Preparation of the thermally stable conducting polymer PEDOT - Sulfonated poly(imide)

We describe the template polymerization of EDOT with sulfonated poly(amic acid) (SPAA), resulting in a stable conducting polymer aqueous dispersion, PEDOT-SPAA, with particle size ca. 63 nm. In films of PEDOT-SPAA, the sulfonated poly(amic acid) template undergoes imidization within 10 min at temperatures greater than 150 °C, resulting in PEDOT-sulfonated poly(imide) (PEDOT-SPI) with 10-fold conductivity enhancement. This material is highly thermally stable as compared to PEDOT-PSS. Thermal stability is necessary for many processing applications of conducting polymers, including annealing for OPVs and melt-processing of polycarbonate for device encasement. Isothermal TGA experiments were run at 300 °C for PEDOT-PSS and PEDOT-SPAA and we found that PEDOT-SPAA had a smaller slope for degradation. Annealing of films at 300 °C for 10 min caused the conductivity of PEDOT-PSS films to be unmeasurable (<1 × 10⁻⁵ S/cm), while those of PEDOT-SPAA increased 6-fold. Secondary doping of the PEDOT-SPAA system with additives commonly used for PEDOT-PSS was also investigated.     

Finite element methods for the Stokes problem on complicated domains

It is a standard assumption in the error analysis of finite element methods that the underlying finite element mesh has to resolve the physical domain of the modeled process. In case of complicated domains which appear in many applications such as ground water flows this requirement sometimes becomes a bottleneck. The resolution condition links the computational complexity to the number (and size) of geometric details although the accuracy requirements, possibly, are moderate and would allow a (locally) coarse mesh width. Therefore even the coarsest available discretization can lead to a huge number of unknowns. The composite mini element is a remedy to this dilemma because the degrees of freedom are not linked to the number of geometric details. The basic concept for the Stokes problem with uniform no-slip boundary conditions has been introduced and analyzed in [D. Peterseim, S. Sauter, The composite mini element – coarse mesh computation of Stokes flows on complicated domains, SINUM, 46(6) (2008) 3181–3206]. Here, we generalize the composite mini element to slip, leak and Neumann boundary conditions so that it becomes applicable to this much larger and more important problem class. The main results are (a) the algorithmic concept remains unchanged and the new boundary conditions can be implemented as a weighted quadrature rule, (b) the stability and convergence can be proved under very mild assumption on the domain geometries, (c) the analysis is far from trivial and requires the development of substantially new tools compared to the simple case of uniform no-slip boundary conditions.     

Ligand Binding Promiscuity of Human Liver Fatty Acid Binding Protein: Structural and Dynamic Insights from an Interaction Study with Glycocholate and Oleate

Human liver fatty acid binding protein (hL‐FABP) has been reported to act as an intracellular shuttle of lipid molecules, thus playing a central role in systemic metabolic homeostasis. The involvement of hL‐FABP in the transport of bile salts has been postulated but scarcely investigated. Here we describe a thorough NMR investigation of glycocholate (GCA) binding to hL‐FABP. The protein molecule bound a single molecule of GCA, in contrast to the 1:2 stoichiometry observed with fatty acids. GCA was found to occupy the large internal cavity of hL‐FABP, without requiring major conformational rearrangement of the protein backbone; rather, this led to increased stability, similar to that estimated for the hL‐FABP:oleate complex. Fast‐timescale dynamics appeared not to be significantly perturbed in the presence of ligands. Slow motions (unlike for other proteins of the family) were retained or enhanced upon binding, consistent with a requirement for structural plasticity for promiscuous recognition.     

Evaluation of the impact of lipid fouling during the chromatographic purification of virus‐like particles from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

BACKGROUND: Production of recombinant virus‐like particles (VLPs) in yeast expression systems for use as vaccines requires cell disruption and detergent‐mediated steps to liberate the product. Typically, these release high levels of cellular components such as lipids that foul chromatography columns. This study compares the impact of applying lipid‐rich and lipid‐depleted feedstocks to hydrophobic interaction chromatography columns to quantify the loss of performance caused by the presence of host lipids over a total of 40 operational cycles. RESULTS: VLP binding capacity in the lipid‐rich feed was significantly lower than for the lipid‐depleted feed, with greater than 24% of the lipids remaining in the column after each cycle. Triacylglycerol was found to be the major contaminant. The effectiveness of subsequent caustic clean‐in‐place was limited, resulting in column hydrophobicity increasing over repeated loading cycles. This improved the effective VLP binding capacity and affinity, but also made product elution more difficult, and recovery decreased by more than 70% over the 40 cycles. CONCLUSION: Host cell lipids cause major fouling problems during VLP purification. Instead of screening for better CIP conditions, priority should be given to identifying suitable upstream lipid removal strategies in order to maintain column performance and so yield more economically viable processes. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

Robust compensation of elastic deformations in ball screw drives

Elastic deformations occur in ball screw drives typically due to inertial forces, guideway friction, and cutting forces. This results in elongation and compression of the ball screw, which deteriorates the dynamic linear positioning accuracy. Closing the control loop with a linear encoder helps to alleviate this problem to a certain extent. However, linear scales cost significantly more than rotary encoders and their installation also brings about additional costs. This paper presents a new strategy for mitigating the detrimental effect of elastic deformations, in order to improve the translational accuracy of ball screw drives when only rotational feedback is available. A simple and physically intuitive model is developed, which is used to offset the position commands that are fed to the servo control law. Compensation is proposed using a closed-loop scheme, which is found to be robust against cutting forces, as well as variations in the table mass and guideway friction. These effects are detected as equivalent disturbances that cause an elastic deformation. The proposed closed-loop compensation strategy has been validated in machining and high-speed tracking experiments, as well as simulations, which demonstrate its effectiveness in terms of improving the ball screw drive’s final translational accuracy.     

Experimental investigation of compact silicon carbide heat exchangers for high temperatures

The results of experimental investigations of novel ceramic high-temperature heat exchangers (HTHE) and its main characteristics such as effectiveness and power load as a function of mass flow and the geometry of the channels are presented. Firstly, some information on the background and the manufacturing of the HTHE, which is based on honey comb structures made out of extruded silicon carbide, is given. The experimental tests have been carried out with air as a heat transfer medium at temperatures of up to 1000 °C. The experimental set-up is described in detail. The acquired characteristic temperature and effectiveness data for different inlet temperatures and mass flows are discussed. They have been compared with data from theoretical calculations as well as with characteristic data of typical counter flow heat exchangers. Additionally, thermal shock tests have been carried out for a qualitative testing of the mechanical strength. Finally, a conclusion and an outlook on further activities are given.     

Poly [2-(cinnamoyloxy)ethyl methacrylate-co-octamethacryl-POSS] nanocomposites: Synthesis and properties

Poly [2-(cinnamoyloxy)ethyl methacrylate-co-octamethacryl-POSS] nanocomposites were synthesized from octamethacryl-POSS and 2-(cinnamoyloxy)ethyl methacrylate (CEM) by free radical polymerization. The chemical structures and morphologies of these nanocomposites were determined by FTIR, ²⁹Si NMR, energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. The XRD data showed that the materials were amorphous in nature, indicating that POSS formed an aggregate instead of a crystalline form in the polymer matrix. The POSS-CEM nanocomposites exhibited high thermal stability. Excitation and emission of the CEM-incorporated POSS nanocomposites, studied in the solid state, exhibited blue emission with CIE (x, 0.178; y, 0.137) coordinates, in addition to an emission intensity that increased with increasing CEM (monomer) concentration.     

Comment on “Molten salt synthesis of barium molybdate and tungstate microcrystals”

In this comment we discuss recent results presented by P. Afanasiev on the optical properties of microcrystalline BaMoO₄ and BaWO₄ [Materials Letters 61 (2007) 4622]. Its aim is to show that the band-gap energy reported in that work for BaWO₄ is not reliable and largely underestimate the correct value. As a consequence of it, the challenge made in Ref. [P. Afanasiev, Materials Letters 61 (2007) 4622] to the previous understanding of the electronic structure of scheelite-type compounds is not valid.     

Evaluation of a hydrothermal process for pretreatment of wheat straw—effect of particle size and process conditions

BACKGROUND: Hydrothermal processes are an eco‐friendly processes that provide an interesting alternative for chemical utilization of lignocellulosic materials, in which water and crop residues are the only reagents. In this work the effect of process conditions (size distribution of the wheat straw, temperature and time) was evaluated against production of fermentable products. RESULTS: The use of milled wheat straw fractions as a raw material containing blends of different particle size distribution showed that the latter had an influence on the final sugars in the hydrolysate. Improved values of glucose (21.1%) and xylose yields (49.32%) present in the hydrolysate were obtained with treatment severity factors of 2.77 and 3.36, respectively. Mathematical models were developed aimed at establishing the effect of process conditions on monosaccharide concentration and its degradation in the liquor. CONCLUSION: This work shows that the use of wheat straw blends with various particle sizes has a significant effect on the extraction of fermentable products. The effect of treatment severity, which takes into account both processing time and temperature was also evaluated. These results are of importance for process design. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry