Thickness estimation of interface films formed on Li1−xCoO2 electrodes by hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Solid electrolyte interface (SEI) films formed on Li_1−xCoO₂ electrodes were observed with hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HX-PES). This paper particularly focuses on film thickness estimation using HX-PES with theoretical calculation. The validity of the calculation was proven by experiments using model SEI films. The native film formed on a LiCoO₂ composite electrode was estimated to be LiF with its thickness of 5 nm. Formation of Co (II) species on top of LiCoO₂ was also indicated. Storage of the electrode at 60 °C brought about considerable film growth (30-40 nm) with carbonate compounds formation. SEI film changes during charging of the LiCoO₂ electrode were also examined. The main component in the film was deduced to be LiF or a kind of fluorite, with its thickness decreased during charging. The SEI formation mechanisms are also elucidated.     

Rotary scanning wireless temperature measurement method for hyperthermia using ferromagnetic implants

Recently, the use of a ferromagnetic material in a soft‐heating method has garnered much attention as a novel method for cancer treatment. By concurrently using this material as a thermal probe, we are currently developing a minimally invasive heating and wireless temperature measurement system. To make the approach feasible in a clinical setting, it is vital to overcome the key challenge of heating the local tumor at a constant temperature. In previous conventional approaches, it was necessary to switch the induction‐heating power supply on/off after the target tumor temperature was reached. However, it cannot determine the temperature of the material during the power‐off period. Therefore, we changed this approach and found that by adjusting the distance between the heating coil and the material while maintaining a constant current flow in heating coil, the drift problem, which happened just after power is supplied during the on/off operation, did not occur any longer. Accordingly, it was not required to use multiple sensors to reduce the drift, thereby minimizing the cost. This study verifies the validity of our wireless thermometry approach while performing rotary scanning and proposes a technique for determining achievement of the target temperature. This knowledge complements other approaches for cancer treatment utilizing hyperthermia. © 2015 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Adaptive B‐spline neural network‐based vector control for a grid side converter in wind turbine‐DFIG systems

This paper presents a novel control system design for the grid‐side converter of doubly fed induction generator wind power generation systems. The control method proposed in this work is a vector control based on adaptive B‐spline neural network by using a simple fixed‐gain stabilizing control topology. The adaptive control is designed both for inner current loops and an outer DC‐link voltage loop of the grid side converter control system. To guarantee the control stability, the weights updating rule for the B‐spline neural network is synthesized by utilizing Lyapunov's direct method. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed control system, extensive simulations are performed using MATLAB/Simulink. Based on the simulation results, it is concluded that the proposed controller has improved performance compared to an optimum proportional integral control system. It is also relatively robust against external disturbances and variations of the control parameters. © 2015 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A new implementation of PID‐type fuzzy controller for a battery grid‐supporting inverter in an autonomous distributed variable‐speed wind turbine

This paper presents a new implementation of a proportional‐integral‐derivative (PID)‐type fuzzy controller (PIDfc) for a battery grid‐supporting inverter to regulate the frequency and voltage of an autonomous distributed variable‐speed wind turbine (VSWT). The VSWT which drives a permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) is assumed for demonstration. The PIDfc is built from a set of control rules that adopts the droop control method and uses only locally measurable frequency and voltage signals. The output control signals are determined from the knowledge base and the fuzzy inference. To ensure safe battery operating limits, we also propose a protection scheme called intelligent battery protection (IBP). Several simulation experiments are performed by using MATLAB/SimPowerSystems. Next, to verify the scheme's effectiveness, the simulation results are compared with the results of a conventional controller through some performance indices. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the PIDfc scheme to control a grid‐supporting inverter of battery in the reduction of frequency and voltage fluctuations. © 2014 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Two channel digital watermarking for music based on exponential time-spread echo kernel

To robustly and imperceptibly embed copyright information as a watermark into music clips, a two channel digital watermarking system based on the least significant bit (LSB) method and echo hiding (EH) with a new exponential time-spread echo kernel (ETEK) is proposed. By spreading the echo so that it seems like natural room reverberation, as well as the use of two channels to separately watermark by the LSB method and the EH method which have complementary characteristics, the system provides satisfactory sound quality and exhibits both efficient retrieval capacity and robustness against attacks. Experiments show that the proposed system retrieves watermarks with 100% accuracy for all clips and is almost imperceptible. With a set of 42 attacks supplied by the StirMark Benchmark for Audio (SMBA), the proposed system has an average robustness of 0.98 where the ideal value is 1.00, and higher than any conventional methods. With these results, the proposed system is shown to be possible for the application to music distribution over the Internet.     

EFFECT OF DRYING METHOD ON MESOPOROSITY OF RESORCINOL-FORMALDEHYDE DRYGEL AND CARBON GEL

Resorcinol-formaldehyde hydrogels were synthesized by sol-gel polycondensation of resorcinol with formaldehyde in a slightly basic aqueous solution. RF cryogels, RF xerogels, and RF xerogels (MW gels) were respectively prepared from RF hydrogels by freeze drying, hot air drying, and microwave drying. Carbon cryogels, carbon xerogels and carbon MW gels were subsequently obtained by pyrolyzing RF drygels in an inert atmosphere. Freeze drying and microwave drying were effective to prepare mesoporous RF drygels and carbon gels. RF cryogels and carbon cryogels showed high mesoporosity over wide ranges of the molar ratio of resorcinol to catalyst (R/C) and the ratio of resorcinol to water (R/W) used in sol-gel polycondensation. Although RF xerogels had a few mesopores, carbon xerogels had no mesopores. RF MW gels and carbon MW gels showed mesoporosity if appropriate values of R/C and R/W were selected.     

Polymerization of styrene with a simple rare earth metal initiator

The catalytic activity in the polymerization of styrene has been examined using commercially available simple rare earth metal compounds such as Sm(OiPr)₃, Sm(acac)₃, Sm(OCOMe)₃, SmI₂(THF)₂ or SmCl₃ coupled with Et₃Al or methylaluminoxane (MAO). Among these compounds, the Sm(OiPr)₃/AlEt₃ system shows the highest catalytic activity, especially in the presence of a minor amount of toluene at 60 °C. The random copolymerization of styrene with methyl methacrylate suggests that the present polymerization proceeds with a radical polymerization mechanism. (C₅Me₅)SmCl₃Na(THF) and (C₅Me₅)SmCl₃Li(THF) systems exhibit relatively low catalytic activity, even in the presence of AlEt₃. © 2001 Society of Chemical Industry     

Annealing Effect in GaDyN on Optical and Magnetic Properties

The annealing effect on the optical and magnetic properties of the GaDyN layers was studied. The PL intensities of yellow and green bands as well as the intra-4f orbital transition of Dy³⁺ ions were found to decrease for the samples annealed at 900 and 1000 °C. It is supposed that the intra-4f orbital transition is related to the broad peak luminescence coming from defects. Increasing the annealing temperature, the magnetization becomes smaller. It is considerable that the number of electrons coming from defects was reduced by the annealing treatments and that the ferromagnetism in GaDyN is attributed as carrier induced ferromagnetism.