Hybridization of poly(4-vinyl pyridine)-b-polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinyl pyridine) aggregates in dioxane/water solution

Self-assembly of binary blends of two triblock copolymers of poly(4-vinyl pyridine)-b-polystyrene-b-poly(4-vinyl pyridine), i.e., P4VP(43)-b-PS260-b-P4VP(43) (P1) and P4VP(43)-b-PS366-b-P4VP(43) (P2), in dioxane/water solution was studied. These two triblock copolymers individually tend to form vesicles (P2) and cylindrical micelles (P1) in dilute solution. It was found that copolymer components in the blend, sample preparation method, and annealing time had significant effect on hybridization aggregate morphology. By increasing P1 content in the copolymer blends, fraction of looped and stretched cylinders increased, while fraction of bilayers decreased. Nearly no bilayer was observed when P1 content was above 85 wt%.

Medicated wound dressings based on poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone)/chitosan hydrogels

Poly(vinyl alcohol) /poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP)/chitosan hydrogels were prepared by a low-temperature treatment and subsequent Co-60 -gamma-ray irradiation and then were medicated with ciprofloxacin lactate (an antibiotic) and chitosan oligomer (molecular weight = 3000 g/mol). The gel content, swelling ratio, tensile strength, and crystallinity of the hydrogels were determined. The effects of the chitosan molecular weight, the low-temperature treatment procedure, and the radiation dosage on the hydrogel properties were examined. The molecular weight of chitosan was lowered by the irradiation, but its basic polysaccharide structure was not destroyed. Repeating the low-temperature treatment and gamma-ray irradiation caused effective physical crosslinking and chemical crosslinking, respectively, and contributed to the mechanical strength of the final hydrogels. The incorporation of PVP and chitosan resulted in a significant improvement in the equilibrium swelling ratio. and elongation ratio of the prepared hydrogels. The ciprofloxacin lactate and chitosan oligomer were soaked into the hydrogels. Their in vitro release behaviors were examined, and they were found to follow diffusion-controlled kinetics.

A HIGH-RESOLUTION SOLID-STATE NMR AND DSC STUDY OF MISCIBILITY AND CRYSTALLIZATION BEHAVIOR OF POLY(VINYL ALCOHOL)/POLY(N-VINYL-2-PYRROLIDONE) BLENDS

Blends of crystallizable poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVPy) were studied by C-13 cross-polarization/magic angle spinning (CP/MAS) n.m.r. and d.s.c. The C-13 CP/MAS spectra show that the blends were miscible on a molecular level over the whole composition range studied, and that the intramolecular hydrogen bonds of PVA were broken and intermolecular hydrogen bonds between PVA and PVPy formed when the two polymers were mixed. The results of a spin-lattice relaxation study indicate that blending of the two polymers reduced the average intermolecular distance and molecular motion of each component, even in the miscible amorphous phase, and that addition of PVPy into PVA has a definite effect on the crystallinity of PVA in the blends over the whole composition range, yet there is still detectable crystallinity even when the PVPy content is as high as 80 wt%. These results are consistent with those obtained from d.s.c. studies.

MISCIBILITY OF POLY(N-VINYL-2-PYRROLIDONE) WITH POLY(ETHER SULFONE) AND 2 PHENOLPHTHALEIN-BASED POLYMERS

Blends of poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP) with poly(ether sulphone) and two phenolphthalein-based polymers, viz. phenolphthalein poly(ether ether sulphone) and phenolphthalein poly(ether ether ketone) were prepared by casting from a common solvent and studied by differential scanning calorimetry. It was found that all the PVP blends are miscible and show a single, composition-dependent glass transition temperature (T(g)). The T(g)-composition dependence has been analysed by the use of the Gordon-Taylor equation. The values of the k parameter in the Gordon-Taylor equation obtained are all not high for the three pairs, in accordance with the fact that there is no strongly specific interaction between PVP and any of the other polymers.

ISOPOLYMOLYBDIC ACID-POLY(4-VINYL)PYRIDINE FILM MODIFIED ELECTRODE

Electrochemical polymerization of 4-vinylpyridine produced a uniform poly(4-vinyl)pyridine(PVP) film on the glassy carbon (GC) electrode surface. The isopolymolybdic acid-PVP film-modified electrode was prepared by soaking the PVP/GC electrode in the 0.05 M H2SO4 aqueous solution containing 0.005 M isopolymolybdic acid (H4Mo8O26). The latter (catalyst) is incorporated and held in the PVP film electrostatically. The electrochemical behavior and electrocatalytic properties of this H4Mo8O26-PVP/GC electrode was described. The results indicate that this modified electrode has good stability and electrocatalytic activity on the reduction of chlorate and bromate ions in aqueous solution. The catalytic process is regarded as an EC mechanism.

MISCIBILITY OF POLY(N-VINYL-2-PYRROLIDONE) WITH A COPOLYAMIDE

Blends of poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP) with a copolyamide (CoPA) randomly composed of 1:1:1 (wt) nylon 6, nylon 66 and nylon 610 structural units were prepared by casting from a common solvent. They were found to be miscible and show a single, composition-dependent glass transition temperature (T(g)). The addition of PVP to CoPA significantly lowers the crystallinity owing to an increasing T(g) of the system. The observed miscibility is proposed to be the result of specific interactions between the proton acceptor groups of PVP and the amide groups of CoPA.

Memory devices based on lanthanide (SM3+, EU3+, Gd3+) complexes

Memory effects in single-layer organic light-emitting devices based on Sm3+, Gd3+, and Eu3+ rare earth complexes were realized. The device structure was indium-tin-oxide (ITO)/3,4-poly(ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT)/Poly(N-vinyl carbazole) (PVK): rare earth complex/LiF/Ca/Ag. It was found experimentally that all the devices exhibited two distinctive bistable conductivity states in current-voltage characteristics by applying negative starting voltage, and more than 10(6) write-read-erase-reread cycles were achieved without degradation. Our results indicate that the rare earth organic complexes are promising materials for high-density, low-cost memory application besides the potential application as organic light-emitting materials in display devices.

Novel heteroleptic Cu-I complexes with tunable emission color for efficient phosphorescent light-emitting diodes

A series of orange-red to red phosphorescent heteroleptic Cu-I complexes (the first ligand: 2,2 '-biquinoline (bq), 4,4 '-diphenyl2,2 '-biquinoline (dpbq) or 3,3 '-methylen-4,4 '-diphenyl-2,2 '-biquinoline (mdpbq); the second ligand: triphenylphosphine or bis[2-(diphenylphosphino)phenyl]ether (DPEphos)) have been synthesized and fully characterized. With highly rigid bulky biquinoline-type ligands, complexes [Cu(mdpbq)(PPh3)(2)](BF4) and [Cu(mdpbq)(DPEphos)](BF4) emit efficiently in 20 wt % PMMA films with photoluminescence quantum yield of 0.56 and 0.43 and emission maximum of 606 nm and 617 nm, respectively. By doping these complexes in poly(vinyl carbazole) (PVK) or N-(4-(carbazol-9-yl)phenyl)-3,6-bis(carbazol-9-yl) carbazole (TCCz), phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) were fabricated with various device structures. The complex [Cu(mdpbq)(DPEphos)](BF4) exhibits the best device performance. With the device structure of ITO/PEDOT/ TCCz:[Cu(mdpbq)(DPEphos)](BF4) (15 wt %)/TPBI/LiF/Al (III), a current efficiency up to 6.4 cd A(-1) with the Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.61, 0.39) has been realized. To our best knowledge, this is the first report of efficient mononuclear Cu complexes with red emission.

Efficient blue electroluminescence from neutral alcohol-soluble polyfluorenes with aluminum cathode

Efficient blue polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) have been fabricated with a neutral alcohol-soluble polyfluorene, i.e., poly(9,9-bis(6(')-diethoxylphosphorylhexyl)fluorene) (PF-EP), as the emitting layer, high work-function Al as the cathode, and poly(vinyl carbazole) as the hole-transporting layer. The PLEDs display a maximum luminous efficiency of 4.0 cd/A and the luminous efficiency > 2.4 cd/A in a wide range of current densities. It is found that the promising performance of the devices is attributed to the fact that the PF-EP is not only an efficient blue light-emitting polymer, but it also can facilitate efficient electron injection at the Al/PF-EP interface.

Electroluminescence of a novel europium complex

Electroluminescent devices using a ternary europium complex Eu(DBM)(3)(hhpy)(2) (dibenzoylmethane, DBM; hexahydro pyridine, hhpy) as an emitting layer, poly(vinyl-carbazole) (PVK) as a hole-transporting material and tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq(3)) as an electron-transporting material have been fabricated. When only using Eu(DBM)(3)(hhpy)(2) as the emitting layer, luminance of 2.52 cd/m(2) with pure Eu3+ EL emissions from devices is achieved. Introducing a hole transporting material PVK and an electron transporting material 2-(4-biphenylyl)-5-(4-tert-butylphenyl)-1,3,4-oxidiazole (PBD) in the emitting layer, luminance of 100cd/m(2) is achieved, and the eletroluminescence efficiency is enhanced by about two orders of magnitude. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Photorefractive performance of a novel multifunctional inorganic-organic hybridized nanocomposite sensitized by CdS nanoparticles

A novel multifunctional inorganic-organic photorefractive (PR) poly(N-vinyl)-3-[p-nitrophenylazolcarbazolyl-CdS nanocomposites with different molar ratios of US to poly(N-vinyl)-3-[p-nitrophenylazo]carbazolyl (PVNPAK) were synthesized via a postazo-coupling reaction and chemically hybridized approach, respectively. The nanocomposites are highly soluble and could be obtained as film-forming materials with appreciably high molecular weights and low glass transition temperature (T,) due to the flexible spacers. The PVNPAK matrix possesses a highest-occupied molecular orbital value of about -5.36 eV determined from cyclic voltammetry. Second harmonic generation (SHG) could be observed in PVNPAK film without any poling procedure and 4.7 pm/V of effective second-order nonlinear optical susceptibility is obtained. The US particles as photosensitizers had a nanoscale size in PVNPAK adopting transmission electron microscopy. The improvement of interface quality between US and polymer matrix is responsible for efficient photoinduced charge generation efficiency in the nanocomposites. An asymmetric optical energy exchange between two beams on the polymer composites PVNPAK-CdS/ECZ has been found even without an external field in two-beam coupling (TBC) experiment, and the TBC gain and diffraction efficiency of 14.26 cm(-1) and 3.4% for PVNPAK-5-CdS/ECZ, 16.43 cm(-1) and 4.4% for PVNPAK-15-CdS/ECZ were measured at a 647.1 nm wavelength, respectively.

Pretreatment of polymer-supported Pd-Co and its catalytic activity

Various pretreatments of poly (N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP) protected palladium-cobalt system result in different catalytic activities in the hydrodechlorination of chlorobenzene.