Binary Adsorption Isotherms of Water and Ethyl Acetate Vapor for Materials Contained in a Box of a Tobacco Product

An experimental study has been carried out on the characteristics of binary adsorption isotherms of water and volatile flavor for typical materials used in a box of a tobacco product or cigarettes. Ethyl acetate chosen as a model for water-soluble volatile flavor. Binary adsorption isotherms for the tobacco, papers, filters, and activated carbons were measured with a flow-type multi-component adsorption system under the canstant conditions of temperature a t 303 K and vapor pressure of water a t 2.5 kPain the vapor pressure range of ethyl acetate from 0 to 4.2 kPa. A linear equation was applied to express the binary adsorption isotherms for the tobacco, papers and filters, while a Dubinin-Astakhov equation was applied for the activated carbons. The binary adsorption was characterized into three groups, depending on the selectivity as well as the mechanism of adsorption; i.e.(l) for tobacco and papers, water was adsorbed much greater rather than ethyl acetate, (2) for filters, ethyl acetate was adsorbed on the surface as great as water, (3) for activated carbons, ethyl acetate was adsorbed much greater onto their micropores rather than water. The results showed that ethyl     

High-performance carbon counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells

Here, we reported that a new carbon electrode prepared with an activated carbon was superior to a Pt sputtered electrode as the counter electrode of dye-sensitized solar cells. The photovoltaic performance was largely influenced by the roughness factor of carbon electrode. The open-circuit voltage increased by about 60 mV using the carbon counter electrode compared to the Pt counter electrode because of positive shift of the formal potential for I₃⁻/I⁻ couple.     

Junction properties of polypyrrole containing a small amount of poly(ethylene oxide) with indium

A method to generate a porous region near the surface of a polymer is suggested. In this method the region near the surface is swollen by immersing the polymer for a short time in a solvent. Subsequently, the polymer is introduced in a nonsolvent (for the polymer) that is, however, miscible with the solvent. The formation of the porous region is a result of (1) the swelling accompanied by the disentanglement of the surface molecular chains, and the dissolution of some of them during the immersion in the solvent, and (2) the rapid extraction of the solvent from the swollen region by the nonsolvent. The porous surface provides a matrix into which a second incompatible monomer can be polymerized so that the two otherwise incompatible polymers can adhere to one another.     

Acrylic nonaqueous dispersion using butylated melamine-formaldehyde resin as dispersant

A series of acrylic nonaqueous dispersions were prepared by using various kinds of butylated melamine–formaldehyde (BMF) resins as dispersant. The functional group composition of BMF to form stable dispersion was butoxy group more than 13 mol/BMF 1 mol, and methylol group ranged from 1 to 2.5 mol/BMF 1 mol. It is concluded that the anchoring of BMF to acrylic copolymer was due to the formation of covalent bond between methylol group in BMF and hydroxy group in acrylic copolymer.     

Photocatalytic Activity of a TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Photocatalyst Doped with C<Superscript>4+</Superscript> and S<Superscript>4+</Superscript> Ions Having a Rutile Phase Under Visible Light

C⁴⁺ and S⁴⁺-codoped titanium dioxide (TiO₂) having a rutile phase was prepared. By doping C⁴⁺ and S⁴⁺ ions into a TiO₂ lattice, the absorption edge of rutile TiO₂ powder was largely shifted from 400 to 700 nm. 2-Methylpyridine and methyleneblue were photocatalytically oxidized at high efficiency on C⁴⁺ and S⁴⁺-doped TiO₂ under visible light at a wavelength longer than 5 nm.     

Gaze direction based vehicle teleoperation method with omnidirectional image stabilization and automatic body rotation control

In robot teleoperation, a robot works as a physical agent at a remote site for a robot operator. There are mainly two tasks in robot teleoperation using camera images: environment recognition using visual information and robot control according to the recognition. In this paper, we propose a gaze direction based vehicle teleoperation method with an omnidirectional image stabilization and an automatic body rotation control. In the proposed method, we manage above two tasks in the same manner that are usually treated separately. This method is an intuitive vehicle teleoperation method where an operator do not need to have concern about vehicle body orientations and can absorb differences of vehicle driving mechanisms. That is, this method frees an operator from being bothered from controlling a vehicle and the operator can concentrate on where he/she intends to go. This method mainly consists of two technologies: an omnidirectional image stabilization technology and automatic body rotation control. The conducted experiments show effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Dielectric Dispersion of Polycrystalline Aluminum Nitride at Microwave Frequencies

Complex permittivity of polycrystalline AlN was measured over the frequency range 100 MHz to 13 GHz using reflection coefficient and cavity resonator methods. Dielectric relaxation peaks of loss tangent were observed in the frequency range 200 MHz to 3 GHz. The maximum value of loss tangent was ∼200 × 10⁻⁴. Relative permittivities decreased by ∼4% with increased frequency at the region of relaxation peaks. It was shown that these dispersion frequencies were inversely proportional to the grain sizes of AlN and independent of purities and processes. Model calculations for elastic vibration of a single-crystal grain of AlN were performed to investigate the origin of the dielectric dispersion due to piezoelectric effect. The calculated results of elastic sphere and 14-faced-polyhedron models showed a good quantitative agreement with the observed dispersion frequencies, which suggested that the dispersion was due to a piezoelectric vibration of a single grain of AlN ceramics at microwave frequencies.