A morphological and kinetic change is found in the late stage of surface pattern formation on a gel plate. It results from a dynamic ordering process originating from a strong constraint from the bottom surface. The scattering function changes its form from a single-peaked, broad function to a multipeaked one, reflecting the morphological change from a treelike pattern to a honeycomblike one. The characteristic size of the pattern initially grows as / ,/2 , and then relaxes to its equilibrium value. This kinetic change coincides well with the morphological one.

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Sulfonated and carboxylated styrenic ionomers are investigated for their miscibilities with poly(2,6-dimethyl-l,4-phenylene oxide) (PXE), a nonassociating polymer. The nanoscale phase separation in the ionomer component presents a barrier to miscibility, which is nonetheless possible when the functionalization level or PXE content is low. The ionomers absorb PXE up to a certain level, beyond which additional PXE forms a pure phase. As the level of added PXE approaches the saturation limit, ionic groups can be forced from aggregates into the matrix. The saturation limit diminishes as the ionomer's functionalization level increases, but it also depends on the ion type, with ZnSPS showing the highest miscibility of all ionomers studied. The differences in miscibility thus depend on the morphology of the pure ionomer and the strength of the ionic associations.

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CO2 emission of the packaging for a video camera recorder were evaluated. We measured the emission involved in transporting the raw materials and molded samples and producing the molded. The emission involved in the disposal of packaging were not considered. We determined that molded pulp made of recycled pulp has lower CO2 emission (-77%) than expanded polystyrene (EPS) made of virgin material because molded pulp does not need to be subjected to the steam-expansion process and because the packaging can be stacked so it takes up less space while being transported.The weight of molded pulp packaging must be kept within four times that of the EPS packaging if the CO2 emission of the molded pulp packaging are to be less than that of the EPS packaging.The evaluation of a molded cushion added to a carton of corrugated fiberboard shows that molded pulp made of recycled paper produces -34% less CO2 emission than the new EPS although the use of corrugated fiberboard increases the weight 40%.