This paper studies a gel formed by a network of cross-linked polymers and a species of mobile molecules. The gel is taken to be a dielectric, in which both the polymers and the mobile molecules are non-ionic. We formulate a theory of the gel in contact with a solvent made of the mobile molecules, and subject to electromechanical loads. A free-energy function is constructed for an ideal dielectr...

Saray Shai, Dror Y. Kenett, Yoed N. Kenett, Miriam Faust, 4 Simon Dobson, and Shlomo Havlin 1School of Computer Science, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9SX, Scotland, UK 2Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA 3Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel 4Department of Psychology, Bar-Ila...

A new processing protocol based on non-halogenated solvent and additive is developed to produce polymer solar cells with power conversion efficiencies better than those processed from commonly used halogenated solvent-additive pair. Morphology studies show that good performance correlates with a finely distributed nanomorphology with a well-defined polymer fibril network structure, which leads ...

A major component of pigment gallstones (PS) is a black, insoluble substance. I t has been suggested that this pigment material might be a highly crosslinked polymer, and if such were the case, i t should imbibe solvent (swell) to the maximum permitted by the crosslinks of its macromolecular network. We measured the equilibrium amount, qeq, by which pulverized, desiccated PS swells in different...

The proton spin-spin relaxation time (T2) during the bulk polymerization of methyl acrylate was measured as a function of the reaction time at various temperatures. Three kinds of T2 (T2L (long), T2S (short) and T2M (intermediate)) were obtained as the polymerization proceeded. The fraction of T2S (FS) increased sigmoidally at a certain reaction time, while that of T2L (FL) decreased reciprocal...

Carbon black (CB) and a 3D network epoxy polymer composite, representing dual functions for conductive corrosion protective layer (CCPL) and catalytic layer (CL) by the control of CB weight ratio against polymer is developed. Our strategy provides a proper approach which applies high catalytic ability and chemical stability of CB in corrosive triiodide/iodide (I3(-)/I(-)) redox electrolyte syst...

Dimethacrylates are known to have good photoreactivity, but their radical polymerization usually leads to irregular, highly cross-linked, and brittle polymer networks with broad thermal polymer phase transitions. Here, the synthesis of monoand difunctional β-allyl sulfones is described, and those substances are introduced as potent addition−fragmentation chain transfer (AFCT) reagents leading t...

A blue reflective photonic polymer coating which can be patterned in full color, from blue to red, by printing with an aqueous calcium nitrate solution has been fabricated. Color change in the cholesteric liquid-crystalline polymer network over the entire visible spectrum is obtained by the use of nonreactive mesogen. The pattern in the coating is hidden in the blue color dry state and appears ...

A highly porous optical-fiber cladding was developed for evanescent-wave fiber sensors, which contains sensor molecules, maintains guiding conditions in the optical fiber, and is suitable for sensing in aqueous environments. To make the cladding material (a poly(ethylene) glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) polymer) highly porous, a microsphere templating strategy was employed. The resulting pore network...

Photocurable monomer-doped liquid crystal (LC) cells were processed via holographic exposure using a low-power He–Ne laser to generate holographic polymer networks. The polymer network LC (PNLC) cells are used to fabricate infrared phase modulators at 1550 nm wavelength possessing favorable electro-optical performance. Compared with our previous work, the percentages of ingredients in the LC mi...