High-strength superelastic Ti–Ni microtubes fabricated by sputter deposition

Ti–Ni microtubes are attractive materials for biomedical devices, such as micro-catheters and micro-stents, but it is difficult to fabricate them with dimensions of less than 100 μm by conventional tube-drawing. In this study, Ti–Ni microtubes with 50 μm inner diameter and a tube wall thickness of 6 μm was successfully fabricated using a novel method in which Ti–Ni was sputter-deposited on a Cu wire with a diameter of 50 μm. All the microtubes exhibited shape memory behavior after crystallization at 873 K for 3.6 ks. Microtubes fabricated without rotating the Cu wire during deposition have low fracture strength due to the columnar grains and non-uniform tube wall thickness. Microtubes fabricated by depositing Ti–Ni on a rotating wire have a uniform wall thickness and the fracture strength increased with increasing rotation speed. Microtubes made by the rotating-wire method exhibited superelasticity of 3% strain at room temperature with high fracture stress of 950 MPa, suggesting that they are suitable for practical applications.     

Transition of the flow in a symmetric channel with periodically expanded grooves

Transition of the flow in a periodically grooved channel is numerically investigated for periodicity indices m=1 up to 6 by assuming the two-dimensional and fully developed flow field, where m is defined as a number of grooves in which the flow repeats periodically. Critical Reynolds numbers for the onset of a self-sustained oscillatory flow from a steady-state flow are evaluated by numerical simulations. It is found that the bifurcations occur at the critical Reynolds numbers as a result of Hopf bifurcation, and a period in the streamwise direction of the oscillatory flow is twice as long as the groove pitch of the channel. In addition, flow visualization with the aluminum dust method is carried out to confirm the results obtained from the numerical simulations. The experimental results are in good agreement with the numerical ones.     

Preparation of porous carbons from thermoplastic precursors and their performance for electric double layer capacitors

Porous carbons with high surface area were successfully prepared from thermoplastic precursors, such as poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), hydroxyl propyl cellulose and poly(ethylene terephthalate), by the carbonization of a mixture with MgO at 900 °C in an inert atmosphere. After carbonization the MgO was dissolved out using a diluted sulfuric acid and the carbons formed were isolated. The mixing of the PVA carbon precursor with the MgO precursors (reagent grade MgO, magnesium acetate or citrate) was done either in powder form or in an aqueous solution. The BET surface area of the carbons obtained via solution mixing could reach a very high value, such as 2000 m²/g, without any activation process. The pore structure of the resultant carbons was found to depend strongly on the mixing method; the carbons prepared via solution mixing were rich in mesopores, but those produced via powder mixing were rich in micropores. The size of mesopores was found to be almost the same as that of the MgO particles, suggesting a way of controlling the mesopore size in the resultant carbons. Measurement of capacitance was carried out in 1 mol/L H₂SO₄ electrolyte. The porous carbon with a BET surface area of 1900 m²/g prepared at 900 °C through solution mixing of Mg acetate with PVA showed a fairly high EDLC capacitance, about 250 F/g with a current density of 20 mA/g and 210 F/g with 1000 mA/g. The rate performance was closely related to the mesoporous surface area.     

Ozonation of N-Nitrosamines in the Reverse Osmosis Concentrate from Water Recycling Applications

This study aims to evaluate the performance of ozone treatment for removing N-nitrosamines from reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate in water recycling applications. In the absence of any N-nitrosamine precursors, the destruction efficiency of N-nitrosamines was dependent on their molecular weight or the length of the alkyl chain in their molecular structure. Experiments conducted with RO concentrate showed that ozonation could lead to the formation of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) and N-nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA), resulting in an increase in concentrations of these N-nitrosamines. Nevertheless, ozonation was effective for destruction of N-nitrosamines with molecular weight greater than that of NDEA (102 g/mol).     

Polypropylene plasticization and photodegradation with a TiO2/poly(ethylene oxide)/methyl linoleate paint photocatalyst system

The photodegradation of polypropylene (PP) film was performed by a TiO₂/polyethylene oxide (PEO)/plant oil paint photocatalyst system. The photodegradation underwent two stages of development as follows: Initially PP reacted with linoleic acid radical originated from the photoreaction of plant oil component. Second, the linoleic acid graft‐polymer was decomposed, and then PP chain scission was caused. The process was studied using methyl linoleate (ML) in detail. The melting point of the 24 h‐photodegraded PP slightly decreased, and those of the 48 h‐ and 96 h‐ones drastically did as compared with the pristine PP. The crystallinity (χ_c) decreased at the 48 h photodegradation time and drastically increased at the 96 h one. The 24 h‐photodegraded PP showed the 77% Young's modulus, 88% tensile strength, and 103% strain at break values to those of the pristine PP. The ML graft‐polymerization and decomposition brought about the PP plasticizing and chemi‐crystallization, causing the PP degradation. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 39909.     

Perpendicular oriented cylinders via directional coalescence of spheres embedded in block copolymer films induced by solvent annealing

Polystyrene-b-poly(methyl acrylate) (PS-b-PMA) block copolymer with PS volume fraction of 25.2 vol% was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization. Non-pretreated silicon wafers were used as the substrates to prepare perpendicular oriented PS cylinders in PMA matrix via solvent annealing which could induce the transformation of spheres to vertically oriented and hexagonally packed cylinders. The spherical microdomains were formed after the evaporation of solvents from the solutions of the block copolymer in selective solvents mixed from methanol, acetone and dichloromethane. The thickness of films could be as thick as 1000 nm, which were much thicker than usual cases and the cylinders came from the directional coalescence of the spheres, thus any pre-treatments of the substrates were not required for perpendicular orientation. The structures were characterized by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), transmission electron microscope (TEM), atom force microscopy (AFM) and grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS).     

Minimization of Friction at Various Speeds Using Autonomous Viscosity Control of Nematic Liquid Crystal

To demonstrate the concept of the smart lubrication system using liquid crystal (LC) lubricant proposed by Nakano (Tribol Lett 14:17–24, 2003), the following three types of tests were performed: (1) film thickness measurements in pure rolling contacts, (2) friction coefficient measurements in rolling–sliding contacts, and (3) molecular orientation measurements in stationary cells. In all of these types of tests, a nematic LC [4-pentyl-4′-cyanobiphenyl (5CB)] and a carboxylic acid [hexadecanoic acid (HDA)] were used as the base fluid and the additive, respectively. The results of these tests confirm the following mechanism. First, surface films of the HDA additive that spontaneously adsorb onto contact surfaces induce surface anchoring, which has the effect of making 5CB molecules align themselves perpendicular to the surfaces, competing with the flow alignment of 5CB molecules and inducing an increase in the apparent viscosity of 5CB with decreasing entrainment speed. This increase in the apparent viscosity generates a constant friction coefficient region in the Stribeck curve on the left side of the minimum friction coefficient point, resulting in the minimization of friction at various speeds.     

Pore-scale visualization of gas trapping in porous media by X-ray CT scanning

Entrapment of the non-wetting phase in porous media has been observed in a variety of fields such as petroleum engineering, geological storage of carbon dioxide, and remediation of ground water. We investigated gas trapping in porous media from a microscopic point of view. High-resolution, three-dimensional images of pore structure and trapped gas bubbles in Berea sandstones were obtained using a micro-focused X-ray CT scanner. We used vertical and horizontal Berea sandstone cores, 8 mm in diameter and 15 mm long. Based on the three-dimensional image analysis, the statistical distribution of the trapped gas volume was estimated. Trapped bubbles have a pore-network scale size and distribute over several pores. In the case of the vertical core, the porosity fluctuates along the flow direction due to the layered structure. The residual gas saturation also fluctuates with porosity along the flow direction. The higher gas saturation in porous layers at the end of gas injection results in a higher trapped gas saturation compared to dense layers. On the other hand, in dense layers the gas saturation at the end of gas injection is almost the same as residual gas saturation. Therefore, most of the gas injected into the dense layers would be trapped. In the case of the horizontal core, the gas saturation at the irreducible water condition is lower than that for the vertical core, because the injected gas selectively passes through the more permeable layers. However, the residual gas saturation is 29.2% for the horizontal core, which is comparable with that for the vertical core (30.9%). Finally, the effect of capillary number on stability of trapped gas bubbles has been estimated. Trapped gas bubbles are stable against the increased flow rate up to a capillary number of 1.0×10^?5.     

Novel photoactive aggregates of rhodamine 6G: dequenched and quasi-stable aggregates induced by a dewetting process

Self-organized rhodamine 6G particles prepared by wetting/dewetting process of an ethanol solution on a hydrophilic glass surface exhibits fluorescence without quenching, showing a sharp linewidth of 2nm with a large redshift, which indicates an existence of dye aggregates, similar to J-aggregates, inside the particle. Polarized evanescent field excitation showed that the dye molecule's transition moment along the pi-conjugation was oriented unidirectionally within particles and parallel to the substrate surface. This deduced dye orientation showed correlation between adjacent, but separated, particles and pointed roughly 45 degrees off the dewetting direction. In contrast, the particles of another pi-conjugated NK1420 dye, J-aggregates of which grows easily from an oversaturated solution, showed dye orientation along the dewetting direction preferably, still indicating the effect of self-organization, however based on a different mechanism. An annealing procedure revealed that both aggregates are in quasi-stable states, which is consistent with the rapidness of the dewetting process that may lead to crystallization in nonequilibrium.     

Prediction of high-cycle fatigue life reliability of aluminum cast alloy from statistical characteristics of defects at meso-scale

In this paper, a growth rate law of a small fatigue crack of an arbitrary metal and a method for predicting a size distribution of spheroidal defects cut by a specimen are proposed. And then, by combining the crack growth rate law and the prediction method for the surface defect size distribution, a method for predicting a high-cycle fatigue life reliability of a metal with defects is proposed. Rotating bending fatigue tests of plain specimens with/without a small blind hole (0.3 mm in diameter, 0.15 mm in depth) are carried out on an aluminum cast alloy JIS AC4B-T6 with eutectic Si, Fe compounds and porosities. By comparing analyzed results with experimental ones, the validity of the present method is examined.