Morphologies and microstructures of tree-like carbon produced at different reaction conditions in a CVD process

Centimeter-size multi-branched tree-like carbon structures have been generated by the catalytic chemical vapor deposition of toluene using ferrocene as the catalyst precursor and investigated by means of SEM, TEM, and EDX. It is found that a temperature of 1000-1200 °C and a carrier gas flow rate of 1000-2500 ml/min are necessary for the generation of the carbon trees. Their morphologies and microstructures change greatly with the changing reaction conditions. The fractal dimensions of the trees are calculated to quantitatively investigate the influence of different reaction temperatures on the morphologies.     

New polyimide–silica organic–inorganic hybrids

A series of polyimide–silica hybrid films with silica contents up to 30 wt % were successfully prepared by the sol‐gel reaction of tetraethoxysiliane in the presence of poly(amic acid) containing pendent hydroxyl groups. The films were yellow and transparent when the silica content was less than 11 wt %. The chemical structure of the films was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and the morphology of the films was investigated by scanning electronic microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and stress–strain tests were used to measure the performance of the films. The results indicate that the glass‐transition temperatures and decomposition temperatures of the hybrid films increased with increasing silica content, whereas the tensile strength had a maximum with the variety of silica contents. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 88: 2210–2214, 2003     

Seeded Crystallization of Leucite

The leucite crystallization kinetics from a hydrothermally derived precursor seeded with nano-crystalline leucite was investigated by X-ray diffraction and non-isothermal differential thermal analysis. The nano-crystalline leucite was prepared by high-energy milling of high-purity leucite powder and the leucite precursor was prepared by the hydrothermal method of silica sol, aluminum nitrate, and potassium nitrate. After the seeds were introduced, the crystallization temperature of the precursor was lowered by 100°C and the transition phase kalsilite did not appear during the crystallization process. When the seeded precursor was heat treated at 700°C, a small amount of cubic leucite was stabilized to room temperature. The seeded precursor showed an exothermic peak between 800° and 920°C under different heating rates. The activation energy for the growth of leucite from the seeded precursor was 256(SD9) kJ/mol.     

Decolorisation and mineralisation of CI Reactive Black 8 by the Fenton and ultrasound/Fenton methods

The effects of pH, ferrous ion and hydrogen peroxide dosage on the decolorisation and mineralisation of CI Reactive Black 8 by the Fenton process with/without ultrasonic irradiation were investigated. It was verified that the presence of ultrasonic irradiation did not enhance the decolorisation of CI Reactive Black 8 significantly by Fenton's reagents, but it enhanced the chemical oxygen demand removal efficiency. The enhancement was more pronounced for lower (<0.89 mm) or higher (>1.78 mm) ferrous ion dosage. The optimal pH for chemical oxygen demand removal was 3.0. Chemical oxygen demand removal efficiency increased with the increasing H₂O₂ dosage and reached the highest level at 5.88 mm, but further increase in H₂O₂ dosage would not increase removal efficiency significantly.     

Electrochemical micromachining of nitinol by confined-etchant-layer technique

The confined etchant layer technique has been applied to fabricate complex three-dimensional microstructures on nitinol for the first time. HF and HNO₃ were locally and simultaneously electrogenerated at the mold surface to etch a nitinol workpiece. NaOH was used as an efficient scavenger to confine the etchant close to the mold. Cyclic voltammetry was employed to study the electrochemical behavior of a Pt electrode in the etching solution in order to choose an appropriate potential for etchant generation on the mold. The thickness of the confined etchant layer was estimated to be several micrometers by inspecting the deviation of the sizes of the etched spots from the sizes of those on the microelectrode. Thus, the composition of the electrolyte could be optimized for better etching precision. By optimizing the composition of the electrolyte, complex microstructures on a Pt-Ir mold bearing the logo “XMU” of Xiamen University were successfully fabricated on nitinol. The etched patterns were approximately negative copies of the mold, and the precision of duplication could easily reach the micrometer scale.     

To accelerate shot boundary detection by reducing detection region and scope

Video Shot Boundary Detection (SBD) is the fundamental process towards video summarization and retrieval. A fast and efficient SBD algorithm is necessary for real-time video processing applications. Extensive work has focused on accurate shot boundary detection at the expense of demanding computational costs. In this paper, we propose a fast SBD approach that reduces the computation pixel-wise and frame-wise while still giving satisfactory accuracy. The proposed approach substantially speeds up the computation through reducing both detection region and scope. Color histogram and mutual information are used together to measure the difference between frames. Corner distribution of frames is utilized to exclude most of false boundaries. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate the proposed approach, and the results show that our approach can not only speed up SBD, but also detect shot boundaries with high accuracy in both Cut (CUT) and Gradual Transition (GT) boundaries.     

Morphologies-Controlled Synthesis and Optical Properties of Bismuth Tungstate Nanocrystals by a Low-Temperature Molten Salt Method

Well-crystallized bismuth tungstate (Bi₂WO₆) powders with different morphologies were successfully synthesized via a low-temperature molten salt method. The powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and UV-Vis, respectively. It was found that the variation of morphology of the obtained Bi₂WO₆ powder mainly depends on the different reaction temperatures and the weight ratio of LiNO₃–NaNO₃ salt to precursor. In addition, the UV-Visible absorption spectra showed that the synthesized powders had strong light absorption properties not only in the ultraviolet light but also in the visible light region.     

聚醚型聚氨酯的氢键、微相分离及性能

用本体一步法合成了5种不同硬段含量(11.0％～46.9％)的二苯甲烷-4,4′-二异氰酸酯/环氧乙烷封端型聚环氧丙烷聚醚/乙二醇的聚醚型聚氨酯,并借助于IR,DSC,DMS和材料试验机等手段对该聚氨酯的氢键、微相分离及力学性能进行了表征。结果表明:随着硬段含量的增加,其>NH与微区中的>C=O的氢键化程度逐渐提高,软段微区中—O—的氢键化程度逐渐降低;微相分离程度逐渐提高;拉伸强度及硬度随之增加,扯断伸长率在硬段含量40％左右出现极大值。     

Diterpene resin acids: Major active principles in tall oil against Variegated cutworm,Peridroma saucia (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

Tall oil, a by-product of the kraft process for pulping softwood, has been shown to have insecticidal properties. In the present study, the active principles in tall oil against the variegated cutworm,Peridroma saucia Hübner, were investigated. GC-MS analysis showed that abietic, dehydroabietic, and isopimaric acids were major resin acid components of crude tall oil and depitched tall oil. When crude tall oil samples of differing resin acid composition were incorporated into artificial diet at a concentration of 2.0% fresh weight, they suppressed larval growth by 45–60% compared to controls. This suppression was significantly (P0.05) correlated with the equivalent contents of abietic, dehydroabietic, isopimaric, and total resin acids. These results were also evident from a diet choice test, showing that the second-instar larvae obviously selected diets with low levels of resin acids when different diets were randomly arranged in a Petri dish. Bioassays with pure resin acids (abietic, dehydroabietic, and isopimaric acids) demonstrated that all individual chemicals have similar bioactivity against this insect. Comparison of the bioactivities of depitched tall oil and an equivalent mixture of pure resin acids in thePeridroma chronic growth bioassay indicated that pure resin acids and depitched tall oil share a common mode of action to this insect. This study confirms that resin acids are major active principles in tall oil against the variegated cutworm, but other chemicals likely also contribute to the bioactivity of tall oil.     

PTC型BaTiO3陶瓷的孪晶和孪晶界

用透射电镜和高分辨电镜观察研究了PTC型BaTiO_3陶瓷的孪晶和孪晶界结构,并提出了可能的{111}孪晶及孪晶界的原子结构模型。结果表明,{111}孪晶形成氧八面体共面的共格倾斜孪晶界,在孪晶界处可能存在一定量的A空位且原子密度要低于孪晶体内。同时还发现两种其它特征的孪晶现象。