Hydrogen Generation from CO2 Reforming of Biomass-Derived Methanol on Ni/SiO2 Catalyst

Topics in Catalysis - CO2 reforming of methanol for producing hydrogen was experimentally carried out in a fixed-bed reactor on 10%Ni/SiO2. The 10%Ni/SiO2 was completely reduced during H2...     

Moisture sorption isotherm of fresh lean beef and external beef fat

The moisture sorption isotherm (MSI) of lean beef and fat beef was experimentally determined. The experimental procedure used was that of the COST 90 project with some modifications to accelerate equilibration. The procedure was validated with the standard reference material microcrystalline cellulose. The MSI of the beef at the highest humidity range was obtained by accelerating equilibration with changes of salts, using a low water activity salt for some time. This procedure was reliable for beef samples but not for the fat samples. No significant changes were found for lean beef in the temperature range 5–40 °C. Three models, GAB, Peleg and Lewicki, were used to fit the experimental data. The best fit was obtained with the GAB equation. The fat MSI was determined at 5, 15 and 25 °C and it was best fitted with the Lewicki model.     

High-flexibility piezoelectric ribbon fiber fabrication through multi-material thermal drawing

In this study, an amorphous poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene) (P(VDF-HFP)) copolymer with a high yield strain (approximately 18 %) is proposed as a cladding material for highly flexible and reliable piezoelectric ribbon fibers. Macro preforms are fabricated for thermal drawing (TD) processes, in which a poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) film is sandwiched between two electrically conductive composite sheets (carbon black (CB)/polypropylene (PP)). The piezoelectric device is cladded with the P(VDF-HFP) copolymer. The preform geometries and TD parameters are optimized to overcome the incompatibility of flow characteristics among P(VDF-HFP), P(VDF-TrFE), and CB/PP composite at the drawing temperature, yielding fibers of length more than 80 m through TD. After annealing and poling, the fiber produces approximately 5 V (peak-to-peak) under 2.5 % tensile strain and 0.5 V (peak-to-peak) under bending deformation, with a 5-mm radius of curvature. Furthermore, the piezoelectric fiber shows no severe degradation in the output voltage after 10000 cycles of bending deformation with 1-mm radius of curvature. The piezoelectric ribbon fiber developed herein has potential as a flexible tensile, pressure, or bending sensor fiber for wearable applications.

     

Production of predominantly semiconducting double-walled carbon nanotubes

The effects of growth conditions, such as methane flow rates and type of substrate on the distribution, structure and properties of nanotubes were examined. A scanning electron microscope equipped with a Raman spectrometer enabled us to obtain critical information about the structure and electrical properties of the nanotubes simultaneously, and it was shown that these were highly dependent on the methane flow rate. At a methane flow rate of 600 cc/min, we primarily obtained double-walled carbon nanotubes having predominantly semiconducting properties. At a higher methane flow rate (700 cc/min), a mixture of single-walled and double-walled carbon nanotubes was created, most of which were semiconducting. At low methane flow rates (300 and 500 cc/min), metallic multi-walled carbon nanotubes were predominated. Carbon nanotubes grown on a quartz substrate were between 4–10 μm in length, whereas those grown on silicon were longer (∼15–20 μm). The primary growth mechanism observed was base growth, although some cap growth did occur. Based on the results of this study, it is now possible to carefully control the synthesis conditions to produce carbon nanotubes that possess specific electrical properties that suit the desired application.     

Electro-conductive properties of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(ionic liquid) films with respect to its structure and morphology

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT)/poly(1-vinyl-3-ethylimidazolium⁺ (trifluoromethane sulfonyl)imide^?) (PIL) complexes were prepared at various PEDOT/PIL molar ratios and dispersed in propylene carbonate at a concentration of 1 wt%. After casting, the maximum conductivity was measured to be 1.2 × 10^?1 S/cm, which could be explained by the 3D variable range hopping model. The optimum surface roughness of the PEDOT/PIL film was measured, showing S_a and S_q values of 5.92 and 11.0 nm, respectively. The conductivity of the polymerized PEDOT without a template process had low conductivity due to its poor surface roughness and large particle size. Therefore, the conductivity of PEDOT/PILs is determined by the particle size, crystallinity and surface morphology. These results were supported by surface mapping microscopy, X-ray photon spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction.     

Cooperative strategies of wireless access technologies: A game-theoretic analysis

The wireless Internet has to overcome the problem of spectrum scarcity as the number of mobile equipments could increase even by an order of magnitude in the next decade; the cooperation of mobile devices is foreseeable as a feasible solution to the problems. There exists a large body of literature on opportunistic ad hoc networking including Pelusi et al. (2006) [25], Chen et al. (2006) [26], Hui et al. (2005) [27]; however, the impact of the location of the devices on their access method selection is not yet appropriately dealt with. In this paper, we address this issue based on game-theoretic analyses. The key contribution of our work is threefold. First, we model the access method selection of mobile devices by extending the classical forwarding game with position, mobility, and availability of the devices. Second, we apply the model in game-theoretic analyses to better understand the optimal cooperation strategies in the presence of heterogeneous wireless technologies. We further extend our framework to include uncertainty. Finally, we present the applicability of the model in a cognitive radio scenario where complex structures of parameters are included.     

Buckling analysis of a cable-stayed circular frame

Large parabolic dish concentrators have been widely employed in solar thermal applications. The supporting structure of a solar dish concentrator consists of a circular frame, a central post, and front and rear cables connecting the frame to the post. The tensions in the cables cause compressive stresses in the circular frame and the central post, and this support structure must be designed for stability. In this paper, the nonlinear buckling behavior of the supporting structure of a cable-stayed circular frame is studied in detail. A three-dimensional finite element model of the supporting structure is developed to predict the critical cable tensions that would cause buckling of the circular frame and to determine the associated buckling mode shapes of the supporting structural system. The results show that the buckling load of a cable-stayed circular frame depends not only upon the cross-section of the frame, but also upon the number of cables and the inclinations of the cables. In all cases, in-plane buckling modes are predominant. The concentrated torques resulting from unbalanced cable tensions tend to induce the out-of-plane buckling modes.     

On the performance of selection decode-and-forward relay networks over Nakagami-m fading channels

In this paper, we present the performance of fixed decode-and-forward cooperative networks with relay selection over independent but not identically distributed Nakagamim fading channels, with integer values of the fading severity parameter m. Specifically, closed-form expressions for the symbol error probability and the outage probability are derived using the statistical characteristic of the signal-to-noise ratio. We also perform Monte-Carlo simulations to verify the analytical results.     

Influence of nitrogen plasma post-treatment on diamond-like carbon films synthesized by RF plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

DLC films were synthesized by RF plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and the effects of nitrogen plasma post-treatment at different pressures on the structure and properties of DLC films were investigated. Higher roughness was obtained after plasma post-treatment at higher pressures (0.3 and 0.9 torr) and plasma post-treatment at a lower pressure (0.15 torr) resulted in lower roughness than that of original films. The hardness of DLC films decreased with the decrease of post-treatment pressure, which is consistent with the Raman results of I_D/I_G ratio and G peak position. Compared to the original DLC film, the residual stress after plasma post-treatment decreased slightly due to the relatively thin region involved in the plasma post-treatment.