A novel bistable reflective display using quick‐response liquid powder

Abstract— We have developed new powder materials that exhibit liquid behavior, which can lead to the realization of novel bistable and reflective displays having paper‐white appearance, high contrast, and quick response. Two types of display were demonstrated, one had 160 × 160 array of pixels and the other had 320 × 320 in a 3.1‐in.‐diagonal viewable image size corresponding to 66 and 132 dpi, respectively. These displays were driven by passive‐matrix addressing. The displays showed a reflectivity of more than 41%, a contrast more than 1:10, and a pixel response time of less than 0.2 msec. The seven‐segment display for use in clocks was also demonstrated.     

An overview on the cellulose based conducting composites

Biopolymer based composites have been employed in numerous applications with increasing interest not only due to renewable, eco-friendly nature, but also because of the flexibility in processing conditions and competitive cost of their end products. The conductive materials from biopolymers have been found applicable in robots, medical imaging, sensitive membranes, actuators, visual displays, electronic wiring and shielding, and components in batteries. Cellulose is one of the most abundant biopolymers in the nature, which has received special attention for development of conducting materials due to biocompatibility for protein and drug immobilization and ability to form the composites with synthetic polymers. The present review is aimed to provide concisely the current status in this field of conducting composites from cellulose, with brief discussions of associated problems and future applications.     

Effect of substituting elements on hydrogen uptake for Pd–Rh–H and Pd–Ag–H systems evaluated by magnetic susceptibility measurement

The magnetic susceptibility and the pressure-composition isotherm were measured simultaneously for Pd–Rh–H and Pd–Ag–H systems in order to clarify the effect of Rh or Ag substitution on the hydrogen uptake from viewpoint of the electronic band structure. The magnetic susceptibility of all Pd binary alloys prepared decreased monotonically with increasing hydrogen content. At high hydrogen contents, the magnetic susceptibility became approximately zero for Pd–Rh–H and Pd–Ag–H system, and the hydrogen content at which the magnetic susceptibility gives zero corresponded with the terminal of the plateau region in the isotherm curve. The results indicated that the magnetic susceptibility of hydride phase was almost zero for all Pd binary alloys. On the basis of the band structure of Pd metal, we concluded that atom substitution only affected shift of the energy at Fermi level, and the amount of the hydrogen uptake was dominated by the number of unoccupied d-band in the alloys.     

Fretting fatigue behaviour of Ni-free high-nitrogen stainless steel in a simulated body fluid

Abstract

Fretting fatigue behaviour of Ni-free high-nitrogen steel (HNS) with a yield strength of about 800 MPa, which was prepared by nitrogen gas pressurized electroslag remelting, was studied in air and in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS(-)). For comparison, fretting fatigue behaviour of cold-rolled SUS316L steel (SUS316L(CR)) with similar yield strength was examined. The plain fatigue limit of HNS was slightly lower than that of SUS316L(CR) although the former had a higher tensile strength than the latter. The fretting fatigue limit of HNS was higher than that of SUS316L(CR) both in air and in PBS(-). A decrease in fatigue limit of HNS by fretting was significantly smaller than that of SUS316L(CR) in both environments, indicating that HNS has better fretting fatigue resistance than SUS316L(CR). The decrease in fatigue limit by fretting is discussed taking into account the effect of friction stress due to fretting and the additional influences of wear, tribocorrosion and plastic deformation in the fretted area.     

Ionic liquid enables simple and rapid sample preparation of human culturing cells for scanning electron microscope analysis

Ionic liquid is a kind of salt that stays in a molten state even at room temperature. It does not vaporize at all in vacuum and facilitates electrical conductivity to the sample surfaces for observations with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). In this study, we used an ionic liquid in SEM for the first time to observe fixed human culture cells. The condition for the cell culture using wrapping sheets and SEM settings were varied to elucidate the optimized protocol. Compared to samples prepared by the conventional way, the ionic liquid‐treatment of samples gave SEM images of the cellular ultra structures in more detail, enabling observation of microvilli that made bridges between separated cells. In addition, the ionic liquid treatment is less time consuming as well as less laborious compared with the conventional way that includes dehydration, drying, and conductivity treatments. Totally, we concluded the ionic liquid is a useful reagent for SEM sample preparation. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

A TEM study on melt-crystallized poly(butylene terephthalate)

A study was made to investigate an optimum condition for ruthenium tetraoxide staining of poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) with glass transition temperature as low as ca. 23 degrees C for TEM observation of melt-grown PBT crystals. The morphological study of ultrathin sections prepared based on optimum staining at 25 degrees C for 8 h revealed formation of fringed-micellar crystal nuclei in the early stage and folded-chain fringed-micellar crystals in the later stage of isothermal crystallization at 40 degrees C from melt. The fraction of chain-folded crystals increased with increasing crystallization temperature from the quantitative analysis of crystal thickness in comparison with the reported morphology using the replica method.     

Spectral changes and 1 X N spectral switches in the diffraction of partially coherent light by an aperture

The off-axis and on-axis spectra in the far zone of an aperture for the case in which a particular class of partially coherent light with a broad spectrum is diffracted by an aperture are studied. It is shown that the spectrum in the far zone is generally different from that at the aperture; i.e., the spectrum is split into two or more peaks. Moreover, the spectrum varies with the diffractive angle. For a fixed diffractive angle, the spectral shift, defined as the difference between the frequencies at which the observed spectrum and the spectrum at the aperture take their maximum, shows a gradual change with the change in the coherence at the aperture. However, as the coherence reaches some critical values, the spectral shift exhibits a rapid transition; i.e., spectral switch occurs. The coherence that causes the spectral switch to take place is different for different diffractive angles. Therefore we propose a new kind of 1 x N spectral switch, where N detectors (output ports) are placed at different diffractive angles in the far zone, and the spectral shifts at different detectors are measured. By adjusting the coherence of the aperture (input port) to the desired values, we obtain a rapid transition of the spectral shift in the desired output ports.     

Fabrication of optics by use of plasma chemical vaporization machining with a pipe electrode

We figure optical surfaces by plasma chemical vaporization machining (CVM) with a pipe electrode, in which an rf plasma generated at the electrode tip under approximately atmospheric pressure moves over the surfaces. We propose a shaping method in which the movement of plasma on the surfaces can be determined. Flat and aspheric surfaces are successfully figured with the desired peak-to-valley shape accuracy of 0.1 microm. The root-mean-square roughness of the resultant surfaces is at the subnanometer level. These results confirm that the plasma CVM and the shaping method have the capability to fabricate optics with high accuracy.     

A reflective‐display QR‐LPD®

Abstract— A novel reflective display [Quick‐Response Liquid Powder Display (QR‐LPD®)], has been developed. This paper‐like display has the advantages of outstanding image stability, easy viewing, low‐power consumption, and a high‐response time. QR‐LPD® will be promoted, initially, for use as electronic price‐tag displays for merchandise. In addition, QR‐LPD® is suitable for flexible display applications because it does not require TFT arrays or a high‐temperature process while maintaining an excellent paper‐like image as well as glass‐type display compatibility.