This article investigates the mechanical, morphological, and thermal properties of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) and low‐density polyethylene (LDPE) blends, at three different concentrations: 20, 50, and 80 wt% of LDPE. Besides, composite samples that were prepared from PVC/LDPE blend reinforced with different date palm leaf fiber (DPLF) content, 10, 20, and 30 wt%, were also studied. The sample in which PVC/LDPE (20 wt%/80 wt%) had the greatest tensile strength, elongation at break, and modulus. The good thermal stability of this sample can be seen that T10% and T20% occurred at higher temperatures compared to others blends. DPLF slightly improved the tensile strength of the polymer blend matrix at 10 wt% (C10). The modulus of the composites increased significantly with increasing filler content. Ageing conditions at 80°C for 168 h slightly improved the mechanical properties of composites. Scanning electron microscopic micrographs showed that morphological properties of tensile fracture surface are in accordance with the tensile properties of these blends and composites. Thermogravimetric analysis and derivative thermogravimetry show that the thermal degradation of PVC/LDPE (20 wt%/80 wt%) blend and PVC/LDPE/DPLF (10 and 30 wt%) composites took place in two steps: in the first step, the blend was more stable than the composites. In the second step, the composites showed a slightly better stability than the PVC/LDPE (20 wt%/80 wt%) blend. Based on the above investigation, these new green composites (PVC/LDPE/DPLF) can be used in several applications. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 25:E88–E93, 2019. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers

In the present study, the effects of magnesia particles on thermal, dynamic mechanical, morphological, and surface properties of polystyrene resin are investigated. In general, the addition of magnesia particles in polystyrene matrix increases the thermal stability, storage modulus, and wettability, on other hand does not affect the molecular mobility. SEM results showed a limited distribution of magnesia particles in the polystyrene matrix at 15 wt.%.

In this contribution, two mononuclear molybdenum complexes with H 2 L tridentate (ONO) Schiff base ligand are characterized using computational techniques. Density functional theory (DFT) and its time extension (TD-DFT) calculations are performed to study the electronic structure in ground and excited state and to interpret the electronic absorption spectra in gas and aqueous phases. TDDFT calculations affirm that the LMCT charge transfer dominates for both complexes and a hypochromic effect on absorption properties is observed according to solvent substitution. All theoretical results compare nicely with available experimental data.

A computational Petra/Osiris/Molinspiration/DFT(POM/DFT) based model has been developed for the identification of physico-chemical parameters governing the bioactivity of ruthenium-staurosporine complexes 2-4 containing an antitumoral-kinase (TK) pharmacophore sites. The four compounds 1-4 analyzed here were previously screened for their antitumor activity, compounds 2 and 4 are neutral, whereas analogue compound 3 is a monocation with ruthenium(II) centre. The highest anti-antitumor activity was obtained for compounds 3 and 4, which exhibited low IC 50 values (0.45 and 8 nM, respectively), superior to staurosporine derivative (pyridocarbazole ligand 1, 150 · 10 3 nM). The IC 50 of 3 (0.45 nM), represents 20,000 fold increased activity as compared to staurosporine derivative 1. The increase of bioactivity could be attributed to the existence of pi-charge transfer from metal-staurosporine to its (CO δ--NH δ+ ) antitumor pharmacophore site.

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