Amorphous definition

Ammonia, reaction with surface, 655-662 See also Nitridation Ammonolysis. See Nitridation Amorphous, definition, 748 Anatase (TiOj), 59, 372, 594, 596. 598, 599, 780. See also Titanium oxide Anion... 

Chemicals exist as gases, liquids or solids. Solids have definite shapes and volume and are held together by strong intermolecular and interatomic forces. For many substances, these forces are strong enough to maintain the atoms in definite ordered arrays, called crystals. Solids with little or no crystal structure are termed amorphous. 

Contrary to widespread opinion, the value of Ea is not a constant quantity. As was proved previously [52], the value of E is variable, since it depends on the ordering of macromolecules in the amorphous material of the fiber. At the same time, one can suppose that this ordering will be affected by the specificity of the fine structure of the fiber, and particularly by the type of substructure of the fiber. The relationship determining the modulus Ea appropriate for a definite type of fiber substructure can be derived from Eq. (11) when appropriate values of A are assumed. In the case of the microfibrillar substructure, i.e., for A < I, typical of PET fibers stretched, but not subjected to annealing, this equation has the form [52] ... 

A crystalline solid is a solid in which the atoms, ions, or molecules lie in an orderly array (Fig. 5.16). A crystalline solid has long-range order. An amorphous solid is one in which the atoms, ions, or molecules lie in a random jumble, as in butter, rubber, and glass (Fig. 5.17). An amorphous solid has a structure like that of a frozen instant in the life of a liquid, with only short-range order. Crystalline solids typically have flat, well-defined planar surfaces called crystal faces, which lie at definite angles to one another. These faces are formed by orderly layers of atoms (Box 5.1). Amorphous solids do not have well-defined faces unless they have been molded or cut. 

The free volume is considered to represent the difference between the actual volume of the liquid (or the amorphous polymer) and the minimum volume which it would occupy if its molecules were packed firmly in contact with each other. Incompressible molecules with rigid dimensions are implied in this definition of a free volume. The unrealistic nature of this implication undermines precise determination, or even an exact definition, of the free volume. The concept has proved useful nevertheless. 

These two examples show that regular patterns can evolve but, by definition, dissipative structures disappear once the thermodynamic equilibrium has been reached. When one wants to use dissipative structures for patterning of materials, the dissipative structure has to be fixed. Then, even though the thermodynamic instability that led to and supported the pattern has ceased, the structure would remain. Here, polymers play an important role. Since many polymers are amorphous, there is the possibility to freeze temporal patterns. Furthermore, polymer solutions are nonlinear with respect to viscosity and thus strong effects are expected to be seen in evaporating polymer solutions. Since a macromolecule is a nanoscale object, conformational entropy will also play a role in nanoscale ordered structures of polymers. 

There are other soUd states which sometimes confuse the measurement and definition of solubiUty. The dmg may crystaUize as a hydrate, i.e. under inclusion of water molecules. If the hydrate form is more stable than the pure form it may be difficult to measure the intrinsic solubility of the drug at all. Often drugs tend to precipitate in an amorphous form, often under the inclusion of impurities. As with metastable polymorphs, such amorphous precipitates may lead to erroneously high solubility measurements. CommerciaUy, drugs are often crystallized in salt form, e.g. as the hydrochloride salt, a cation with a chloride anion. In these co-crystallized salts, a much lower solubility than the intrinsic solubility will typi-... 

Figure 2.2. Definition of the hosting sites and their localization within (a) the ZSM-5 framework and (b) on the surface of amorphous silica.

The interfacial zone is by definition the region between the crystallite basal surface and the beginning of isotropy. Due to the conformationally diffuse nature of this region, quantitative contents of the interphase are most often determined by indirect measures. For example, they have been computed as a balance from one of the sum of the fractional contents of pure crystalline and amorphous regions. The analysis of the internal modes region of the Raman spectrum of polyethylene, as detailed in the previous section of this chapter, was used to quantify the content of the interphase region (ab). 

From these definitions one may corroborate the intention of HTS in chemistry and materials science. The total speed-up factor of this part of the R D (Research and Development) process, as stated earlier, is between 5 and 50, but contrary to most of the pharma applications true (semi-) quantitative answers will result. As a result, this approach is essentially applicable in any segment of R D. On the other hand, this approach requires methods of experimentation that have almost the same if not the same accuracy as in the traditional one-experiment-at-the time approach. This is key as (i) in process optimisation accuracy is key and (ii) in research, also in academic research, accuracy is important as some polymer properties do not span a wide range of values (e.g., the elastic modulus of amorphous polymers) or may depend critically on molecular weight distribution or molecular order. 

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