Technology

  2010 AUG 24 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to a study from Montreal, Canada, "Energetic photons (UV, VUV radiation and soft X rays), and particles (ions, electrons, metastable excited atoms) from inert gas plasmas possess sufficient energy to induce multiple bond scission reactions in the macromolecular chains of most polymers."

  "As a result, volatile products of varying molecular weights escape from the polymers' surfaces; they can be captured and identified by mass spectrometry (MS). We report an MS-based study of five commercial polymers, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and polyamide that were exposed to inert gas (He, Ar) plasmas and to near-monochromatic (lambda = 121.6 nm) VUV irradiation," wrote V. Nelea and colleagues ...read more

  2010 AUG 24 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "Low temperature plasma (LTP) treatment of cobalt-tetramethoxyphenylporphyrin (CoTMPP) has been applied as a promising alternative method to the conventional heat treatment in order to attain highly active catalysts for the electroreduction of oxygen," scientists in Berlin, Germany report.

  "In this contribution it is shown that CoTMPP can be completely transformed into a carbon matrix by adjusting adequate LTP parameters. The carbonisation process of CoTMPP is investigated at different operation conditions by Raman and IR spectroscopy and compared with the structural features of the heat-treated samples," wrote I. Herrmann and colleagues ...read more

  2010 AUG 24 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to recent research from Berlin, Germany, "1,4-Benzopyrone derivates are exposed to different cold gas discharges. Reactions are carried out using different feed gases (argon, oxygen) and excitation sources (radio frequency, microwave) at both atmospheric and low pressure."

  "A structure-dependent degradation upon plasma-chemical reactions can be observed. From contact-angle measurements a strong surface oxidation is suggested. Independent of the source used plasma treatment leads to a significant increase in oxygen content of the samples through newly introduced carbonyl- and carboxyl-functions," wrote F. Grzegorzewski and colleagues, Technical University ...read more