Fabrication of miniaturized Si-based electrocatalytic membranes

The increasing interest for lightweight and portable electronic systems, cellphones and small digital devices is driving technological research towards integrated regenerating power sources with small dimensions and great autonomy. Conventional batteries are already unable to deliver power in ever smaller volumes while maintaining the requirements of long duration and light weight. A possible solution to overcome these limits is the use of miniaturized fuel cells. The fuel cell offers a greater gravimetric energy density compared to conventional batteries. The micromachining technology of silicon is an important tool to reduce the fuel cell structure to micron sizes. The use of silicon also gives the opportunity to integrate the power source and the electronic circuits controlling the fuel cell on the same structure. This article reports preliminary results concerning the micromachining process for fabricating a silicon-based electrocatalytic membrane for miniaturized Si-based proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells.     

Procedure for calibrating an ultrasonic sensor for online monitoring of conversion in latex reactors

In order to estimate online conversion and polymer composition through sound velocity measurements, a mathematical model for calculating sound velocity in emulsion polymerization has been developed. With respect to previous modeling approaches, its main features are as follows: (1) the application to three‐phase, reacting systems of Urick equation (usually adopted for estimating sound velocity in multiphase, dispersed, unreacting systems, such as emulsions and suspensions); and (2) the development of an empirical relationship for estimating particle compressibility as a function of conversion during the reaction. The model has been validated through several sets of experimental data of batch and semibatch homo‐ and copolymerizations involving styrene, butyl acrylate, vinyl acetate, and methyl methacrylate. In most of the examined cases, the performances of the calibration model are satisfactory. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 72: 1451–1477, 1999     

Influence of solvent and filler on some physical properties of a fluoroelastomer

Samples of virgin and a crosslinked fluorinated rubber, containing different amounts of carbon black and solvated with methylethyl ketone, have been investigated by differential scanning calorimetry. Although the polymer–solvent interaction increases with decreasing temperature, a process of solvent separation was observed for all of the systems. This process can be attributed to a T_g regulation effect in which solvent crystallization occurs only when the crystallization temperature is higher than the T_g of the system. The interaction between rubber and filler, approximately temperature independent, was found to not influence the glass transition of the rubber–methylethyl ketone systems, even when the carbon black content is on the order of 35 wt %. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 73: 377–384, 1999     

Measurements of monomer partitioning in emulsion copolymerization systems

A new apparatus to measure the equilibrium solvent activity in a multiphase system containing a particulated polymer is presented. An experimental procedure to determine the monomer partitioning in typical emulsion copolymerization systems is developed; the method is devised in a way that no phase separation between water and swollen polymer particles is required in order to determine the monomer content in each phase. The analytical technique used is quantitative gas chromatography, either of the vapor or of the liquid phases. Different monomers (styrene, methyl methacrylate, and vinyl acetate) and polymeric matrices (polystyrene and methyl methacrylate–vinyl acetate copolymer) are examined both above and below saturation conditions (corresponding to intervals II and III of an emulsion polymerization process). The experimental results are compared with predictions of a literature model. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Characterization of Arabica and Robusta volatile coffees composition by reverse carrier gas headspace gas chromatography–mass spectrometry based on a statistical approach

Food Science and Biotechnology - Nineteen samples of Arabica and 14 of Robusta coming from various plantation were analysed by dynamic headspace capillary gas chromatography–mass spectrometry...     

Measurement of Microscopic Bridging Stresses in an Alumina/Molybdenum Composite by In Situ Fluorescence Spectroscopy

The R -curve behavior of an Al₂O₃ ceramic with 25 vol% of molybdenum-metal particles added was studied by using fracture-mechanics experiments and in situ piezospectroscopic measurements of microscopic bridging tractions. Cracks were propagated by using a crack stabilizer, which allowed stable crack growth in a bending geometry. Microscopic bridging stresses were measured in situ during fracture propagation by detecting the shift of the Cr³⁺ fluorescence lines of Al₂O₃. Laser spots ∼1 µm in diameter and ∼10 µm deep were focused at the ceramic/metal interface of the bridging sites, and the closure stresses that acted on the crack faces were recorded as a function of external load. The maximum stress that was experienced by the stretched metal particles prior to final failure was ∼0.4 GPa. The maximum stress magnitude was not markedly different in relatively small (i.e., <5 µm) metal particles, failing with large ductility, as compared with larger particles which, instead, fractured in semibrittle fashion. A map of bridging tractions along the crack wake was constructed under a constant stress intensity factor, almost equal to that which is critical for crack propagation. Using this map to theoretically predict the rising R -curve behavior of the composite led to results that were consistent with the fracture-mechanics experiments, thus enabling us to explain the observed toughening, primarily in terms of a crack-bridging mechanism.     

Grain-Boundary Viscosity of Polycrystalline Silicon Carbides

Internal friction experiments were conducted on three SiC polycrystalline materials with different microstructural characteristics. Characterizations of grain-boundary structures were performed by high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM). Observations revealed a common glass-film structure at grain boundaries of two SiC materials, which contained different amounts of SiO₂ glass. Additional segregation of residual graphite and SiO₂ glass was found at triple pockets, whose size was strongly dependent on the amount of SiO₂ in the material. The grain boundaries of a third material, processed with B and C addition, were typically directly bonded without any residual glass phase. Internal friction data of the three SiC materials were collected up to similar/congruent2200°C. The damping curves as a function of temperature of the SiO₂-bonded materials revealed the presence of a relaxation peak, arising from grain-boundary sliding, superimposed on an exponential-like background. In the directly bonded SiC material, only the exponential background could be detected. The absence of a relaxation peak was related to the glass-free grain-boundary structure of this polycrystal, which inhibited sliding. Frequency-shift analysis of the internal friction peak in the SiO₂-containing materials enabled the determination of the intergranular film viscosity as a function of temperature.