Patent information in a large electrical company, exemplified by the situation at Siemens

The special situation of patent information is dealt with against the background of the general problems of information provision. The role of the Patent Department of Siemens as a user of patent information and in the distribution of patent information within the company is discussed. Finally, the present system of current patent information on granted patents and first publications is outlined and an outlook on future developments given.     

Eigenschaften,Anwendungsgebiete und physiko-chemische Untersuchungen von Polyethercarbonsäuren und ihren Salzen

Properties, Fields of Application and Physicochemical Research of Polyether Carbon Acids and their Salts There is a wide scope of application for polyether carbon acids as washing agents, detergents, body shampoos, emulsifiers for naphtha and as resources in the textile, printing, paper, plastic, metal and pharmaceutic industry because of the properties of these products, such as very good solubility even in aqueous inorganic salts solutions, indifference to hardness salts and hydrolysis, nontoxicity as well as a good soil-suspending power. A comprehensive compilation report of patents and scientific literature is presented in this paper. Relationships between the structure and the effect of selected polyether carboxylates are interpreted by own physicochemical research.     

Untersuchungen zur Tautomerie von o,o'-Dihydroxy-azofarbstoffen der Eriochrom-Reihe

Investigations on the Tautomerism of o,o'-Dihydroxy Azo Dyes of the Eriochrome Type Investigation of the u.v.-vis-, ¹H- and ¹³C-n.m.r. spectra of the title substances and the isomers 3 and 3p at different pH-values and in different solvent mixtures as well as of O,O'-dimethyl derivatives of 2 and 3 show that in aqueous solution as well the monoanions as the trianions exist in the azo forms only. The dianions exist in dependence on the solvents as mixtures of tautomers. The results of PPP calculations for different prototropic structures are in good accordance with the experimental results.     

Influence of inorganic salts on optical transmission behaviour of thermotropic hydrogels

Lyotropic liquid crystalline gels based on a polyalkoxy derivative with a middle molecular weight of 4800 can be used for the development of smart windows. Inorganic salts added to the polymer/water mixture have a strong influence on temperature-transmission behaviour. Changes in transmission are based on phase transitions as well as on phase separations. The results of our studies show that the detailed knowledge of the influence of salt concentration on the temperature of the phase separation permits researchers to develop systems which change their transmission from clear to cloudy at any desired temperature. Based on the gel systems studied, it is possible to develop intelligent windows which change their transmission values from ≥ 95% to almost 0% in the temperature range between 25 and 50 °C, thus allowing them to work as intelligent shadow-givers.     

Polyether/polyhydroxy gel network – a new Thermotropic Material

The aim of this study has been to examine the possibility of preparing thermotropic aqueous gel networks that exhibit multiphase transitions in connection with changing the transparency of the system depending on temperature variation. As polymers polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and ethoxylated polydimethylsiloxane (ePS) were chosen. Thermotropic materials can be used as intelligent shadegivers.     

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Amorphous Si–C–N Ceramics: Composition Dependence of the Atomic Structure

We have performed classical molecular dynamics simulations of amorphous Si–C–N materials. The dependence of the local order and of the microstructure on the chemical composition was investigated. Our simulations show that for a stoichiometric nitrogen/silicon ratio equal to or higher than 4/3, the amorphous ceramic separates into different amorphous domains, namely C-rich, SiN-rich, and SiC-rich phases. Below this ratio, the material is composed of mixed structures, homogeneously spread within the material. For a very particular composition range, we found that carbon atoms crystallize into monoatomic graphitic layers surrounding the SiN-rich domains.     

A mechanical spectroscopy study of the Zr69.5Cu12Ni11Al7.5 alloy

The vibrating reed technique has been used to investigate the Zr_69.5Cu₁₂Ni₁₁Al_7.5 glass forming alloy. The phase transformations of the material, as can be seen through the changes of the resonance frequency of the sample as a function of temperature, have been studied and the results have been compared with TEM and DSC measurements confirming the development, above T_g, of a metastable quasicrystalline state prior to crystallisation. Hydrogen-induced damping peaks were then observed in the different phases of the material with particular attention to the quasicrystalline state, where it seems that the microscopic reorientation mechanism responsible for the internal friction peaks should be similar to the one already known in the amorphous phase (hydrogen jumps between tetrahedral sites). Shortly after crystallisation, three damping peaks were observed, two of which are attributed to relaxation processes (Zener-type or intercrystalline Gorsky effect) taking place in the tetragonal CuZr₂ phase.     

Fabrication and characteristics of melt-spun Al ribbons reinforced with nano/micro-BN phases

Melt-spun aluminum ribbons with up to 5 wt.% of embedded nano/micro boron nitride (BN) phases, namely multiwalled BN nanotubes (BNNTs) or BN microparticles (BNMPs), were fabricated by melt-spinning in an argon atmosphere. The comparative structural characteristics were analyzed using X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, and internal friction measurements as a function of temperature within an 80–800 K range. Room temperature tensile tests were carried out on ribbons. These revealed reinforcing effects on pure Al-matrices after nano/micro-BN embedment for both added phases with the notably higher numbers peculiar to the BNNT-containing samples. The intrastructural interactions between BN additions and Al-matrices are discussed based on the structural analysis and the internal friction data.     

Local structure of metallic glasses as seen by mechanical hydrogen relaxation

As an application of hydrogen as a probe, the literature on the damping peak of hydrogen in about 30 amorphous alloys was examined with respect to the question of systematic structural differences between the different types of metallic glasses. A direct plot of measured peak temperatures, corrected to the same frequency, as a function of the peak height turned out to be most suitable for this purpose. Most of these data fall into a 40 K wide band, with no distinction between types like ‘metal–metalloid’, ‘metal–metal’, or ‘bulk’ glasses. This general result suggests, in particular, that the outstanding thermal stability of bulk metallic glasses does not come from a specific amorphous structure. Stronger deviations from the general behaviour, as observed very clearly for Pd-based glasses and tentatively also for phase-separating systems, still need a closer examination.