A lithium superionic conductor

Batteries are a key technology in modern society. They are used to power electric and hybrid electric vehicles and to store wind and solar energy in smart grids. Electrochemical devices with high energy and power densities can currently be powered only by batteries with organic liquid electrolytes. However, such batteries require relatively stringent safety precautions, making large-scale systems very complicated and expensive. The application of solid electrolytes is currently limited because they attain practically useful conductivities (10(-2) S cm(-1)) only at 50-80 °C, which is one order of magnitude lower than those of organic liquid electrolytes. Here, we report a lithium superionic conductor, Li(10)GeP(2)S(12) that has a new three-dimensional framework structure. It exhibits an extremely high lithium ionic conductivity of 12 mS cm(-1) at room temperature. This represents the highest conductivity achieved in a solid electrolyte, exceeding even those of liquid organic electrolytes. This new solid-state battery electrolyte has many advantages in terms of device fabrication (facile shaping, patterning and integration), stability (non-volatile), safety (non-explosive) and excellent electrochemical properties (high conductivity and wide potential window).     

Promoting effect of carbon dioxide on the dehydrogenation and aromatization of ethane over gallium‐loaded catalysts

Ga₂O₃ and Ga₂O₃/TiO₂ catalysts were found to be effective agents for the dehydrogenation of ethane to ethene in the presence of carbon dioxide at 650 °C. The activity of the Ga₂O₃ and Ga₂O₃/TiO₂ catalysts in the presence of CO₂ was 2–4 times higher than that without CO₂. Ethene yields reached ca. 20–25% and selectivity was ca. 70–90% at 650°C in the 17% ethane and 83% CO₂ feed at an SV of 9,000 ml/(g‐cat h). The presence of CO₂ markedly promoted dehydrogenation of ethane over Ga₂O₃ and Ga₂O₃/TiO₂ catalysts. Furthermore, the promoting effect of CO₂ on the aromatization of ethane and ethene over a Ga₂O₃+H/ZSM‐5 catalyst was also observed above 650 °C. Aromatics yields were higher than those without CO₂. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Determination of peroxide value by the colorimetric iodine method with protection of iodide as cadmium complex

Improved procedures of the Swoboda and Lea method for the determination of peroxide values (POV) of fats and lipids are presented. After oxidation of iodide to iodine with the sample for 5 min under an inert atmosphere, an excess of the iodide ion is immediately converted to cadmium complex for protection from atmospheric oxygen. The iodine is measured colorimetrically at 358 or 410 nm, and POV is calculated from the absorbance. This method permits the rapid determination of POV with a small amount of sample at a moderate cost using usual glasswares. For the analysis of lipids in biological materials or food products, the chloroform solution obtained by the Bligh and Dyer method is directly subjected to this procedure without evaporation of the solvent. Conversions between POV obtained by the different methods are discussed.     

Effect of Crystal Size on Acetone Conversion over SAPO-34 Crystals

Abstract  

Catalytic properties of the 75 nm and 0.8 μm-sized SAPO-34 crystals on acetone-to-olefins (ATO) reaction were compared. The 75 nm-sized crystals (nanocrystals) showed longer catalyst lifetime than 0.8 μm-sized crystals, and products selectivity was similar for the two SAPO-34 catalysts, as is the case in methanol-to-olefins (MTO) and dimethyleter-to-olefins (DTO) reactions. The reaction site of ATO reaction over SAPO-34 was studied using coke-deposited SAPO-34 as catalysts whose pores are deactivated through the DTO reaction. The reason for longer catalyst lifetime of the nanocrystals in the ATO reaction must be a large surface area of the SAPO-34 nanocrystals, unlike in the case of the MTO and DTO reactions.     

A humanoid robot that pretends to listen to route guidance from a human

This paper reports the findings for a humanoid robot that expresses its listening attitude and understanding to humans by effectively using its body properties in a route guidance situation. A human teaches a route to the robot, and the developed robot behaves similar to a human listener by utilizing both temporal and spatial cooperative behaviors to demonstrate that it is indeed listening to its human counterpart. The robot's software consists of many communicative units and rules for selecting appropriate communicative units. A communicative unit realizes a particular cooperative behavior such as eye-contact and nodding, found through previous research in HRI. The rules for selecting communicative units were retrieved through our preliminary experiments with a WOZ method. An experiment was conducted to verify the effectiveness of the robot, with the results revealing that a robot displaying cooperative behavior received the highest subjective evaluation, which is rather similar to a human listener. A detailed analysis showed that this evaluation was mainly due to body movements as well as utterances. On the other hand, subjects' utterance to the robot was encouraged by the robot's utterances but not by its body movements.     

The activity of calcium in calcium-metal-fluoride fluxes

The standard Gibbs energy of reaction Ca (1) +O (mass pct, in Zr) = CaO (s) has been determined as follows by equilibrating molten calcium with solid zirconium in a CaO crucible: ΔG° = -64,300(±700) + 19.8(±3.5)T J/mol (1373 to 1623 K) The activities of calcium in the CaO_satd-Ca-MF₂ (M: Ca, Ba, Mg) and CaO_satd-Ca-NaF systems were measured as a function of calcium composition at high calcium contents at 1473 K on the basis of the standard Gibbs energy. The activities of calcium increase in the order of CaF₂, BaF₂, and MgF₂ at the same calcium fraction of these fluxes. The observed activities are compared with those estimated by using the Temkin model for ionic solutions. Furthermore, the possibility of the removal of tramp elements such as tin, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, and lead from carbon-saturated iron by using calcium-metal-fluoride fluxes is discussed. Formerly Graduate Student, Department of Metallurgy, The University of Tokyo.     

A method for compensating customer voltage drops due to nighttime simultaneous charging of evs utilizing reactive power injection from battery chargers

When we consider global warming, the reduction of CO₂ emissions is one of the most important issues which require urgent solutions. One option is to integrate low‐CO₂‐emission generators to the grid as much as possible. Another option is to replace ine?cient vehicles based on internal‐combustion engines with electric ones (EVs). Due to the latter, we can easily predict that most consumers will charge EVs' batteries during nighttime. Thus, excessive voltage drops due to nighttime simultaneous charging are expected to be a possible future problem. This paper proposes a method for compensating the voltage drops by injecting reactive power from EV battery chargers. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 184(1): 19–29, 2013; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.22390     

IDENTIFICATION OF STIFFNESS COEFFICIENTS OF LAMINATED COMPOSITE PLATES

ＩＤＥＮＴＩＦＩＣＡＴＩＯＮＯＦＳＴＩＦＦＮＥＳＳＣＯＥＦＦＩＣＩＥＮＴＳＯＦＬＡＭＩＮＡＴＥＤＣＯＭＰＯＳＩＴＥＰＬＡＴＥＳ①ＷａｎｇＸｉａｏｃｈｕｎ，ＳｈｅｎＸｉｎｐｕ，ＭａｓｕｄａＹｕｉｃｈｉｒｏ，ＸｕＢｉｎｇｙｅＮｏｒｔｈＣｈｉｎａＵｎｉｖｅ...