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Tai-Shung Chung

Publications and source records attributed to Tai-Shung Chung.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Surface microcracks decoration and disclination defects of wholly aromatic liquid crystalline copolyesters.

An intensive study has been conducted to map the director fields of disclination of nematic liquid crystalline copolyesters. In this study, films of two wholly aromatic main-chain polyesters containing para- (ABA/MH/TFTA) and meta-linkages (ABA/MH/TFIA) (ABA, p-acetoxybenzoic acid; MH, maleic hydrazine; TFTA, tetrafluoroterephthalic acid; TFIA, tetrafluoroisophthalic acid) were synthesized to investigate the effects of kinks on liquid crystallinity, disclination strength (S), and surface microcracks decoration. These two copolyesters were prepared by in-situ thin film polymerization and characterized by polarizing light microscope, wide-angle X-ray diffraction, as well as "rotational isomeric states" (RIS) Metropolis Monte Carlo (RMMC) simulation. An optical microscope shows that the surface microcracks forms in the nematic-mosaic texture during a rapid quenching. The ABA/MH/TFTA film exhibits disclination strength with S = +1 and S = -(1)/(2); however, disclination strengths with S = +/-1 have been observed in the ABA/MH/TFIA system. To our best knowledge, this is the first paper reporting the effects and evidence of kink (meta and para moieties) on topological defect of disclination. In addition, the RMMC analysis supports the liquid crystal formation in both polyester films with a persistence ratio greater than 6.42.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Structure and properties relationships for aromatic polyimides and their derived carbon membranes: experimental and simulation approaches.

The main objective of this study is to investigate the factors of the chemical structure and physical properties of rigid polyimides in determining the performance of derived carbon membranes through both the experimental and simulation methods. Four polyimides made of different dianhydrides were pyrolyzed at 550 and 800 degrees C under vacuum conditions. The resultant carbon membranes exhibit excellent gas separation performances beyond the traditional upper limit line for polymer membranes. The thermal stability and the fractional free volume (FFV) of polyimides were examined by a thermogravimetric analyzer and a density meter. The chain properties of polyimide, such as flatness, chain linearity, and mobility, were simulated using the Cerius(2) software. All above characterizations of polyimides were related to the microstructure and gas transport properties of the resultant carbon membranes. It was observed that the high FFV values and low thermal stability of polyimide produce carbon membranes with bigger pore and higher gas permeability at low pyrolysis temperatures. Therefore, polyimides with big thermally labile side groups should be preferred to prepare carbon membranes at low pyrolysis temperatures for high permeability applications. On the other side, since the flatness and in-plane orientation of precursors may lead carbon membranes to ordered structure, thus obtaining high gas selectivity, linear polyimides with more coplanar aromatic rings should be first choice to prepare carbon membranes at high pyrolysis temperatures for high selectivity applications. The location of the indan group also affects chain flatness and in-plane orientation. As a result, carbon membranes derived from the BTDA-DAI precursor have superior separation performance to those derived from Matrimid.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Preferential solvation stabilization for hydrophobic polymeric nanoparticle fabrication.

Preferential solvation of polymer molecules and strong EPD-EPA (EPD, electron pair donor; EPA, electron pair acceptor) interaction between solvent and nonsolvent molecules were found to be of great significance in the fabrication of two kinds of aromatic polyimide (AP) nanoparticles. Surfactant free yet stable AP nanoparticles were prepared using a liquid-liquid phase separation method. The stability of the AP nanoparticles can be achieved by the solvation multilayer resulting from a solvation stabilization chain in the form of nonsolvent --> solvent --> AP (a --> b denotes that component b is solvated by component a). The significance of this stabilization chain was identified by many comparative experiments using different types of molecular probes. On the other hand, the formation of AP nanoparticles was found to be governed by a nucleation process and therefore the particle size is controlled by the nucleation rate. A very high level of supersaturation can be attained under the intensive local motions induced by ultrasound, resulting in a very high nucleation rate. This effect was found to be extremely useful in the fabrication of sub-50 nm AP nanoparticles.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2005

Topology evolution and gelation mechanism of agarose gel.

Kinetics as well as the evolution of the agarose gel topology is discussed, and the agarose gelation mechanism is identified. Aqueous high melting (HM) agarose solution (0.5% w/v) is used as the model system. It is found that the gelation process can be clearly divided into three stages: induction stage, gelation stage, and pseudoequilibrium stage. The induction stage of the gelation mechanism is identified using an advanced rheological expansion system (ARES, Rheometric Scientific). When a quench rate as large as 30 deg C/min is applied, gelation seems to occur through a nucleation and growth mechanism with a well-defined induction time (time required for the formation of the critical nuclei which enable further growth). The relationship between the induction time and the driving force which is determined by the final setting temperature follows the 3D nucleation model. A schematic representation of the three stages of the gelation mechanism is given based on turbidity and rheological measurements. Aggregation of agarose chains is promoted in the polymer-rich phase and this effect is evident from the increasing mass/length ratio of the fiber bundles upon gelation. Continuously increasing pore size during gelation may be attributed to the coagulation of the local polymer-rich phase in order to achieve the global minimum of the free energy of the gelling system. The gel pore size determined using turbidity measurements has been verified by electrophoretic mobility measurements.

Gels↗
PubMed2004

Surface characterization, modification chemistry, and separation performance of polyimide and polyamidoamine dendrimer composite films.

6FDA-polyimide films modified by polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers with generations of 0, 1, and 2 are reported in this article. The actual molecular conformation and bulk size of these three generation dendrimers immobilized on polyimide surface were characterized by atomic force microscopy. After comparing with the results of dynamic simulation, we believe that the disk-shape cluster structure of dendrimers has been developed on the polymer surfaces. The amidation and cross-linking reaction between dendrimers and polyimide were examined and quantified by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and gel content measurements. Modification time and the generations of PAMAM dendrimer have been verified as two important factors in determining the properties of modified polyimide films. These modified polyimide films exhibit excellent gas separation performance. The ideal selectivity of He/N(2) increases tremendously to about 200% as compared to that of the original polyimide film. Particularly, the separation performance of CO(2)/CH(4) gas pair can be improved beyond the upper bond limit possibly due to the strong interactions of dendrimer molecules with CO(2), which was verified by sorption tests.

Carbon Dioxide↗
PubMed2002

The influence of cold treatment on properties of temperature-sensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) hydrogels.

Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) hydrogel exhibits a response to external temperature variation and shrinks in volume abruptly as the temperature is increased above its lower critical solution temperature. It has great potential applications in biomedical fields. A rapid response rate is essential, especially when this material is designed as an on-off switch for targeted drug delivery. However, due to the appearance of a thick, dense skin layer on the hydrogel surface during the shrinking process, the deswelling rate of conventional PNIPAAm gels is low. In this article, a novel method is proposed to modify the surface morphology of PNIPAAm gel, in which the swollen gels are frozen at low temperature (-20 degrees C). The scanning electron micrographs revealed that a fishnet-like skin layer appeared on the surfaces of the cold-treated gels. Dramatically rapid deswelling was achieved with the cold-treated gels since the fishnet-like structure with numerous small pores prevented the formation of a dense, thick skin layer during the deswelling process, which commonly occurs in normal PNIPAAm hydrogels. Prolonging the cold treatment from 1 day to 10 days resulted in a slightly higher deswelling rate. Rearrangement of the hydrogel matrix structure during the freezing process might contribute to the formation of the fishnet-like skin layer. The water uptake of the hydrogels increased nearly in proportion to the square root of time, indicating that the reswelling rate of hydrogels was controlled predominantly by water diffusion into the network. However, there were no significant differences in the equilibrated swelling ratio and reswelling kinetics at room temperature (22 degrees C) between normal gels and cold-treated gels, which implied that cold treatment did not change bulk porosity and gel tortuosity much.

Journal Article↗