1,139 research outputs found
Micro- vs. macro-phase separation in binary blends of poly(styrene)-poly(isoprene) and poly(isoprene)-poly(ethylene oxide) diblock copolymers
In this paper we present an experimentally determined phase diagram of binary blends of the diblock copolymers poly(styrene)-poly(isoprene) and poly(isoprene)-poly(ethylene oxide). At high temperatures, the blends form an isotropic mixture. Upon lowering the temperature, the blend macro-phase separates before micro-phase separation occurs. The observed phase diagram is compared to theoretical predictions based on experimental parameters. In the low-temperature phase the crystallisation of the poly(ethylene oxide) block influences the spacing of the ordered phase
Hydrogen arcjet technology
During the 1960's, a substantial research effort was centered on the development of arcjets for space propulsion applications. The majority of the work was at the 30 kW power level with some work at 1-2 kW. At the end of the research effort, the hydrogen arcjet had demonstrated over 700 hours of life in a continuous endurance test at 30 kW, at a specific impulse over 1000 s, and at an efficiency of 0.41. Another high power design demonstrated 500 h life with an efficiency of over 0.50 at the same specific impulse and power levels. At lower power levels, a life of 150 hours was demonstrated at 2 kW with an efficiency of 0.31 and a specific impulse of 935 s. Lack of a space power source hindered arcjet acceptance and research ceased. Over three decades after the first research began, renewed interest exists for hydrogen arcjets. The new approach includes concurrent development of the power processing technology with the arcjet thruster. Performance data were recently obtained over a power range of 0.3-30 kW. The 2 kW performance has been repeated; however, the present high power performance is lower than that obtained in the 1960's at 30 kW, and lifetimes of present thrusters have not yet been demonstrated. Laboratory power processing units have been developed and operated with hydrogen arcjets for the 0.1 kW to 5 kW power range. A 10 kW power processing unit is under development and has been operated at design power into a resistive load
The evolutionary development of high specific impulse electric thruster technology
Electric propulsion flight and technology demonstrations conducted primarily by Europe, Japan, China, the U.S., and the USSR are reviewed. Evolutionary mission applications for high specific impulse electric thruster systems are discussed, and the status of arcjet, ion, and magnetoplasmadynamic thrusters and associated power processor technologies are summarized
Ion Thruster Development at NASA Lewis Research Center
Recent ion propulsion technology efforts at NASA's Lewis Research Center including development of kW-class xenon ion thrusters, high power xenon and krypton ion thrusters, and power processors are reviewed. Thruster physical characteristics, performance data, life projections, and power processor component technology are summarized. The ion propulsion technology program is structured to address a broad set of mission applications from satellite stationkeeping and repositioning to primary propulsion using solar or nuclear power systems
Block copolymers confined in a nanopore: Pathfinding in a curving and frustrating flatland
We have studied structure formation in a confined block copolymer melt by
means of dynamic density functional theory (DDFT). The confinement is
two-dimensional, and the confined geometry is that of a cylindrical nanopore.
Although the results of this study are general, our coarse-grained molecular
model is inspired by an experimental lamellae-forming PS-PBD diblock copolymer
system (Shin et al, Science, 306, 76 (2004)), in which an exotic toroidal
structure was observed upon confinement in alumina nanopores. Our computational
study shows that a zoo of exotic structures can be formed, although the
majority, including the catenoid, helix and double helix that were also found
in Monte Carlo (MC) nanopore studies, are metastable states. We introduce a
general classification scheme and consider the role of kinetics and
elongational pressure on stability and formation pathway of both equilibrium
and metastable structures in detail. We find that helicity and three-fold
connections mediate structural transitions on a larger scale. Moreover, by
matching the remaining parameter in our mesoscopic method, the Flory-Huggins
parameter, to the experimental system, we obtain a structure that resembles the
experimental toroidal structure in great detail. Here, the most important
factor seems to be the roughness of the pore, i.e. small variations of the pore
radius on a scale that is larger than the characteristic size in the system.Comment: The following article has been accepted by JCP. After it is
published, it will be found at http://jcp.aip.org
Cavity QED with optically transported atoms
Ultracold Rb atoms are delivered into a high-finesse optical
micro-cavity using a translating optical lattice trap and detected via the
cavity field. The atoms are loaded into an optical lattice from a magneto-optic
trap (MOT) and transported 1.5 cm into the cavity. Our cavity satisfies the
strong-coupling requirements for a single intracavity atom, thus permitting
real-time observation of single atoms transported into the cavity. This
transport scheme enables us to vary the number of intracavity atoms from 1 to
100 corresponding to a maximum atomic cooperativity parameter of 5400, the
highest value ever achieved in an atom--cavity system. When many atoms are
loaded into the cavity, optical bistability is directly measured in real-time
cavity transmission.Comment: 4 figures, 4 page
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Self-assembly, nematic phase formation and organocatalytic behaviour of a proline-functionalized lipopeptide
The self-assembly of the amphiphilic lipopeptide PAEPKI-C16 (P = proline, A = alanine, E = glutamic acid, K = lysine, I = isoleucine, C16 = hexadecyl) was investigated using a combination of spectroscopic, microscopic and scattering methods and compared to C16-IKPEAP with the same (reversed) peptide sequence and the alkyl chain positioned N-terminally and which lacks a free N-terminal proline residue. The catalytic activity of these peptides were then compared using a model aldol reaction system. For PAEPKI-C16, Cryo-TEM images showed the formation of micrometer length fibers, which by Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) were found to have a radius of 2.5 - 2.6 nm. Spectroscopic analysis shows these fibers are built from -sheets. This behaviour is in complete contrast to that of C16-IKPEAP which forms spherical micelles with peptides in a disordered conformation [Hutchinson, J. A. et al. J. Phys. Chem. B 2019, 123, 613]. For PAEPKI-C16, the spontaneous alignment of fibers was observed upon increasing pH, which was accompanied by observed birefringence and anisotropy of SAXS patterns. This shows the formation of a nematic liquids and unprecedented nematic hydrogel formation was also observed these lipopeptides at sufficiently high concentrations. SAXS shows retention of an ultrafine (1.7 nm core radius) fibrillar network within the hydrogel. PAEPKI-C16 with free N-terminal proline shows enhanced anti:syn diastereoselectivity and better conversion compared to C16-IKPEAP. The cytotoxicity of PAEPKI-C16 was also lower than C16-IKPEAP for both fibroblast and cancer cell lines. These results highlight the sensitivity of lipopeptide properties to the presence of a free proline residue. The spontaneous nematic phase formation by PAEPKI-C16 points to the highly anisotropy of its ultrafine fibrillar structure and the formation of such a phase at low concentration in aqueous solution may be valuable for future applications
Observation of spinor dynamics in optically trapped 87Rb Bose-Einstein Condensates
We measure spin mixing of F=1 and F=2 spinor condensates of 87Rb atoms
confined in an optical trap. We determine the spin mixing time to be typically
less than 600 ms and observe spin population oscillations. The equilibrium spin
configuration in the F=1 manifold is measured for different magnetic fields and
found to show ferromagnetic behavior for low field gradients. An F=2 condensate
is created by microwave excitation from F=1 manifold, and this spin-2
condensate is observed to decay exponentially with time constant 250 ms.
Despite the short lifetime in the F=2 manifold, spin mixing of the condensate
is observed within 50 ms.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
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