Synergistic Effects of Polybenzimidazole and Aramide on Enhancing Flame-Retardancy and Solubility

Aromatic and functional polymers with processibility derived from biobased starting materials are prerequisite considering sustainable society. Poly(2,5-benzimidazole)s are rigid-rod polymers to show ultrahigh thermal stability such as flame retardance, while usually suffer from poor solubility. Here, poly(benzimidazole-co-amide)s are synthesized from two biobased monomers, 3,4-diaminobenzoic acid and a semirigid comonomer, 4-aminohydrocinnamic acid. The copolymers with an amide composition of 80 mol% and higher are soluble in widely used polar solvents to fabricate the films keeping high flame retardance, which is comparable with popular high-performance polymers such as aromatic polyimides, polyetheretherketone, polyphenylene sulfide, etc.     

Dynamic probe of ZnTe(110) surface by scanning tunneling microscopy

The reconstructed surface structure of the II–VI semiconductor ZnTe (110), which is a promising material in the research field of semiconductor spintronics, was studied by scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS). First, the surface states formed by reconstruction by the charge transfer of dangling bond electrons from cationic Zn to anionic Te atoms, which are similar to those of IV and III–V semiconductors, were confirmed in real space. Secondly, oscillation in tunneling current between binary states, which is considered to reflect a conformational change in the topmost Zn–Te structure between the reconstructed and bulk-like ideal structures, was directly observed by STM. Third, using the technique of charge injection, a surface atomic structure was successfully fabricated, suggesting the possibility of atomic-scale manipulation of this widely applicable surface of ZnTe.     

Detection of Multiple Blockages in Parallelized Microreactors

In a plant consisting of parallelized microreactors (MRs), the product quality is lowered because of a lack of flow uniformity among them when blockage occurs. It is not practical to install sensors in every MR from the viewpoint of cost when detecting the blocked MRs. In the previous study, the multiple blockage detection (MBD) method using a small number of sensors was proposed, but its performance became low when the number of sensors decreased. Here, the conventional algorithm for MBD is improved by considering the process behavior on blockage occurrence, and the effectiveness of the improved algorithm is demonstrated through a numerical case study. The effects of flow distributor types and sensor types on the MBD performance are numerically investigated.     

Contribution of metal vapor mass at periphery part of pulsed arc to electromagnetic force in weld pool

The arc welding has been used in various welding methods because it is inexpensive and high in strength after welding. However, it is a problem that accidents such as collapse of the bridge occur because of the welding defects. The welding of low cost and high productivity is required without the welding defects. The pulsed TIG welding is inexpensive and capable of high‐quality welding. The electromagnetic force contributing to penetration changes because the transient response of arc temperature and iron vapor generated from anode occurs. However, the analysis of pulsed TIG welding with metal vapor has been elucidated only metal vapor concentration near anode with transient phenomenon and heat flux. Thus, the theoretical elucidation of penetration depth with control factor has not been researched. In this paper, the contribution of metal vapor mass at the periphery part of pulsed arc to the electromagnetic force in the weld pool is elucidated. As a result, the iron vapor mass at periphery part decreased with increasing the frequency. The iron vapor was stagnated at axial center within one cycle. The electromagnetic force to the penetration depth direction in weld pool increased at axial center. Therefore, the metal vapor mass at periphery part plays an important role for the electromagnetic force increment at axial center.     

以辉锑矿为原料放电等离子烧结快速制备黝铜矿Cu_(12)Sb_4S_(13)及反应机理

采用辉锑矿为原料成功制备出Cu_(12)Sb_4S_(13)块体。研究以Sb_2S_3矿物为原料时烧结工艺对Cu_(12)Sb_4S_(13)合成的影响。在400 ～ 440℃温度区间内均可快速合成Cu_(12)Sb_4S_(13)块体且二次烧结能够进一步减小中间相CuSbS_2和Cu_3SbS_3。第二相Cu_3SbS_4和残留相CuS随着烧结时间的延长而降低。二次烧结前进行机械化球磨处理,干磨比湿磨更容易减小残留相。初次烧结块体的断面SEM和EDS能谱分析表明内部存在Cu或Cu_2S颗粒团聚现象。适当降低Cu或CuS摩尔量(化学计量比0.1 mol)能促进烧结块表面反应进行。烧结过程中,硫磺蒸汽压的导致烧结块表面成分和内部粉末的成分不同。     

Streptococcal infection in the pathogenesis of Beh?et's disease and clinical effects of minocycline on the disease symptoms

Although the precise pathoetiology of Beh?et's disease (BD) remains obscure, patients with BD have a high incidence of chronic infectious foci, indicating an enhanced susceptibility to chronic tonsillitis, and dental caries. Sometimes, clinical symptoms appear after treatment of these foci in BD patients. It is believed that BD might be related to an allergic reaction to a bacterial infection in view of the many clinical symptoms, especially the presence of aphthous and genital ulcerations. An attempt to obtain cutaneous responses to bacterial antigens has been carried out using various vaccines developed from bacteria isolated from the ulcerative lesions and oral cavities of BD patients. BD patients often show intense hypersensitivity to various strains of streptococci, not only by their cutaneous reactions but also by in vitro testing. In this report, we describe our previous studies on the correlation between streptococcal antigens and the pathogenesis of BD and also discuss the recent reports of other authors. The intense hypersensitivity to streptococcal antigens acquired after streptococcal infection is thought to play an important role in the appearance of symptoms in BD patients since the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) was enhanced when stimulated with streptococcal antigen in a culture system. Minocycline, an antibiotic to which certain strains of streptococci are sensitive, reduced the frequency of clinical symptoms in BD patients as well as the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines by BD-PBMC stimulated with streptococcal antigen.     

Extremely low-loss 1.5%-/spl Delta/ 32-channel athermal arrayed-waveguide grating multi/demultiplexer

A silica-based 1.5%-/spl Delta/ 100 GHz-spacing 32-channel athermal arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) with compact size and extremely low insertion loss is described. By reducing the fibre coupling loss and the excess loss in a silicone-filled groove, an insertion loss of 1.3 dB was achieved with this athermal AWG.     

Improved visible-light responsive photocatalytic activity of N and Si co-doped titanias

Thermal reaction of titanium tetraisopropoxide and tetraethyl orthosilicate in 1,4-butanediol afforded nanocrystalline silica-modified titanias having large surface area and superior thermal stability. In this study, the thus-obtained silica-modified titanias were treated in an NH₃ flow at high temperatures, and their physical and photocatalytic properties were investigated. Compared with NH₃-treated TiO₂ without silica modification, the NH₃-treated silica-modified titanias showed a stronger absorption in the visible region (400–500 nm) and had a larger peak at 396 eV in the N 1s XPS spectrum. These results indicate that a larger amount of nitrogen was stably doped in the silica-modified titania. The obtained products exhibited a high photocatalytic activity for degradation of Rhodamine B and decomposition of acetaldehyde under visible light irradiation. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.