Synthesis of Potential Phosphorus-Nitrogen Containing Flame Retardants

Production of extremely efficient flame retardants is ideal because, in many instances, the amount of flame retardants that are added to pre-production to the mixture are so large that they can have an effect on the physical properties of the material. In addition, these types of polymers, when added during production, are homogenously mixed throughout the mixture which means not only uniform distribution and therefore function, but a less concentration of the retardants need to be used. Using Phosphorus-Nitrogen containing flame retardants in mixtures can have two means by which they function. First is the ability of P-N compounds to crosslink or co-polymerize within the material at high temperatures such that it resembles a mesh. As temperatures increase, the amount of cross-bonding between the added flame retardants increases as well. In addition, the formation of phosphoryl radicals upon heating can interrupt one of the pathways by which combustion can occur, as it too involves free radicals. This is done by effectively removing hydroxyl radicals from the combustion process

Aerial insects avoid fluorescing scorpions

The ecological function of scorpion fluorescence under ultraviolet light is unknown. In fact, no response of any organism to scorpion fluorescence has been documented. To determine whether or not some potential prey, specifically aerial insects, respond to scorpion fluorescence, I compared the number of aerial insects captured on sticky traps containing fluorescent scorpions to the number captured on traps containing non-fluorescent scorpions during both full and new moons. The results show that aerial insects avoid fluorescing scorpions during the full moon, when fluorescence is at its peak, but not during the new moon when it is weakest. Avoidance of fluorescing scorpi-ons by potential prey is likely to reduce the scorpions’ prey capture rate. This apparent cost of fluorescence highlights the likelihood that fluorescence has a positive function which maintains the trait in spite of this cost

Optimization of ⁶Li and ⁷Li in a fusion blanket

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1755718