The presence of PVA domains dispersed in the PDMS network disrupted the network and allowed PDMS to crystallize, as observed by the crystallization and melting peaks in the DSC analyses. Because of the presence of hydrophilic (-OH) and hydrophobic (Si-(CH(3))(2)) domains, there was an appropriate hydrophylic/hydrophobic balance in the semi-IPNs prepared, which led to a maximum equilibrium water content of similar to 14 wt % without a loss in NVP-HSP990 Cytoskeletal Signaling inhibitor the ability to swell less polar solvents. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 115: 158-166, 2010″
“We present theoretical studies of the structural stability, electronic, and magnetic properties

of MBi (M=V, Cr, Mn) compounds using the full-potential linear augmented plane wave method. To find the most stable structure for each compound, total energy calculations of several phases are

considered, and magnetic and antiferromagnetic states for each compound are taken AZD8055 in vitro into consideration. Our calculation indicates that the antiferromagnetic NiAs structure is the stable state for VBi and CrBi, whereas MnBi is stable in the ferromagnetic hexagonal NiAs structure. Our results for the magnetic stability, the stable structure, and the structural parameters are in perfect agreement with theoretical calculation and experimental values. The calculated total magnetic moment for MnBi of 3.55 mu(B) agrees with the measured moment of 3.60 mu(B). For the zinc-blende phase, our calculations predict that VBi, CrBi, TAK-228 and MnBi are half-metallic ferromagnet with a magnetic moment 2, 3, and 4 mu(B), respectively. The magnetism comes essentially from the d orbitals of V, Cr, and Mn atoms, while

the half metallic character is the fingerprint of the p(Bi)-d(M) interaction. The exchange interaction increases, while the crystal field splitting decreases from V to Mn with the increases of the filling of the d bands of the transition metals M atoms, as a consequence: (i) For the spin-up channel, the antibonding state Gamma(12) is pushed close to E(f) for VBi, while in CrBi and MnBi, this state is below the Fermi level for CrBi and MnBi, respectively. (ii) The t(2g)(Gamma(15)) bands of both majority and minority spins are filled while the e(g)(Gamma(12)) bands of minority spin are empty. (iii) The exchange splitting Delta e(g) is roughly equal to A M, where M is the magnetic moment. We found A similar to 0.93 mu(B)/eV, 0.99 mu(B)/eV, and 1 mu(B)/eV for VBi, CrBi, and MnBi, respectively, this is close to the value of the exchange integral I of transition metals which have a value about 0.9 mu(B)/eV. We also studied the effect of spin-orbit coupling on the half-metallicity of these compounds. We found a relative small reduction in polarization, ranging from above P=97,27% for CrBi, P=85.49% for CrBi to P=81.88%, for MnBi.