Reliability Based Analysis of Ground Improvement Using a Polymeric Chemical Stabilizer

In view of the challenges posed by the nature of expansive soil to structural stability which makes it necessary in some cases to improve the soils before structures can be placed on them, there is a need to investigate modern trends in ground improvement techniques in order to determine their reliability. This study is thus aimed at using the reliability based approach to analyze the use of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) in combination with 1,2,3,4 Butane-tetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) for ground improvement. This study is necessary given the challenges posed by the nature of expansive soil to structural stability which makes it necessary in some cases to improve the soils before structures can be placed on them. Simplex lattice design was employed to build the design of experiment before experimental investigations were carried out on the PVA-BTCA treated soft soils. Reliability indices were computed on the basis of the 28th day unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of the treated soil. Reliability index models were developed using the Scheffe’s technique and optimized using excel solver. From analysis of results, reliability model developed proved adequate at 5% level of significance. PVA-BTCA combination provided a potential reliability or probability of success of 99.936% at components combination of: 98.4256% for soil, 1.2352% for PVA, 0.3392% for BTCA and 15.9934% for water. It was therefore recommended that financial implications of using PVA-BTCA for stabilization be compared to those of conventional methods, in order to compare their performance-cost ratio.

Chemically Modified Ordered Mesoporous Carbon/Polyaniline Composites for Electrochemical Capacitors

Chemically modified ordered mesoporous carbon CMK-3 materials were prepared by means of an easy wet-oxidative method in 2 mol/L nitric acid aqueous solution. A large amount of oxygen-containing functional groups were introduced onto the CMK-3 surface. Modified CMK-3（m-CMK-3） and aniline monomer were polymerized via an in situ chemical oxidative polymerization method. Morphological characterizations of m-CMK-3/PANI （polyaniline） composites were carried out via field emission scanning electron microscopy（SEM）. Their electrochemical properties were investigated with cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge-discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The m-CMK-3/PANI composites have excellent properties in capacitance, and the highest specific capacitance（SC） value was up to 489 F/g, suggesting their potential application in the electrode material for electrochemical capacitors.

Performance improvement in polymeric thin film transistors using chemically modified both silver bottom contacts and dielectric surfaces

An efficient interface modification is introduced to improve the performance of polymeric thin film transistors. This efficient interface modification is first achieved by 4-fluorothiophenol（4-FTP） self-assembled monolayers（SAM） to chemically treat the silver source–drain（S/D） contacts while the silicon oxide（SiO2） dielectric interface is further primed by either hexamethyldisilazane（HMDS） or octyltrichlorosilane（OTS-C8）. Results show that contact resistance is the dominant factor that limits the field effect mobility of the PTDPPTFT4 transistors. With proper surface modification applied to both the dielectric surface and the bottom contacts, the field effect mobilities of the bottom-gate bottom-contact PTDPPTFT4 transistors were significantly improved from 0.15 cm^2·V^-1·s^-1 to 0.91 cm^2·V^-1·s^-1.

Preparation of Conducting Poly N-methylaniline Microsphere and Its Antibacterial Performance to Sulfate Reducing Bacteria

Microspheres of conducting polymers poly N-methylaniline （PNMA） were successfully synthesized through oxidation of N-methylaniline without any template. The average diameter of the microspheres with a smooth surface was about 0.40 μm when 0.2 M N-methylanUine was oxidized with 0.2 M ammonium persulfate in 0.2 M of HClO4 solution. The size of microspheres can be controlled by changing reaction time and temperature. The acid concentration was critical for the formation of microspheres with smooth surfaces. The excellent antibacterial performance of PNMA in novolac epoxy coating to sulfate reducing bacteria was demonstrated. Moreover, in API media, PNMA inhibited growth of SRB and then reduced the corrosion rate of carbon steel remarkably.

Facile Oxygen-promoted Synthesis of Cu,N Co-doped Carbon Composites for Oxygen Reduction

A new strategy to fabricate oxygen-promoted Cu,N co-doped carbon(OP-CuN@C)composites is reported.The strategy consists of only two simple steps:chemical polymerization and high temperature carbonization.Electrochemical measurements were conducted to investigate the catalytic activity and mechanism of ORR on the resulting samples.All the electrochemical results indicate that OP-CuN@C exhibits the best ORR catalytic activity.The ORR onset potential of OP-CuN@C is slightly lower than that of commercial Pt/C catalyst.The good performance is attributed to the large specific surface area,high content of heteroatoms(pyridinic,graphitic nitrogen,and oxygen atom)and synergistic effect between divalent copper and nitrogen dopant.

Study of lithium/polypyrrole secondary batteries with Lithium as cathode and polypyrrole anode

Lithium/polypyrrole （Li/PPy） batteries were fabricated using lithium sheet as cathode, PPy as anode, microporous membrane polypropylene/polyethylene/polypropylene （PP/PE/PP） composite as separator and LiPF6/ethylene carbonate-dimethyl carbonate-methyl ethyl carbonate （EC-DMC-EMC） as electrolyte. Polypyrrole was prepared by chemical polymerization. Certain fundamental electrochemical performances were investigated. Properties of the batteries were characterized and tested by SEM, galvanostatic charge/discharge tests, cyclic voltammetry （CV）, and a.c. impedance spectroscopy. The influences of separator, morphology, and conductivity of PPy anode, cold-molded pressure, and electric current on the performances of the batteries were studied. Using PP/PE/PP membranes as separator, the battery showed good storage stability and cycling property. The conductivity of materials rather than morphology affected the behavior of the battery. The higher the conductivity, the better performances the cells had. Proper cold-molded pressure 20 MPa of the anode pellet would make the properties of the cells good and the fitted charge/discharge current was 0.1 mA. The cells showed excellent performance with 97%-100% coulombic efficiency. The highest discharge capacity of 95.2 mAh/g was obtained.

Effect of Oxygen on Surface Properties and Drug Release Behavior of Plasma Polymer of n-Butyl Methacrylate

The effects of oxygen on the chemical structure, morphology, hydrophilicity and drug release behavior of radio-frequency plasma poly n- butyl methacrylate （PPBMA） thin film were carded out for the first time. ATR-FTIR and XPS showed that oxygen had little influence on the chemical structure and composition of PPBMAs, which did not agree with the thought that the presence of oxygen gas would increase the oxidized carbon functionalities in the plasma polymer. SEM and static contact angle measurement indicated that in case of deposition with oxygen, the smoothness and hydrophilicity of PPBMA were dramatically improved. The drug release behavior showed that drug release from the PPBMA coating without oxygen was biphasic patterns, while from PPBMA coating with oxygen was Higuchi release. These results were helpful for the design and tailoring of the PPBMA polymer film and other of plasma polymers film, but could provide a new idea for the drug release controlled form.

Chemical additives affect sulfate reducing bacteria biofilm properties adsorbed on stainless steel 316L surface in circulating cooling water system

This paper studied the biofilm properties and corrosion behavior of sulfate reducing bacteria （SRB） on stainless steel 316L （SS316L） surface in circulating cooling water system with and without additives including hydroxy ethyl fork phosphonic acid （HEDP）, dodecyl dimethyl benzyl anunonium chlotide （1227） and NaClO. Biochemical technique, electrochemical technology, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS） and scanning electron microscope （SEM） were used. The results show that the extracellular polymeric substance （EPS） in biofilm attached on the SS316L surface mainly contain proteins and polysaccharides, the contents are 98 ug.cm-2 and 635ug.cm-2, respectively. The polysaccharides were cut by 1227 about 80%, while 55% by NaCIO. The proteins were reduced by NaCIO about 53%, while only 30% by 1227. The potentiodynamic polarization shows that the corrosion potential of SS316L was enhanced from -0.495 V to -0.390 V by the chemical additive delaying the occurrence of the corrosion. And the corrosion rate was also reduced from 5.19 × 10^-3 mm·a^-1 to 2.42 × 10^-3 mm＇a . But NaCIO stdl caused pitting corrosion after stenhzmg the bacteria, while 1227 can form a protective film on the surface of SS316L. Though HEDP contribute to the bacteria activity, it can enhance the breakdown potential. XPS results confirmed that 1227 can change the value of C：O in the biofilm attached on metal surface, and NaCIO can eliminate the existence of amidogen. This study would provide some recommendations for the selection of chemical additives in the thermal power plant.

Hydrogels of Chemically Cross-linked and Organ-metallic Complexed Interpenetrating PEG Networks

The aim of the present work was to prepare a well-defined hydrogel of chemically cross-linked and organ-metallic complexed interpenetrating PEG networks. The hydrogel was synthesized via the reaction of copper（I）- catalyzed 1,3-dipolar azide-alkyne cycloaddition（CuA AC） with poly（ethylene glycol）-dopamine（PEG-DA）（“Click Chemistry”） followed by complexation with Fe-（3＋） ions to crosslink the polymeric network. The chemical composition and morphology of the resulting hydrogels were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FTIR）, -1H-NMR and scanning electron microscopy（SEM）. Swelling ratio, mechanical strength, conductivity, and degradation behaviors of the hydrogels were also studied. The effect of the polymer chain length on properties of hydrogels was explored. The compressive strength of hydrogels could reach as high as 13.1 MPa with a conductivity of 2.2 × 10^-5 S·cm^-1. The hydrogels also exhibited excellent thermal stability even at a temperature of 300 °C, whereas degradation of the hydrogel after 7 weeks was observed under a physiological condition. In addition, the hydrogel exhibited a good biocompatibility based on its in vivo performance through an in vivo subcutaneous implantation model. No inflammation and no obvious abnormality of the surrounding tissue were observed when the hydrogel was subcutaneously implanted for 2 weeks. This work is a step towards creating a new pathway to synthesize hydrogels of interpenetrating networks which could be of important applications in the future research.

A facile approach towards high-performance poly(thioether-thioester)s with full recyclability

Developing new chemically recyclable polymers is important for a circular plastics economy.Herein,we prepared a class of 1,4-dithian-2-one(DTO)with thioether and thioester functionalities.These sulfur-substituted monomers(DTO)showed excellent reactivity for ring-opening polymerization(turnover frequency(TOF)up to 2.3×10^(4)h^(-1)),which afforded poly(thioetherthioester)s(P(DTO)s)with high air stability,high crystallinity,and commercial high-density polyethylene-like mechanical property(σB=29.59±1.08 MPa andεB=749%±36%).Intriguingly,chemical recycling of P(DTO)to monomer could be accomplished with excellent efficiency in dilute solution(1 min)at room temperature or even from a commodity plastic waste mixture under catalyst-free thermal bulk condition(180°C),thus establishing its circular life cycle.P(Me-DTO)could be applied for selective removal of Hg^(2+)with>99%removal efficiency.More importantly,Me-DTO could be recovered in high yield after utilization for Hg^(2+)adsorption.

Mechanical Properties and Oxidation Behaviors of Self-Healing SiCf/SiC-SiBCN Composites Exposed to H_(2)O/O_(2)/Na_(2)SO_(4)Environments

The oxidation behaviors and their influence on the mechanical properties of self-healing SiCf/SiC-SiBCN composites were investigated in H_(2)O/O_(2)and H_(2)O/O_(2)/Na_(2)SO_(4)environments at 1200‒1350℃for 100 h.As the temperatures increase from 1200 to 1350℃,the oxidation rate constants increase from 0.45×10^(–7)to 1.58×10^(–7)mg^(2)/(mm^(4) h)in H_(2)O/O_(2),and from 1.02×10^(–7)to 3.42×10^(–7)mg^(2)/(mm^(4) h)in H_(2)O/O_(2)/Na_(2)SO_(4).The involvement of Na_(2)SO_(4)leads to the formation of a loose lamellar oxide layer,the breakage of the SiBCN/CVI-SiC interface and the decrease in the oxide viscosity,thus accelerating the oxidation of the composites.The composites show the maximum retention rate of strength(102%,535.71 MPa)after oxidation in H_(2)O/O_(2)at 1200℃due to the good self-healing capacity of the produced glass,while the minimum(82%,430.56 MPa)in H_(2)O/O_(2)/Na_(2)SO_(4)at 1350℃caused by the severe microstructural corrosion derived from Na_(2)SO_(4).