Effect of membrane morphology on rising properties of filtration resistance in microfiltration of dilute colloids

The effect of membrane morphology on the flux decline behaviors in dead‐end unstirred microfiltration of very dilute colloids of polystyrene latex was examined using mixed cellulose ester and cellulose acetate membranes with interconnected tortuous pores and track‐etched polycarbonate membranes with uniform straight cylindrical pores. The plots of reciprocal filtration rate against the filtrate volume per unit membrane area for the former two membranes exhibit concave downward curves in the initial period when the membrane pore blocking is significant, whereas the plot for the latter shows a concave upward curve in that period. The former results were described by a serial resistance model consisting of the initial membrane pore blocking followed by filter cake growth, and the latter was represented by a parallel resistance model in which the pore blocking and cake growth develop simultaneously from the beginning of filtration. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 3511–3522, 2017     

A new absorption refrigeration cycle using solar energy

A new type of absorption refrigeration cycle that is co-driven both by solar energy and electricity was evaluated. The principle of a heat transformer was applied to the absorption refrigeration system to increase its efficiency. In this paper, a thermodynamic model describing the performance of the new cycle was developed and a computer program was written to evaluate its performance. The COP, condenser heat load, the theoretical minimum evaporating temperature and refrigeration capacity for a typical daily load of the system were calculated and compared with those of traditional absorption refrigeration systems. The results show that the new cycle not only overcomes some shortcomings of the traditional absorption cycle with unsteady energy input from a variable source such as solar energy, but also increases the system’s coefficient of performance.     

Distribution profile of water and suppression of methanol crossover in sulfonated polyimide electrolyte membrane for direct methanol fuel cells

We have developed novel cross-linked sulfonated polyimide (c-SPI) membrane as an electrolyte for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). When the DMFC using the c-SPI membrane (thickness = 155 μm), Pt-Ru dispersed on carbon black (Pt-Ru/CB) anode and Pt/CB cathode with a Nafion^® ionomer was operated at 80 °C and 0.1 A cm⁻² with 1 M CH₃OH and oxygen (oxidant), the methanol crossover rate, j(CH₃OH), was suppressed to about 1/2 compared with that of the Nafion^® 117 membrane (thickness = 180 μm) with the same electrodes. It was found for both cells that the j(CH₃OH) was not so small as expected from the membrane thickness. In order to obtain a clue for the suppression of j(CH₃OH), the distribution profiles of water (containing CH₃OH) in thickness direction were investigated by measuring the specific resistances (ρ) between Pt probes inserted into the electrolyte membrane. Values of ρ at the anode side were low irrespective of the discharge current density, because such a part of the membrane was humidified thoroughly by liquid water (1 M CH₃OH) allowing free penetration of CH₃OH into the swollen polymer. In contrast, the values of ρ at the cathode side were high at the low current density due to drying of the membrane contacting with oxidant gas (O₂ or air) in low humidity. We have succeeded to suppress the j(CH₃OH) further (about 1/2 at 0.2 A cm⁻²) by using bilayer c-SPI, having a low ion exchanging (low swelling) barrier layer at the anode side without increasing the ohmic resistance, compared with that of the single c-SPI.     

Penultimate Intermediates to C60 and C70

Penultimate intermediates leading to C₆₀ and C₇₀ fullerenes contain one or two pairs of pentalene units and 32 to 55 kcal/mol less stable than the final products. Energy barriers of pyracylene rearrangements from these intermediates to the final products are computed to be 118 to 125 kcal/mol in height by MOPAC/AM1, which are comparable to those of preceding steps in the Stone-Wales rearrangement cascade.     

Analytical method for methoprene in foods using HPLC

We studied the determination of methoprene in foods by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The sample was extracted with acetonitrile and the extract was salted out by adding sodium chloride, allowing the acetonitrile layer to separate. The acetonitrile solution was washed with hexane saturated with acetonitrile, cleaned up on a Florisil column and determined by HPLC. The recovery of methoprene from spiked samples was 74.6-82.8%. In an evaluation of this method by 6 analytical laboratories, mean recoveries from spiked samples ranged from 79.4% to 84.6%. Repeatability relative standard deviation values were 2.3-8.8% and reproducibility relative standard deviation values were 8.8-23.6%. The detection limits were 0.001-0.02 microg/g and below the detection limit of the Notified Analytical Method.     

Two-Dimensional-Woven-Carbon-Fiber-Reinforced Silicon Carbide/Carbon Matrix Composites Produced by Reaction Bonding

Plane-woven-fabric carbon-fiber-reinforced SiC/C matrix composites were fabricated at 1450°C via reaction bonding and impregnation with phenolic resin. The relationship between the flexural strength and the open porosity of the composites is dependent on the heat-treatment temperature before the impregnation. The flexural strength of composites heat-treated at 1000°C (open porosity of ∼15%) was ∼300 MPa, whereas that of composites heat-treated at 1450°C (open porosity of ∼12%) was only ∼240 MPa. The heat-treatment temperatures before the impregnation step might control the interface properties between the fiber and the matrix.     

Amine/epoxy stoichiometric ratio dependence of crosslinked structure and ductility in amine-cured epoxy thermosetting resins

Epoxy-amine thermosetting resins undergo different reactions depending on the amine/epoxy stoichiometric ratio (r). Although many desirable properties can be achieved by varying the stoichiometric ratio, the effects of the variation on the crosslinked structure and mechanical properties and the contribution of these factors to the ductility of materials have not been fully elucidated. This study investigates the brittle-ductile behavior of epoxies with various stoichiometric ratios and performs curing simulations using molecular dynamics (MD) to evaluate the crosslinked structures. The molecular structure is predominantly branched in low-stoichiometric ratio samples, whereas the chain extension type structure dominates the high-stoichiometric ratio samples. As a result, the higher-stoichiometric ratio samples enhances the ductility of materials and the elongation at break increases form 1.4% (r = 0.6) to 11.4% (r = 1.4). Additionally, the tensile strength (105.4 MPa) and strain energy (7.96 J/cm³) are maximum at r = 0.8 and 1.2, respectively. On the other hand, the Young's modulus is negatively impacted and it decreased from 4.2 to 2.7 GPa with increasing stoichiometric ratio.     

Snapshots of the Fragmentation for C70@Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube: Tight-Binding Molecular Dynamics Simulations

In previously reported experimental studies, a yield of double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) at C₇₀@Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) is higher than C₆₀@SWCNTs due to the higher sensitivity to photolysis of the former. From the perspective of pyrolysis dynamics, we would like to understand whether C₇₀@SWCNT is more sensitive to thermal decomposition than C₆₀@SWCNT, and the starting point of DWCNT formation, which can be obtained through the decomposition fragmentation of the nanopeapods, which appears in the early stages. We have studied the fragmentation of C₇₀@SWCNT nanopeapods, using molecular dynamics simulations together with the empirical tight-binding total energy calculation method. We got the snapshots of the fragmentation structure of carbon nano-peapods (CNPs) composed of SWCNT and C₇₀ fullerene molecules and the geometric spatial positioning structure of C₇₀ within the SWCNT as a function of dynamics time (for 2 picoseconds) at the temperatures of 4000 K, 5000 K, and 6000 K. In conclusion, the scenario in which C₇₀@SWCNT transforms to a DWCNT would be followed by the fragmentation of C₇₀, after C₇₀, and the SWCNT have been chemically bonding in the early stages. The relative stability of fullerenes in CNPs could be reversed, compared to the ranking of the relative stability of the encapsulated molecules themselves.     

Single tag scheme for segment routing in software-defined network

This paper proposes a scheme to reduce a size of a packet header for a segment routing (SR) scheme in a software-defined network (SDN). The SR scheme inserts a segment identification (SID) list into the packet header to indicate a path for the source–destination pair of the packet. The path can be split into different segments to suit the service requirement and the segments are carried by the SID-list whose length increases with the number of segments. This also increases the packet overhead, and an additional packet is needed if the packet length exceeds the maximum transmission unit (MTU). Moreover, it may not be possible to implement SR in SDN due to the limited number of stacked labels provided by the switch vendor. In the proposed scheme, the SID-list is replaced by a single tag to indicate a node edge, called a swapping node. The tag is replaced by a new tag at the swapping node. With this scheme, the size of SID-list is fixed and does not vary with the number of segments, and no additional packets are required. A mathematic model to balance the number of flow entries in each swapping node is introduced by minimizing the maximum number of flow entries in each swapping node over the network. We implement the proposed scheme on the transmission-Japan science information network (SINET5) and demonstrate confirms its functionality.