Silica-supported cobalt catalysts for the selective reduction of nitrogen monoxide with propene

Catalytic behavior of silica-supported transition metals for NO reduction with propene in the presence of oxygen was investigated. While both silica and cobalt oxides did not show any activity for the selective NO reduction, impregnated CoO/SiO₂ prepared from cobalt acetate showed good activity although the preparation conditions had significant effect on the activity. It was suggested that highly dispersed surface Co²⁺ ions on silica are responsible for the catalytic activity.     

Synthesis of Super-Microporous Aluminosilicate Having Excellent Water Vapor Adsorption Property as an Adsorbent for an Adsorption Heat-Pump

The synthesis of super-microporous aluminosilicate with a pore diameter of 14.6 Å has been achieved, by means of synthesis under specified conditions with a skeletal material comprising TMOS and a small quantity of sodium aluminate, and a conventional alkyl-trimethylammonium halide (C₁₀TMABr) as a template. This super-microporous aluminosilicate has an adsorption capacity of 0.2 ml/g at a relative water vapor pressure of 0.2, and thus is promising as an adsorbent for an adsorption heat-pump.     

Shear-rate dependence of first normal stress difference of poly(isoprene-b-styrene) in solution near the order-disorder transition temperature

Viscoelastic properties of poly(isoprene-b-styrene) in dioctylphthalate under steady shear flow were measured near the order—disorder transition temperature. In ordered states, first normal stress difference N₁ is proportional to shear rate at low region, but becomes proportional to at the high region, similar to the N₁ behaviour of polymer blends undergoing shear-induced homogenization. Because the existence of microdomains was confirmed at the high region by the flow birefringence method, it is concluded that the above N₁ behaviour is not caused by shear-induced homogenization, but is probably caused by the shear-induced alignment of the microdomain structure.     

Preparation of composite particles made from solid powders and wasted plastics by semichemical recycle method

Composite particles composed of solid powders and polymer were prepared by semichemical recycle of wasted plastics. Waste expanded polystyrene was used as raw materials of polymer matrix of composite particles. Both magnetite and silicon carbide powders were used as solid powders to give thermal and electric conductivity and magnetization, respectively. In the experiment, the oil‐phase dissolving expanded polystyrene was dispersed in fine droplets into the continuous water phase. Two kinds of powders were added at the same time or separately in the O/W dispersion. Composite particles were found to have the structure that polymer particle was covered with two kinds of solid powders. The mean diameter of composite particles and the content of each solid powder were strongly affected by the addition time when silicon carbide powder was added into the dispersion. Furthermore, it was found that the gradient adhesion layer due to two solid powders was able to be formed on the surface of polymer particle. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 88: 483–488, 2003     

低气压等离子喷涂TiO2涂层结构的研究

本研究分析了在低气压等离子喷涂条件下,TiO_2涂层的结构受等离子弧喷涂过程中氧分解量所影响。氧分解量很大程度上依赖于离子气中氢流量的大小,此外喷涂室压力也有一定影响。而等离子弧功率和喷涂距离对TiO_2涂层的氧分解量没有多大影响。在离子气中氢流量不变的条件下,涂层中Ti_3O_5量随喷涂室压力(从100×133.322Pa至400×133.322Pa)增加而增加。     

Swarm robotic network using Lévy flight in target detection problem

One approach in swarm robotics is homogeneous system which is embedded with sensing, computing, mobile and communication components. In this study, a target detection problem, which is one of navigation problems, was employed. Once a robot detects a target, robots immediately communicate with a base station via intermediate relay robots due to the multi-hop transmission of wireless communication. Therefore, this control task is completed with connectivity of the network. In a target detection problem, we must improve the performance of exploration as well as connectivity of the network. This study investigates the performances of the two types of random walk algorithm in navigation while loosely ensuring connectivity of the robotic network based on our previous study.     

Control of secondary flow in concentrically traveling flow on centrifugal microfluidics

This paper reports a fundamental study of the stripe laminar flow pattern on a centrifugal microfluidic device with the goal of realizing a sedimentation-based, continuous mode particle separation technique. Microfluidic channels were designed with a concentrically integrated microchannel, and the patterning of the flow in the channel was investigated. A significant secondary flow was observed as a preliminary result. We conclude that the origin of this secondary flow was not the Dean force, because it was observed in a straight microchannel, but was not observed in curved channel during the spinning of the system at rest. The transition of the pattern was investigated using a simulation and experiment, and the flow pattern’s dependence on the rotational speed was determined, which suggested that the origin of the secondary flow was the Coriolis force. The significance of the secondary flow was controlled by adjusting the rotational speed of the disk, and the flow rate and laminar flow patterns were controlled by the stripe flow pattern.     

Polytetrafluoroethylene processing characteristics using high-energy X-ray

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) microstructures’ processing characteristics using X-ray photo dcomposition and desorption are studied in the highest energy region (2 keV to >12 keV). While the exposed surface states are seen melting and boiling from the remaining bubble structure of the irradiated surface, basic photochemistry of PTFE is also same as previous reports and high-aspect ratio structures are successfully formed. We developed new Ni stencil electroformed stencil masks and successfully fabricated first and practical example of PTFE micro fluidic parts. The characteristics of fabricated micro fluidic parts, a PTFE fluid filter for vertical fluid flow operation which works as passive valve, agreed with the calculated results. This suggests that the accuracy of patterning is adequate to apply this technique to fabricate microfluidic parts and other various microparts.     

Enzyme-linked immunosorvent assay using vertical microreactor stack with microbeads

The advantages of vertical microreactor stack with three-dimensional (3D) structure for immunoassay are discussed. The vertical microreactor stack uses vertical fluid flow operation with multifunctional fluid filters. The multi function of fluid filter is very effective for micromixing and passive valve operation. The mechanism of micromixing is discussed by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and we know that the mixing mechanism based on Coanda effect. To evaluate the micromixing performance of fluid filter, we demonstrated enzyme reaction with unique repeat mixing operation. As the results, we proved that the fluid filter has very effective mixing performance. The detection limit, which demonstrated by competition enzyme-linked immunosorvent assay (ELISA), is comparable with recommended detection limit, which suggested by Japanese ministry for the environment.     

TransCAIP: A Live 3D TV System Using a Camera Array and an Integral Photography Display with Interactive Control of Viewing Parameters

The system described in this paper provides a real-time 3D visual experience by using an array of 64 video cameras and an integral photography display with 60 viewing directions. The live 3D scene in front of the camera array is reproduced by the full-color, full-parallax autostereoscopic display with interactive control of viewing parameters. The main technical challenge is fast and flexible conversion of the data from the 64 multicamera images to the integral photography format. Based on image-based rendering techniques, our conversion method first renders 60 novel images corresponding to the viewing directions of the display, and then arranges the rendered pixels to produce an integral photography image. For real-time processing on a single PC, all the conversion processes are implemented on a GPU with GPGPU techniques. The conversion method also allows a user to interactively control viewing parameters of the displayed image for reproducing the dynamic 3D scene with desirable parameters. This control is performed as a software process, without reconfiguring the hardware system, by changing the rendering parameters such as the convergence point of the rendering cameras and the interval between the viewpoints of the rendering cameras.