Electrochemical synthesis and characterization of chloride doped polyaniline

Chloride doped polyaniline conducting polymer films have been prepared in a protic acid medium (HCl) by potentiodynamic method in an electrochemical cell and studied by cyclic voltammetry and FTIR techniques. The FTIR spectra confirmed Cl^- ion doping in the polymers. The polymerization rate was found to increase with increasing concentration of aniline monomer. But the films obtained at high monomer concentration were rough having a nonuniform flaky polyaniline distribution. Results showed that the polymerization rate did not increase beyond a critical HCl concentration. Cyclic voltammetry suggested that, the oxidation-reduction current increased with an increase in scan rate and that the undoped polyaniline films were not hygroscopic whereas chloride doped polyaniline films were found to be highly hygroscopic.     

Thermomechanical finite-element model of shell behavior in continuous casting of steel

A coupled finite-element model, CON2D, has been developed to simulate temperature, stress, and shape development during the continuous casting of steel, both in and below the mold. The model simulates a transverse section of the strand in generalized plane strain as it moves down at the casting speed. It includes the effects of heat conduction, solidification, nonuniform superheat dissipation due to turbulent fluid flow, mutual dependence of the heat transfer and shrinkage on the size of the interfacial gap, the taper of the mold wall, and the thermal distortion of the mold. The stress model features an elastic-viscoplastic creep constitutive equation that accounts for the different responses of the liquid, semisolid, delta-ferrite, and austenite phases. Functions depending on temperature and composition are employed for properties such as thermal linear expansion. A contact algorithm is used to prevent penetration of the shell into the mold wall due to the internal liquid pressure. An efficient two-step algorithm is used to integrate these highly nonlinear equations. The model is validated with an analytical solution for both temperature and stress in a solidifying slab. It is applied to simulate continuous casting of a 120 mm billet and compares favorably with plant measurements of mold wall temperature, total heat removal, and shell thickness, including thinning of the corner. The model is ready to investigate issues in continuous casting such as mold taper optimization, minimum shell thickness to avoid breakouts, and maximum casting speed to avoid hot-tear crack formation due to submold bulging.     

Glycoconjugated polymer 6. Synthesis of poly[styrene-<Emphasis Type="Italic">block</Emphasis>-(styrene-<Emphasis Type="Italic">graft</Emphasis>-amylose)] via potato phosphorylase-catalyzed polymerization

Summary The potato phosphorylase-catalyzed polymerization of α-D-glucose-1-phosphate (G-1-P) onto poly[styrene-block-(4-vinylbenzyl maltohexaoside)] (1) was performed at the molar ratios of [G-l-P]₀ and [maltohexaose]₀ of 35, 80, and 250. The product was found to be soluble in dimethyl sulfoxide, which was a good solvent for amylose, and showed the complex-formation with iodine, indicating that the product was assignable to poly[styrene-block-(styrene-graft-amylose)] (2). The quantitative analysis of the liberated phosphoric acid gave the average degree of polymerization o f the glucose unit (n) as 27, 5 1, and 180 for 2-I, 2-II, and 2-III, respectively. Received: 29 November 2002/Accepted: 22 December 2002 Correspondence to Toyoji Kakuchi     

MULTICARRIER DS—CDMA WITH ADAPTIVE MODULATION AND POWER ALLOCATION

Adaptive modulation and power allocation is introduced into the multicarrier DSCDMA system to improve the system performance and bandwidth efficiency.First,the system design appropriate for adaptive modulation and power allocation is given,then the algorithm of adaptive modulation and power allocation is applied.Simulation results demonstrate great performance improvement compared with the fixed modulated one.     

Exchange-correlation errors at harmonic and anharmonic orders: the case of bulk Cu

As an aid towards improving the treatment of exchange and correlation effects in electronic structure calculations, it is desirable to have a clear picture of the errors introduced by currently popular approximate exchange-correlation functionals. We have performed ab initio density functional theory and density functional perturbation theory calculations to investigate the thermal properties of bulk Cu, using both the local density approximation (LDA) and the generalized gradient approximation (GGA). Thermal effects are treated within the quasiharmonic approximation. We find that the LDA and GGA errors for anharmonic quantities are an order of magnitude smaller than for harmonic quantities; we argue that this might be a general feature. We also obtain much closer agreement with experiment than earlier, more approximate calculations.     

Electronic properties of magnetically doped nanotubes

Effect of doping of carbon nanotubes by magnetic transition metal atoms has been considered in this paper. In the case of semiconducting tubes, it was found that the system has zero magnetization, whereas in metallic tubes the valence electrons of the tube screen the magnetization of the dopants: the coupling to the tube is usually antiferromagnetic (except for Cr).     

Passive alignment method of polymer PLC devices by using a hot embossing technique

A novel fabrication process using a hot embossing technique has been developed for micromechanical passive alignment of polymer planar lightwave circuit (PLC) devices. With only one step of embossing, single-mode waveguide straight channels and micropedestals for passive aligning are simultaneously defined on a polymer thin film with an accuracy of /spl plusmn/0.5 /spl mu/m. This process reduces the steps for fabricating alignment structures. A fabricated polymer PLC chip and fibers are combined on a v-grooved silicon optical bench (SiOB) in a flip-chip manner. The process provides a coupling loss as low as 0.67 dB per coupling face and a cost-effective packaging solution for various polymer PLC devices.     

Enhanced thermal stability of a sputtered titanium-nitride film as a diffusion barrier for capacitor-bottom electrodes

The effect of a thin RuO_x layer formed on the Ru/TiN/doped poly-Si/Si stack structure was compared with that on the RuO_x/TiN/doped poly-Si/Si stack structure over the post-deposition annealing temperature ranges of 450–600°C. The Ru/TiN/poly-Si/Si contact system exhibited linear behavior at forward bias with a small increase in the total resistance up to 600°C. The RuO_x/TiN/poly-Si/Si contact system exhibited nonlinear characteristics under forward bias at 450°C, which is attributed to no formation of a thin RuO_x layer at the RuO_x surface and porous-amorphous microstructure. In the former case, the addition of oxygen at the surface layer of the Ru film by pre-annealing leads to the formation of a thin RuO_x layer and chemically strong Ru-O bonds. This results from the retardation of oxygen diffusion caused by the discontinuity of diffusion paths. In particular, the RuO_x layer in a nonstoichiometric state is changed to the RuO₂-crystalline phase in a stoichiometric state after post-deposition annealing; this phase can act as an oxygen-capture layer. Therefore, it appears that the electrical properties of the Ru/TiN/poly-Si/Si contact system are better than those of the RuO_x/TiN/poly-Si/Si contact system.