INDEX electrical characteristics

Liquid crystal polymers (LCP) are polymers that exhibit liquid crystal characteristics either in solution (lyotropic liquid crystal) or in the melt (thermotropic liquid crystal) [Ballauf, 1989 Finkelmann, 1987 Morgan et al., 1987]. We need to define the liquid crystal state before proceeding. Crystalline solids have three-dimensional, long-range ordering of molecules. The molecules are said to be ordered or oriented with respect to their centers of mass and their molecular axes. The physical properties (e.g., refractive index, electrical conductivity, coefficient of thermal expansion) of a wide variety of crystalline substances vary in different directions. Such substances are referred to as anisotropic substances. Substances that have the same properties in all directions are referred to as isotropic substances. For example, liquids that possess no long-range molecular order in any dimension are described as isotropic. 

Measurements of total light, light of a specific wave-length(s), refractive index, and luminescence lead to thermophotometry, thermospectrometry, thermorefractome-tty, and thermoluminescence, respectively. Observations using a microscope are called thermomicroscopy. The microscopy observations, however, are often referred to under the general term of hot-wire microscopy. Thermoelectrometry is a technique in which an electrical characteristic of the substance is measured as a function of temperature. The most common measurement here is resistance, conductance, or capacitance. 

The luminometer index (ASTM D 1740) is a characteristic that is becoming less frequently used. It is determined using the standard lamp mentioned above, except that the lamp is equipped with thermocouples allowing measurement of temperatures corresponding to different flame heights, and a photo-electric cell to evaluate the luminosity. The jet fuel under test is compared to two pure hydrocarbons tetraline and iso-octane to which are attributed the indices 0 and 100, respectively. The values often observed in commercial products usually vary between 40 and 70 the official specification is around 45 for TRO. 

Many grades of acetal resins are Hsted in Underwriters Eaboratories (UL) Kecogni d Component Directory. UL assigns temperature index ratings indicating expected continuous-use retention of mechanical and electrical properties. UL also classifies materials on the basis of flammability characteristics homopolymer and copolymer are both classified 94HB. 

As mentioned earlier, unmodified polystyrene first found application where rigidity and low cost were important prerequisites. Other useful properties were the transparency and high refractive index, freedom from taste, odour and toxicity, good electrical insulation characteristics, low water absorption and comparatively easy processability. Carefully designed and well-made articles from polystyrene were often found to be perfectly suitable for the end-use intended. On the other hand the extensive use of the polymers in badly designed and badly made products which broke only too easily caused a reaction away from the homopolymer. This resulted, first of all, in the development of the high-impact polystyrene and today this is more important than the unmodified polymer (60% of Western European market). 

The function of the detector in hplc is to monitor the mobile phase emerging from the column. The output of the detector is an electrical signal that is proportional to some property of the mobile phase and/or the solutes. Refractive index, for example, is a property of both the solutes and the mobile phase. A detector that measures such a property is called a bulk property detector. Alternatively, if the property is possessed essentially by the solute, such as absorption of uv/visible radiation or electrochemical activity, the detector is called a solute property detector. Quite a large number of devices, some of them rather complicated and tempremental, have been used as hplc detectors, but only a few have become generally useful, and we will examine five such types. Before doing this, it is helpful to have an idea of the sort of characteristics that are required of a detector. 

The ideal HPLC detector should have the same characteristics as those required for GC detectors, i.e. rapid and reproducible response to solutes, a wide range of linear response, high sensitivity and stability of operation. No truly universal HPLC detector has yet been developed but the two most widely applicable types are those based on the absorption of UV or visible radiation by the solute species and those which monitor refractive index differences between solutes dissolved in the mobile phase and the pure mobile phase. Other detectors which are more selective in their response rely on such solute properties as fluorescence, electrical conductivity, diffusion currents (amperometric) and radioactivity. The characteristics of the various types of detector are summarized in Table 4.14. 

Fig. 2.6 The characteristic absorption peak disappears (a) and the refractive index decreases (b) as the photobleaching energy density increases. The refractive index was measured at the wavelength of 1.55 pm. Reprinted from Ref. 15 with permission. 2008 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers...

Moving-boundary electrophoretic techniques, originally demonstrated by Tiselius in 1937, employ a U-tube with the sample occupying the lower part of the U and the two limbs being carefully filled with a buffered electrolyte so as to maintain sharp boundaries with the sample. Electrodes are immersed in the electrolyte and direct current passed between them. The rate of migration of the sample in the electric field is measured by observing the movement of the boundary as a function of time. For colourless samples, differences in refractive index may be used to detect the boundary. Such moving-boundary techniques are used mainly in either studies of the physical characteristics of molecules or bulk preparative processes. 

The properties of polymers vary considerably, making the match between polymer and application a sort through such characteristics as density, tensile and impact strength, toughness, melt index, creep, elasticity, heat and chemical stability, electrical properties, flammability, and price. 

In the original treatment of Debye and Hiickel these constants were determined under the assumption that the ion had a point charge at r = 0 and that the interior of the ion had the same dielectric constant D as the solvent. In the On-sager (5) theory of dipolar liquids it is assumed that the molecule is represented by a spherical cavity in the liquid with a singularity at its center. The characteristics of the molecule are its electric moment in vacuum po and its polarizability a. This is to be related to an internal refractive index n by... 

The proper choice of a solvent for a particular application depends on several factors, among which its physical properties are of prime importance. The solvent should first of all be liquid under the temperature and pressure conditions at which it is employed. Its thermodynamic properties, such as the density and vapour pressure, and their temperature and pressure coefficients, as well as the heat capacity and surface tension, and transport properties, such as viscosity, diffusion coefficient, and thermal conductivity also need to be considered. Electrical, optical and magnetic properties, such as the dipole moment, dielectric constant, refractive index, magnetic susceptibility, and electrical conductance are relevant too. Furthermore, molecular characteristics, such as the size, surface area and volume, as well as orientational relaxation times have appreciable bearing on the applicability of a solvent or on the interpretation of solvent effects. These properties are discussed and presented in this Chapter. 

The detector converts a change in the column effluent into an electrical signal that is recorded by the data system. Detectors are classified as selective or universal depending on the property measured. Selective (solute property) detectors, such as fluorescence detectors, measure a physical or chemical property that is characteristic of the solute(s) in the mixture only those components which possess that characteristic will be detected. Universal (bulk property) detectors measure a physical property of the eluent. Thus, with refractive index (RI) detectors, for example, all the solutes which possess a refractive index different from that of the eluent will be detected. Selective detectors tend to be more sensitive than universal detectors, and they are much more widely used. Universal detectors are more commonly used in preparative chromatography, where a universal response is desired and sample size is large. 

Freezing of a dipolar liquid is accompanied by a rapid decrease in its electric permittivity [8-10]. Following solidification, dipole rotation ceases and the electric permittivity is almost equal to n, where n is refractive index, as it arises from deformation polarisation only. Investigation of the dynamics of a confined liquid is possible from the frequency dependences of dielectric properties, which allows both the determination of the phase transition temperature of the adsorbed substance and characteristic relaxation frequencies related to molecular motion in particular phases. 

An Outline of Non-linear Effects in Dielectrics. Constitutive Relations in Linear Media. We shall be considering homogeneous and isotropic dielectrics, the electric, magnetic, and optical properties of which, in the absence of external fields, are described by the following three scalar quantities, characteristic of the material of which the medium consists e = electric permittivity /X = magnetic permeability n = refractive index. 

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