STUDY ON LIGHTLY SULFONATED SYNDIOTACTIC POLYSTYRENE IONOMERS

Sulfonated syndiotactic polystyrene ionomers (SsPS) with 1.8 mol% degree of sulfonation have been studied. WAXD shows that the crystallinity of SsPS ionomers was decreased with increasing diameter size of the counter ions and sPS > SsPS-H > SsPS-K > SsPS-Zn. Moreover, SsPS ionomers only have alpha crystal form, while original sPS has two crystal forms: alpha and beta crystal form. TGA shows that the thermal stability of SsPS ionomers is higher than that of the original sPS and SsPS-Zn > SsPS-K > SsPS-H. DSC shows that all the glass transition temperatures (T-g) of SsPS ionomers are higher than that of the neat sPS and SsPS-Zn > SsPS-Na > SsPS-K > SsPS-H. However, the melting temperature (T-m) and crystallization peak temperature (T-p) of SsPS ionomers are lower and SsPS-H > SsPS-Zn > SsPS-K > SsPS-Na, while the crystallinity (X-c) of SsPS-Zn is the lowest. Nonisothermal crystallization kinetics shows that the Avrami index of sPS and SsPS-H are both about 4, suggesting the nucleation growth of SsPS-H with lower degree of sulfonation still keeps its three-dimension form. FTIR spectra of SsPS ionomers show a splitting absorption band for asymmetric stretching vibration of sulfonation group. The CH in-plane bending vibration of benzene ring shifted to higher wavenumber and the symmetric stretching vibration of sulfonation group changed slightly with different counter ion neutralized SsPS ionomers.

SYNTHESIS OF BIMODAL POLYETHYLENE WITH UNSYMMETRICAL α-DIIMINE NICKEL COMPLEXES: INFLUENCE OF LIGAND BACKBONE AND UNSYM-SUBSTITUTED ANILINE MOIETY

A series of unsymmetrical a-diimine nickel complexes with various backbones and substituted aniline moieties were synthesized and characterized. The crystallographic analysis of the nickel complexes confirmed the existence of meso-and rac-configuration in solid structure. Nickel complexes after activation by MAO were screened for ethylene polymerization to evaluate backbone substituent effect on synthesis of bimodal PE. Acenaphthyl nickel complex with planar backbone afforded a bimodal PE with a broad polydispersity, whereas camphyl nickel complex with rigid and bulky backbone afforded a monomodal PE with a narrow polydispersity. Steric effect of aniline moiety for acenaphthyl nickel complex was also examined, and bimodal PE with dominant high-molecular-weight fraction was obtained by modifying substituents on aniline moiety.

Energy management for multi-microgrid system based on model predictive control

To reduce the computation complexity of the optimization algorithm used in energy management of a multi-microgrid system, an energy optimization management method based on model predictive control is presented. The idea of decomposition and coordination is adopted to achieve the balance between power supply and user demand, and the power supply cost is minimized by coordinating surplus energy in the multi-microgrid system. The energy management model and energy optimization problem are established according to the power flow characteristics of microgrids. A dual decomposition approach is imposed to decompose the optimization problem into two parts, and a distributed predictive control algorithm based on global optimization is introduced to achieve the optimal solution by iteration and coordination. The proposed method has been verified by simulation, and simulation results show that the proposed method provides the demanded energy to consumers in real time, and improves renewable energy efficiency. In addition, the proposed algorithm has been compared with the particle swarm optimization(PSO) algorithm. The results show that compared with PSO, the proposed method has better performance, faster convergence, and significantly higher efficiency.

Investigation on Viscoelasticity of Waterborne Polyurethane with Azobenzene-containing Pendant Groups under Ultraviolet and Visible-light Irradiation

In this study,a novel waterborne polyurethane(WPU)with azobenzene-containing(azo-containing)pendant groups was synthesized by isophorone diisocyanate,long-chain diol of polycaprolactone,2-ethyl-2-methyl-butanoic acid(2,2-dimethylolpropionic acid),10-(4-(phenyldiazenyl)phenoxy)decyl-3-hydroxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)-2-methylpropanoate,and N,N-diethyl-ethanamine(triethylamine).Moreover,the influence of ultraviolet and visible(UV-Vis)light irradiation on the viscoelasticity of azo-containing WPU film in terms of the reversible trans-cis photoisomerization of azo-containing pendant groups was investigated by UV-Vis light spectroscopy,atomic force microscopy,and dynamic thermomechanical analysis.The results revealed that the adhesion of azo-containing WPU with single crystal silicon atomic force microscope probe was about 13 n N when irradiated by 450 nm Vis light for 60 s at 25°C.Subsequently,the adhesion increased to 82 n N after irradiation with 365 nm UV light for 60 s at 25°C.In addition,the azo-containing WPU presented a photo-induced reversible transition of tensile modulus and tanδin the range from about 2 MPa to 22 MPa and 6000 to 0.35 with UV-Vis light cyclic irradiation for 120 s at 25°C,respectively.