Measurement of the Metal Surface Acidity/Electronegativity of Pt(110)

In previous work, it has been found that a hydrogen-covered Pt(110) surface is acidic, but quantification of the acidity has not yet been done. In this paper a spectroscopic method is developed to measure the acidity of a metal surface for the first time. The technique involves measuring the intensity of the N–H stretch from the C₅H₄XNH⁺ that forms when hydrogen coadsorbs with pyridine, 2-fluoropyridine and 3-fluoropyridine. The Bethe approximation is then used to estimate the metal surface acidity/electronegativity (MSAEL). The proton affinity/MSAEL of Pt(110) has been determined to be 907 ± 4 kJ/mol at high coverage. This is the first time the MSAEL has been measured on a metal surface. Implications for fuel cell catalysis are discussed.     

Characterization of ultrashort optical pulses with third-harmonic-generation based triple autocorrelation

We present a method to obtain complete information of femtosecond pulses. By measuring triple-optical autocorrelation directly with third-harmonic generation, without spectral information, a temporal pulse shape can be obtained by analytical calculation without direction-of-time ambiguity. Combining the resulting optical pulse shape with its corresponding optical spectrum, the exact phase and color variations in time can all be recovered with a Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm through an iterative calculation with an O(n) complexity.     

A novel phase noise reduction technique in oscillators usingdefected ground structure

A new technique to reduce the phase noise in microwave oscillators is developed using the resonant characteristic of the defected ground structure (DGS). Two kinds of oscillators have been designed and measured for the examination of the reduction of phase noise by the DGS. The first adopts the DGS section under the microstrip line at the gate circuit, while the second has only the conventional microstrip line. Measurement shows reduced phase noise by 10-15 dB in the oscillator with the DGS compared to the conventional one     

A precision on-line model for the prediction of roll force and roll power in hot-strip rolling

Investigated via a series of finite-element (FE) process simulations is the effect of diverse process variables on some selected nondimensional parameters characterizing the thermomechanical behavior of the strip in hot-strip rolling. Then, on the basis of these parameters an on-line model is derived for the precise prediction of roll force and roll power. The prediction accuracy of the proposed model is examined through comparison with predictions from a FE process model and also with measurements.     

Isothermal Gas Forming of Mg Alloy AZ31 Sheet

There have been reports on sheet forming of Mg alloy in industry via the punch and die method;this paper is probably the first formal one for studying the sheet formability of AZ31 employing pressurized gas to press the sheet into a female die cavity at various elevated temperatures.The results indicate it is feasible to form a rectangular box via pressurized gas from extruded sheets of 0.5 and 1.7 mm thick.The formed box has 1:2 depth over width ratio,which should be large enough when dealing with realistic industrial sheet forming parts.Presently,forming a sheet of 0.5 mm thick is considered a technical challenge by industry,and it is conquered as demonstrated in this paper.Gas forming technique applied to Mg alloy is unprecedented and shows potential for industrial utilization.     

Simple algorithms for searching a polygon with flashlights

The k-searcher is a mobile guard whose visibility is limited to k rays emanating from her position, where the direction of each ray can be changed continuously with bounded angular rotation speed. Given a polygonal region P, is it possible for the k-searcher to eventually see a mobile intruder that is arbitrarily faster than the searcher within P? We present O(n²)-time algorithms for constructing a search schedule of the 1-searcher and the 2-searcher, respectively. Our framework for the 1-searcher can be viewed as a modification of that of LaValle et al. [Proc. 16th ACM Symp. on Computational Geometry, 2000, pp. 260-269] and is naturally extended for the 2-searcher.     

A study on the degree of deliberation and meditation of cyber poll respondents for nuclear-related decision making

Public participation is essential in each step of the nuclear-related decision-making process. Recently, the electronic systems using the Internet have become quite popular, and have emerged as a good medium for communicating with the public. In this study, a comprehensive utilization of electronic public participation was used to analyze public opinion on a given nuclear-related decision-making process. The degree of deliberation and meditation of the public participating in an electronic poll survey was evaluated, and the decision-making factors representing the personal characteristics of the poll respondents such as age, income, education, residence, degree of knowledge and concern were carefully incorporated when preparing the poll-survey questionnaire for its evaluation. Fuzzy analysis was used to assess and aggregate the responses to each decision-making factor. As a case study, this procedure was used to analyzing public opinion on the location of a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility on the campus of Seoul National University. The results show that there is a tendency of respondents who are on the negative side of the argument to be more deliberate and meditative in their decision-making process than those on the positive side. Knowledge and residence were found to be important decision-making factors.     

Use of the bromley equation for the analysis of ionic equilibria in mixed ferric and ferrous chloride solutions at 25 °C

The ionic equilibria in the mixed ferric and ferrous chloride solution were analyzed by considering the complex formation reactions as well as the mass and charge balance equations. The activity coefficients of the ions were calculated using the Bromley equation. The equilibrium constants for the formation of ferrous complexes were determined from the reported thermodynamic data. The interaction parameters of the ferric species were estimated from the reported values of FeCl₃ in an HCl solution. By applying the ionic equilibria, the speciation of the ferric and ferrous species with the composition was obtained. The predicted pH values of the FeCl₃-FeCl₂-HCl-H₂O system agreed well with the measured values at 25 °C in the ionic strength range of up to 9.34 m.