Real-time Monitoring of Living Cationic Ring-opening Polymerization of THF and Direct Prediction of Equilibrium Molecular Weight of Poly THF

A convenient real-time monitoring of monomer concentration during living cationic ring-opening polymerizations of tetrahydrofuran（THF） initiated with methyl triflate（Me OTf） has been developed for kinetic investigation and determination of equilibrium monomer concentration（[M]e） via in situ FTIR spectroscopy in combination with a diamond tipped attenuated total reflectance（ATR） immersion probe. The polymerization rate was first order with respect to monomer concentration and initiator concentration from the linear slope of ln（[M]0-[M]e）/（[M]-[M]e） versus polymerization time at different temperatures in various solvents. [M]e decreased linearly with initial monomer concentration while increased exponentially with increasing polymerization temperature. The equilibrium also strongly depends on solvent polarity and its interaction with monomer. The equilibrium polymerization time（te） decreased with increasing solvent polarity and decreased linearly with increasing [M]0 in three solvents with different slopes to the same point of bulk polymerization in the absence of solvent. Equation of Mn,e = 72.1/（0.14–0.04[M]e） has been established to provide a simple and effective approach for the prediction for the number-average molecular weight of poly THFs at equilibrium state（Mn,e） in the equilibrium living cationic ring-opening polymerization of THF at 0 °C.

Bearing capacity of concrete filled bidirectional FRP tube subjected to axial compression

External confinement by fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) is an efficient technique to increase the bearing capacity and ductility of concrete. To better study the mechanical behavior of bidirectional FRP confined concrete, the yield criterion of bidirectional FRP is presented based on the static equilibrium condition in this paper, and a model for calculating the bearing capacity of bidirectional FRP confined concrete is established. The model can capture the character of bidirectional FRP confined concrete. Effects of the confinement effect coefficient, the unconfined concrete strength and the material properties of FRP on bearing capacity are analyzed. Results show that each parameter has different effects on the bearing capacity of bidirectional FRP confined concrete.