then, was converted to its polymer derivatives by oxidative polycondensation reaction in both organic (P-1) and aqueous alkaline medium (P-2). Spectral observations indicated different structural properties for each polymerization condition. Organic and aqueous alkaline medium produced poly(ether) and poly(phenol) structures, respectively. The obtained polymers were separately studied with respect to optical, electrochemical, electrical and thermal properties. With exception of thermal degradation behaviors, the other investigated properties as well as morphological characteristics of both polymers were considerably different. In the fluorescence measurements a solvatochromic effect was recorded and the emission colors of the polymers could be changed as turquoise-green by solvent change.     

Comparison of abrasive wear behavior of ductile iron with different dual matrix structures

Abrasive wear behavior of ductile irons with different dual matrix structures has been investigated. In order to obtain ductile irons with different dual matrix structures an unalloyed ductile iron specimens were austenitized in the two-phase region (α + γ) at various temperature (795 °C and 815 °C) and then rapidly transferred to a salt bath held at the 365 °C for austempering for 30, 90 and 120 min. Some specimens were quenched from same intercritical austenitizing temperatures and tempered at 550 °C for 60 and 300 min. Some specimens were also conventionally austempered and/or quenched from 900 °C for comparison. Experimental results showed that, the tensile strength increased and ductility decreased with increasing martensite volume fraction in the specimen with martensite dual matrix structure. By increasing the tempering time, the yield and UTS decreased and ductility increased. In addition, the specimens with ausferrite dual matrix structures exhibited much greater ductility than conventionally austempered ones. The tensile strength increased while ductility decreased with increasing ausferrite volume fraction. Furthermore in all austenitized specimens, the abrasive weight loss of austempered specimens (A series) was lower than those of quenched specimens (Q series) irrespective of all loads due to increased AFVFs and total elongation. It was shown that wear loss of both tested materials in abrasive wear was proportional to the applied load. However, there was a decreasing trend in the weight loss of the A795 with dual matrix structure austempered for 30 and 90 min with increasing load. The reason was because of the fact that the specimen surface was work hardened with cutting efficiency of the abrasive reduced through clogging, and attrition jointly leading to less weight loss. Moreover, increasing the austempering time caused more ductile ausferritic structure to displace hard martensite. In all austempered samples, the abrasive weight loss increased with increasing the austempering time. As for the case of Q samples, the abrasive weight loss increased more or less linearly with load since an increase in the applied load might increase the contact stress. Among the Q samples, the highest weight loss was obtained for the Q795-300, Q815-300 sample because of lower martensite volume fraction, but the lowest weight loss was observed for the Q900 sample due to the highest martensite volume fraction. For Q900 samples, the amount of fracture of the abrasives was found to be increase with the harder specimen, and it may have contributed somewhat to the increased wear.Furthermore, microchips were dominant wear mechanism by cutting mode for higher ductile materials while micro-ploughing was predominant wear for harder materials, but wear also occurred by combinations of ploughing and embedding particles into the surface for Q samples. Cross-section examination by SEM through the wear surfaces revealed that a more smoother surface was observed for the A795 sample than that of the Q795 sample. However, a more rougher surface was observed for the A900-120 sample than that of the Q900 sample.     

A gantry-based tri-modality system for bioluminescence tomography

A gantry-based tri-modality system that combines bioluminescence (BLT), diffuse optical (DOT), and x-ray computed tomography (XCT) into the same setting is presented here. The purpose of this system is to perform bioluminescence tomography using a multi-modality imaging approach. As parts of this hybrid system, XCT and DOT provide anatomical information and background optical property maps. This structural and functional a priori information is used to guide and restrain bioluminescence reconstruction algorithm and ultimately improve the BLT results. The performance of the combined system is evaluated using multi-modality phantoms. In particular, a cylindrical heterogeneous multi-modality phantom that contains regions with higher optical absorption and x-ray attenuation is constructed. We showed that a 1.5 mm diameter bioluminescence inclusion can be localized accurately with the functional a priori information while its source strength can be recovered more accurately using both structural and the functional a priori information.