Analysis of XANES for identification of highly dispersed transition metal oxides on supports

XANES of vanadium and niobium oxide on silica or alumina have been analyzed quantitatively by a deconvolution technique. Based on the results for reference compounds, local structures of supported vanadium and niobium species were identified. The composition was estimated from difference spectra for the samples which consisted of two kinds of species.     

Extraction and implementation of muscle synergies in neuro-mechanical control of upper limb movement

This work faces the redundancy problem, a central concern in robotics, in a particular force-producing task by using muscle synergies to simplify the control. We extracted muscle synergies from human electromyograph signals and interpreted the physical meaning of the identified muscle synergies. Based on the human analysis results, we hypothesized a novel control framework that can explain the mechanism of the human motor control. The framework was tested in controlling a pneumatic-driven robotic arm to perform a reaching task. This control method, which uses only two synergies as manipulated variables for driving antagonistic pneumatic artificial muscles to generate desired movements, would be useful to deal with the redundancy problem; thus, suggesting a simple but efficient control for human-like robots to work safely and compliantly with humans.     

Catching a molecule at the air-water interface: Dynamic pore array for molecular recognition

As a soft and flexible porous structure, a pore array of a steroid cyclophane SC(OH), which consists of the rigid 1,6,20,25-tetraaza[6.1.6.1]paracyclophane ring connected to four steroid moieties (cholic acid) through flexible L-lysine spacers, was prepared at the air-water interface. As confirmed by surface pressure (π)-molecular area (A) isotherms, transition between open conformation and cavity conformation of the SC(OH) molecule was reversibly induced upon repeated compression and expansion of its monolayer at pH 11 where amino groups of the lysine residues are not fully deprotonated. Capture and release of an aqueous fluorescent guest (TNS) by SC(OH) was observed upon dynamic cavity formation through surface fluorescence spectroscopy. At pH 12, dynamic cavity formation of SC(OH) was sufficiently suppressed, and the capture and release of an aqueous TNS by the monolayer was not virtually observed. Lessened electrostatic repulsion between the SC(OH) molecules due to conversion of ammonium to free amine may prevent the cavity from reopening. The importance of dynamic nature of cavity formation on the guest binding was also proved by control experiments using SC(H), which cannot form cavity conformation at any surface pressures at both pH 11 and 12.     

Halogen-free acylation of toluene over FeSBA-1 molecular sieves

Three-dimensional cage type iron substituted mesoporous silica with different iron contents (FeSBA-1) was synthesized in a highly acidic media using cetyltriethylammonium bromide and tetraethylorthosilicate as a template and a silica source, respectively. Acylation of toluene with acetic anhydride (AA) was carried out over FeSBA-1 mesoporous catalysts with different n_Si/n_Fe ratios in the temperature range 80–180 °C for a time-on-stream of 1–6 h under liquid phase conditions. The important factors affecting the conversion and the selectivity of the reaction, such as the reaction temperature, feed ratio, catalyst weight and time-on-stream were studied and the results are discussed in detail. The reaction conditions were optimized and the n_AA/n_Toluene ratio of 2 and catalyst weight of 0.1 g (3.3 wt% of total reaction mixture) were maintained for all catalytic runs. It was found that the catalytic activity is strongly influenced by the amount of tetrahedral iron in the catalysts. Among the catalysts used in the present study, FeSBA-1(36) showed a high toluene conversion and selectivity to p-methylacetophenone (p-MAP) under the optimized reaction conditions. It was also found that the selectivity for p-MAP was always higher than m-MAP and o-MAP for all the catalysts and the activity of the catalysts changes in the following order: FeSBA-1(36) > FeSBA-1(90) > FeSBA-1(120).     

Preparation of Aluminum Nitride Powder from Aluminum Polynuclear Complexes

AIN powder was synthesized from aluminum polynuclear complexes. Basic aluminum chloride and basic aluminum lactate were used as the aluminum polynuclear complexes. These starting materials and glucose were dissolved in water and mixed homogeneously. AIN powder was obtained by calcining after drying and precalcining at 800°C under nitrogen gas flow. Then excess carbon was removed by firing in air. Nitridation in the system was investigated and compared with that in the alumina–carbon black system. It was found that in our reaction system nitridation began and proceeded at lower calcination temperatures above 1200°C than in the alumina–carbon black system. Using aluminum polynuclear complexes, AIN was synthesized through the nitridation of γ-alumina and produced in a very fine and sharp particle size distribution.     

An Application of Silica‐Based Monolithic Membrane Emulsification Technique for Easy and Efficient Preparation of Uniformly Sized Polymer Particles

Summary: Uniformly sized polymer particles were prepared by an emulsification and polymerization technique utilizing a silica monolithic membrane, namely the “silica monolithic membrane emulsification technique”. In this paper, we utilized silica monolithic membrane as a device for the preparation of uniformly sized polymer particles. A mixture of monomers, diluents and oil‐soluble initiator was emulsified into a continuous medium through the silica monolithic membrane and polymerized. The particles obtained had a higher size uniformity than that of particles prepared by previously reported membrane emulsification techniques, such as the Shirasu Porous Glass (SPG) emulsification technique. Through the silica monolithic membrane emulsification technique, we could prepare particles having availability as a possible packing material for solid‐phase extraction (SPE) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

SEM photograph of silica particles prepared through capillary plate membrane.     

Teaching materials to enhance the visual expression of Web pages for students not in art or design majors

The explosive growth of the Internet has made the knowledge and skills for creating Web pages into general subjects that all students should learn. It is now common to teach the technical side of the production of Web pages and many teaching materials have been developed. However teaching the aesthetic side of Web page design has been neglected, and students not in art or design majors are normally confronted with difficulties when they do expressive design of Web pages.     

Template‐Free Fabrication of Mesoporous Alumina Nanospheres Using Post‐Synthesis Water‐Ethanol Treatment of Monodispersed Aluminium Glycerate Nanospheres for Molybdenum Adsorption

This work reports the template‐free fabrication of mesoporous Al₂O₃ nanospheres with greatly enhanced textural characteristics through a newly developed post‐synthesis “water‐ethanol” treatment of aluminium glycerate nanospheres followed by high temperature calcination. The proposed “water‐ethanol” treatment is highly advantageous as the resulting mesoporous Al₂O₃ nanospheres exhibit 2–4 times higher surface area (up to 251 m² g^?1), narrower pore size distribution, and significantly lower crystallization temperature than those obtained without any post‐synthesis treatment. To demonstrate the generality of the proposed strategy, a nearly identical post‐synthesis “water treatment” method is successfully used to prepare mesoporous monometallic (e.g., manganese oxide (MnO₂)) and bimetallic oxide (e.g., CuCo₂O₄ and MnCo₂O₄) nanospheres assembled of nanosheets or nanoplates with highly enhanced textural characteristics from the corresponding monometallic and bimetallic glycerate nanospheres, respectively. When evaluated as molybdenum (Mo) adsorbents for potential use in molybdenum‐99/technetium‐99m (⁹⁹Mo/^99mTc) generators, the treated mesoporous Al₂O₃ nanospheres display higher molybdenum adsorption performance than non‐treated Al₂O₃ nanospheres and commercial Al₂O₃, thereby suggesting the effectiveness of the proposed strategy for improving the functional performance of oxide materials. It is expected that the proposed method can be utilized to prepare other mesoporous metal oxides with enhanced textural characteristics and functional performance.