Performance of solvothermally prepared Ga2O3-Al2O3 catalysts for SCR of NO with methane

The solvothermal reaction of mixtures of aluminum isopropoxide (AIP) and gallium acetylacetonate (Ga(acac)₃) directly yielded the mixed oxides of γ-Ga₂O₃-Al₂O₃. In the solvothermal synthesis, the crystal structure of mixed oxides was controlled by the initial formation of γ-Ga₂O₃ nuclei. The mixed oxides prepared in diethylenetriamine have extremely high activities for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO with methane as a reducing agent. With increasing crystallite size of the spinel structure, the catalytic activity increased. The ratio of the amount of methane consumed by combustion to total methane conversion was proportional to the density of acid sites on the surface of the mixed oxides. The mixed oxide catalysts prepared in diethylenetriamine had lower densities of acid sites and showed a higher methane-efficiency for CH₄-SCR than those prepared in other solvents. These catalysts maintained their high activity even when the reaction was carried out under the severe conditions (i.e., high space velocity and low NO concentration).     

Structural Modulations in Monoclinic Tricalcium Silicate Solid Solutions Doped with Zinc Oxide, M(I), M(II), and M(III)

Structural modulations in solid solutions of C₃S doped with various amounts of ZnO were investigated via the selected-area electron diffraction method. Three monoclinic modifications (M(I), M(II), and M(III)) were identified in the solid solutions. The modifications had pseudohexagonal subcells that were modulated to form supercells. Coordinates of the reflections attributable to the supercells could be expressed by the following linear combinations of vectors of the reciprocal lattices: m₁(−2 a */5.4 + 2 b */5.4 − 7 c */5.4) for M(I), m₂(− a */5 + b */5 − c *) for M(II), and m₃(− a */6 + b */6 + 7 c */6) for M(III), m₁ and m₂=±1 and ±2, and m₃=±1, ±2, and ± 3. All the monoclinic modifications possessed structural modulations of a one-dimensional type. The modulation waves could be detected as wavy contrasts by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy.     

Skeletonized hybrid liposomes

Summary Giant hybrid liposomes of polymerizable lipid and cholesterol were prepared by the hydration method and were polymerized by UV irradiation. The obtained giant liposomes were freeze-dried and washed with chloroform to skeletonize the frame structure of the polymerized membrane. The skeletonized liposomes were directly confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. The single-layered and fully spherical liposome frame were easily confirmed by the stereo-pair of the obtained micrographs.     

Characterizing image quality of autostereoscopic displays by using the maximum luminance at each viewing position

A metric of the 3D image quality of autostereoscopic displays based on optical measurements is proposed. This metric uses each view's luminance contrast, which is defined as the ratio of maximum luminance at each viewing position to total luminance at that position. Conventional metrics of the autostereoscopic display based on crosstalk, which uses “wanted” and “unwanted” lights. However, in case of the multiple‐views‐type autostereoscopic displays, it is difficult to distinguish exactly which lights are wanted lights and which are unwanted lights. This paper assumes that the wanted light has a maximum luminance at the good stereoscopic viewing position, and the unwanted light also has a maximum luminance at the worst pseudo‐stereoscopic viewing position. By using the maximum luminance that is indexed by view number of the autostereoscopic display, the proposed method enables characterizing stereoscopic viewing conditions without using wanted/unwanted light. A 3D image quality metric called “stereo luminance contrast,” the average of both eyes' contrast, is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed metric is confirmed by the results of optical measurement analyses of different types of autostereoscopic displays, such as the two‐view, scan‐backlight, multi‐view, and integral.     

Thermal Expansion of Solid Solutions in the ZrTiO4—In2O3—M2O5 (M = Sb, Ta) System

Axial and dilatometric thermal expansions and phase transformations were studied for solid solutions having the α-PbO₂ structure in the ZrTiO₄—In₂O₃—M₂O₅ (M = Sb, Ta) system with nominal formulas of Zr _x Ti _y In _z Sb _z O₄ and Zr _x Ti _y In _z Ta _z O₄ where x + y + 2 z = 2. With increased substitution of z , the cell volume increased, the difference in the b parameters at room temperature between those quenched from 1400° and 1000°C decreased, and the thermal expansion decreased. The axial thermal expansion of ZrTi _y In _z · Ta _z O₄ with z = 0.3 was almost identical with that of HfTiO₄, and those with z = 0.4 and z = 0.45 were smaller than that of HfTiO₄. Unit-cell volumes of these compound were compared with those of single oxides to make it clear that the unit-cell volume of ZrTiO₄ was small anomalously and to distinguish the normal and abnormal substitution systems. These results were explained by the working hypothesis proposed for these compounds.     

Synthesis of γ-Ga2O3–Al2O3 Solid Solutions by the Glycothermal Method

The reaction of mixtures of aluminum isopropoxide and gallium acetylacetonate in 1,4-butanediol or 1,5-pentanediol at high temperatures (glycothermal reaction) directly gave the γ-Ga₂O₃–Al₂O₃ solid solutions, which had high catalytic activities for selective reduction of NO using methane as the reducing agent. However, the reaction with a higher Al/(Ga+Al) charged ratio yielded the glycol derivative of boehmite as a by-product and the catalytic activity of the solid solution decreased. Therefore, synthesis of the solid solution using various glycols was examined and it was found that solid solutions with high Al contents without contamination of the glycol derivative of boehmite were obtained by using 1,6-hexanediol as a reaction medium. The solid solution exhibited a higher NO conversion than that synthesized in other glycols.     

ARCOR,a new photolithography technique with antireflective coating on resist

The multiple interference effect is one of the major causes of the fluctuation in critical dimension control (CD) and in mark detection for alignment. Suppressing this effect is critical for future photolithography. We propose a new photolithography technique called anti reflective coating on resist (ARCOR), which improves linewidth accuracy and overlay accuracy by suppressing multiple interference. ARCOR consists of relatively simple processes: A clear antireflective film is spun onto the resist prior to the mark detecting for alignment and exposure. The film is subsequently removed and the resist developed in the conventional way. ARCOR differs from ARC, which suppresses the reflection at the resist/substrate interface. ARCOR suppresses the reflection at the air/resist interface. ARCOR allows mark detection and exposure without light intensity-loss and multiple interference. The experiments mainly examine polysiloxane and perfluoroalkylpolyether as ARCOR materials. It is shown that linewidth accuracy can be improved from 0.3 to 0.03 μm. The signal-to-noise ratio of the alignment signal is drastically improved, and the overlay error is about half that of the conventional method. ARCOR is also effective for directly measuring the reflectivity at the resist/substrate interface, which is a key parameter of the multiple interference effect and the halation. Using ARCOR and a thin resist film, the measured ratio of reflected light to incident light indicates the reflectivity at the resist/substrate interface. Because, the probe light does not reflect off the resist surface and the intensity-loss at the resist surface is suppressed. With perfluoroalkylpolyether film, the measurement error is ～ 1.5%.     

Construction of living cellular automata using the Physarum plasmodium

The plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum is a unicellular and multinuclear giant amoeba that has an amorphous cell body. To clearly observe how the plasmodium makes decisions in its motile and exploratory behaviours, we developed a new experimental system to pseudo-discretize the motility of the organism. In our experimental space that has agar surfaces arranged in a two-dimensional lattice, the continuous and omnidirectional movement of the plasmodium was limited to the stepwise one, and the direction of the locomotion was also limited to four neighbours. In such an experimental system, a cellular automata-like system was constructed using the living cell. We further analysed the exploratory behaviours of the plasmodium by duplicating the experimental results in the simulation models of cellular automata. As a result, it was revealed that the behaviours of the plasmodium are not reproduced by only local state transition rules; and for the reproduction, a kind of historical rule setting is needed.     

Relaxation approach to topology optimization of frame structure under frequency constraint

This paper deals with the frame topology optimization under the frequency constraint and proposes an algorithm that solves a sequence of relaxation problems to obtain a local optimal solution with high quality. It is known that an optimal solution of this problem often has multiple eigenvalues and the feasible set is disconnected. Due to these two difficulties, conventional nonlinear programming approaches often converge to a local optimal solution that is unacceptable from a practical point of view. In this paper, we formulate the frequency constraint as a positive semidefinite constraint of a certain symmetric matrix, and then relax this constraint to make the feasible set connected. The proposed algorithm solves a sequence of the relaxation problems with gradually decreasing the relaxation parameter. The positive semidefinite constraint is treated with the logarithmic barrier function and, hence, the algorithm finds no difficulty in multiple eigenvalues of a solution. Numerical experiments show that global optimal solutions, or at least local optimal solutions with high qualities, can be obtained with the proposed algorithm.