Self-assembly of Fe(II) and the ditopic ligand 1,4-bis(2,2':6',2"-terpyridine-4'-yl)benzene results in equilibrium structures in solutions, so-called metallosupramolecular coordination polyelectrolytes (MEPEs). It is exceedingly difficult to characterize such macromolecular assemblies, because of the dynamic nature. Therefore, hardly any structural information is available for this type of material. Here, we show that from dilute solutions, where small aggregates predominate, it is possible to grow nanoscopic crystals at an interface. A near atomic resolution structure of MEPE is obtained by investigating the nanoscopic crystals with electron diffraction in combination with molecular modeling. The analysis reveals a primitive monoclinic unit cell (P21/c space group, a = 10.4 Å, b = 10.7 Å, c = 34.0 Å, α = γ = 90°, β = 95°, ρ = 1.26 g/cm³, and Z = 4). The MEPE forms linear rods, which are organized into sheets. Four sheets intersect the unit cell, while adjacent sheets are rotated by 90° with respect to each other. The pseudooctahedral coordination geometry of the Fe(II) centers is confirmed by Mössbauer spectroscopy. The combination of diffraction and molecular modeling presented here may be of general utility to address problems in structural materials science.
Cathodic protection (CP) is a common method for rehabilitation of reinforced concrete structures suffering from Chloride induced corrosion. A sufficient protection of the corroding rebar can be ensured by use of several protection criteria. The use of these assessment criteria, in particular the so called 100 mV-criterion, can lead to erroneous resuits for certain unconventional arrangements of rebar and cp anode.
Therefore a joint research project of the Institute for Building Materials Research, RWTH-Aachen University, Germany, (ibac) and the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Berlin, Germany, (BAM) has been set up to determine the applicability of CP under arbitrary geometrical conditions. A special focus was set on the applicability of surface applied anode Systems for protection of the reinforcement of structures opposite to the accessible side (e.g. outer side of tunnel Shell, Bridge deck protected from inside a box girder) In this paper, the impact of the time dependent changes of the Polarisation behaviour of the rebar on the current and potential distribution is shown by means of parametric studies using the FEM method.