Shape-controlled synthesis of nanocarbons from resorcinol-formaldehyde nanopolymers using surfactant-templated vesicular assemblies

The NaOH-catalyzed polymerization of resorcinol (R) and formaldehyde (F) confined to the vesicular assemblies of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as a core template mixed with 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene and tert-butanol (tBuOH) as cosurfactants yielded RF polymer/cetyltrimethylammonium composite nanowires and nanospheres depending on the amount of tBuOH. Carbonization of the resulting nanpolymers led to microporous carbon nanowires of 45-240 nm diameter and nanospheres of 260-650 nm diameter. Similar but a little modified reactions successfully resulted in monodispersed carbon nanospheres of ca. 280 nm diameter as well as monodispersed carbon nanowires of ca. 70 nm diameter with a high surface area of 1777 m²/g. The present approach could be further extended to the synthesis of a wide range of carbon nanomaterials by using various surfactants and cosurfactants.     

Aluminum–germanium wafer bonding of (AlGaIn)N thin-film light-emitting diodes

Eutectic aluminum–germanium wafer bonding was used to fabricate (AlGaIn)N thin-film light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Wafer bonding was carried out on 2″ wafer level at a bond temperature of 470 °C using patterned Al bond pads on the GaN-on-sapphire LED epiwafer and plain Ge substrates. The microstructure of the joint formation was characterized via cross-section analysis using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Scanning acoustic microscopy was used to investigate the bond interface. The shear strength was determined to be 1–2 kN/cm². The formation of a liquid Al–Ge phase is evident from cross-section analysis and optical microscopy. During solidification, Al and Ge are separated into distinct phases again, which is revealed by EDX. The obtained bond is not free of micro-voids, yet it is mechanically stable and suited for the fabrication of thin-film LEDs by removing the sapphire substrate via laser lift-off, which is also demonstrated.     

Surface offsetting using distance volumes

Proposed in this paper is a new approach for offset surface construction using three- dimensional (3D) distance volumes. After converting an original compound surface into a triangular mesh, the approach creates a distance volume of the triangular mesh. With this distance volume and a given offset value, it extracts the offset points in each slice to create a sequence of two dimensional (2D) cross-sections. The approach then performs offset surface construction using the serial cross-sections. For more accurate and efficient computation of the distance volume, the concept of space division is combined with the concept one of distance propagation to the whole space of interest. The resulting offset surface is a G¹ composite surface consisting of three kinds of surfaces: skinned, capped, andor branched surfaces. The proposed approach provides offset surfaces that are accurate and free of degeneracy. Some experimental results demonstrate its usefulness and quality.     

The influence of nanoscale defects on the fracture of multi-walled carbon nanotubes under tensile loading

We report the mechanical behavior of a unique type of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) and an acid-treated version of this MWCNT type that have nanoscale defects on their surfaces from the acid treatment. These defects, from scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) imaging have a ‘channel-like’ appearance, as if a ring of material was cut away from the MWCNT around the circumference. The mechanical properties of individual MWCNTs have been experimentally shown to strongly depend on their structure and structural disorder can drastically reduce the mechanical properties. Tensile-loading experiments using a nanomanipulator tool operated inside a SEM revealed that the tensile strengths of 10 pristine MWCNTs ranged from ～ 2 to ～ 48 GPa (mean 20 GPa). For 10 acid-treated MWCNTs with channel-like defects, tensile strengths ranged from ～ 1 to ～ 18 GPa (mean 6 GPa, thus roughly 70% lower than those of the pristine MWCNTs). Microstructural observations revealed that the fracture of the acid-treated MWCNTs occurred at a channel-like defect region in 8 of the 10 samples. This indicates that the channel-like defects associated with the acid etching are typically going to be the weakest points in the acid-treated MWCNT structure and that stress concentration is present at the defect region.     

Bayesian event detection for sport games with hidden Markov model

Event detection can be defined as the problem of detecting when a target event has occurred, from a given data sequence. Such an event detection problem can be found in many fields in science and engineering, such as signal processing, pattern recognition, and image processing. In recent years, many data sequences used in these fields, especially in video data analysis, tend to be high dimensional. In this paper, we propose a novel event detection method for high-dimensional data sequences in soccer video analysis. The proposed method assumes a Bayesian hidden Markov model with hyperparameter learning in addition to the parameter leaning. This is in an attempt to reduce undesired influences from ineffective components within the high-dimensional data. Implemention is performed by Markov Chain Monte Carlo. The proposed method was tested against an event detection problem with sequences of 40-dimensional feature values extracted from real professional soccer games. The algorithm appears functional.     

Phenolic compounds from winemaking waste and its antioxidant activity towards oxidation of rapeseed oil

The effects of extraction parameters on bioactive compound contents of winemaking waste extracts (WWE) and its effect on rapeseed oil oxidative stability were evaluated. Research showed that the total phenols and anthocyanin contents and antioxidant activity (AA) of WWE significantly depended on the extraction parameters. Increasing the temperature (60 °C) and time (5 h) of extraction and an addition of water to ethanol statistically improved the rate of active component extraction. HPLC analysis showed that procyanidin B_2, catechin, gallic acid, γ‐resorcylic acid and p‐coumaric acid were the major phenolic compounds of WWE. Important correlations between total phenolic compounds quantified by HPLC and both DPPH and (ferric reducing antioxidant power) (FRAP) values were found. WWE added to the oil at three different levels clearly slowed down the process of fatty acid oxidation, inhibiting hydroperoxide formation by about 86%, comparable with BHT, while it was more effective than that of α‐tocopherol. When using volatile compound formation as a marker of lipid oxidation, WWE at the level of 2000 ppm were the most effective inhibitors of the decomposition of hydroperoxides. The research showed that the WWE are a rich source of phenolic compounds with powerful antioxidant activities and are suitable for preventing rapeseed oil oxidation.     

Cold spray deposition of Cr2AlC MAX phase for coatings and bond-coat layers

Highly pure Cr₂AlC powders were synthesized and deposited for the first time by cold spray technology on stainless steel substrates. The Cr₂AlC coatings were relative dense, up to 91%, and present high purity (> 98%) since only small traces of Cr₂Al, Al₂O₃ and Cr₂O₃ were detected by XRD, SEM and EDX. The microstructure of the coatings is homogeneous, although some preferential orientation in the basal plane was observed by XRD pole figures. The adhesion between the coating and the substrate is strong, and compressive residual stresses up to 300 MPa in the coating were determined by XRD. Furthermore, a conventional YSZ Thermal Barrier Coating (TBCs) was deposited by Atmospheric Plasma Spray (APS) on top of the cold sprayed Cr₂AlC coating in order to demonstrate the processing feasibility of Cr₂AlC MAX phases as a bond-coat layer.     

Multiferroic nanocomposite fabrication via liquid phase using anodic alumina template

We report a novel and inexpensive fabrication process of multiferroic nanocomposite via liquid phase using an anodic alumina template. The sol-gel spin-coating technique was used to coat the template with ferrimagnetic CoFe₂O₄. By dissolving the template with NaOH aqueous solution, a unique nanotube array structure of CoFe₂O₄ was obtained. The CoFe₂O₄ nanotube arrays were filled with, and sandwiched in, ferroelectric BaTiO₃ layers by a sol-gel spin-coating method to obtain the composite. Its multiferroicity was confirmed by measuring the magnetic and dielectric hysteresis loops.     

1,2-Dichloroethane production by two-step oxychlorination reactions in a fluidized bed reactor

The reaction characteristics of two-step oxychlorination to produce 1,2-dichloroethane as a feedstock of PVC production were determined in a fluidized bed reactor. The effects of superficial gas velocity and gas composition on the reactivity and fluidization stability have been determined to find the optimum operating conditions in the continuous fluidized bed reactor system. It has been found that the average ethylene conversion is 94% with ethylene dichloride (EDC) selectivity of 97-98%, the average HCl conversion is 97.4%, the solid reactant conversion is 54% and a solid inventory ratio for the optimum reaction conversion is 3.3 in the process.