Molecular mechanics deformation

As the most notable contribution of ab initio studies, it was revealed that the different modes of molecular deformation (i.e. bond stretching, valence angle bending and internal rotation) are excited simultaneously and not sequentially at different levels of stress. Intuitive arguments, implied by molecular mechanics and other semi-empirical procedures, lead to the erroneous assumption that the relative extent of deformation under stress of covalent bonds, valence angles and internal rotation angles (Ar A0 AO) should be inversely proportional to the relative stiffness of the deformation modes which, for a typical polyolefin, are 100 10 1 [15]. A completly different picture emerged from the Hartree-Fock calculations where the determined values of Ar A0 AO actually vary in the ratio of 1 2.4 9 [91]. 

The presented results and the additional information taken from various references indicate the direct relevance of the size of the network strands for the crack opening displacement and consequently for the toughness of the polymer. In polymers under load, the molecular chains at the tip of the crack break after the deformation zone ahead of the crack has grown to a critical width 5C, that is the crack opening displacement. This value 5C is proportional to the length of the molecular strands of the network and is linked in this way to the molecular structure of the polymer. However, the molecular mechanism for chain breakage in the deformation zone is not known at present. 

If the ordered, crystalline regions are cross sections of bundles of chains and the chains go from one bundle to the next (although not necessarily in the same plane), this is the older fringe-micelle model. If the emerging chains repeatedly fold buck and reenter the same bundle in this or a different plane, this is the folded-chain model. In either case the mechanical deformation behavior of such complex structures is varied and difficult to unravel unambiguously on a molecular or microscopic scale. In many respects the behavior of crystalline polymers is like that of two-ph ise systems as predicted by the fringed-micelle- model illustrated in Figure 7, in which there is a distinct crystalline phase embedded in an amorphous phase (134). 

The molecular nature of the neuronal receptors is now becoming understood with the advent of molecular biological techniques. The molecular structure of the mechanosensitive channels has been established only recently. In principle mechanosensitive channels must be opened by mechanical deformation of the neural membrane in which they are em-... 

The deformed-chair conformation of ring A in a 4,4-dimethyl-3-oxo-5or-steroid has been confirmed by an X-ray study of a 17 -benzoyloxyandrostane derivative. The results agree with those of an earlier study of the 17-iodoacetate, and with the geometry indicated by force-field calculations. Dipole moments calculated by the application of molecular mechanics to 5a-androstane-3,17-dione and its distorted 4,4-dimethyl derivative are larger than those observed the reasons for these deviations are not yet clear. 

The statistical theory of rubber elasticity predicts that isothermal simple elongation and compression at constant pressure must be accompanied by interchain effects resulting from the volume change on deformation. The correct experimental determination of these effects is difficult because of very small absolute values of the volume changes. These studies are, however, important for understanding the molecular mechanisms of rubber elasticity and checking the validity of the postulates of statistical theory. 

A second difference from the continuum model is that large stresses near the reaction center should undergo thermally activated relaxation. According to the molecular mechanism of stress relaxation proposed above, such irreversible, or plastic, deformations occur in UP when the two decyl radicals back away from the reaction center by rotational translation along their long axes. In the process of making more room for the two new C02 molecules, each radical chain is driven into the adjacent interface between two layers of peroxide molecules. Introduction of a defect or a hole at the end of the peroxide chain should facilitate this motion and allow efficient relaxation of the stress. 

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