Process Intensification of Living Cationic Polymerization of Isobutylene by a Flow Reaction System

Increasing the reaction temperature of the living cationic polymerization of isobutylene is crucial for industrial production due to the cost of refrigeration. The reaction temperature increase was achieved with an accelerated reaction rate using a flow reaction system. The polymerization conditions, including the flow reactor design, were based on the results of kinetic studies. Utilizing a milli‐scale flow reactor, polyisobutylene, which has a narrow molecular weight distribution, was obtained within a considerably short residence time at a high temperature. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the value of M_w/M_n correlates with the product of the Reynolds number and the angle of collision.     

No involvement of APC gene mutations in ulcerative colitis-associated rat colon carcinogenesis induced by 1-hydroxyanthraquinone and methylazoxymethanol acetate

In 1992, 1531 women aging 25-45 years from 5 urban and rural regions were interviewed about infertility and subfecundity within the German part of a study by the European community. 1248 of them had a positive reproductive history with 3018 pregnancies. 400 (= 13.25%) occurred during contraception. This affected 296 women (= 19.6% of all women). Smoking seems to have a promotion effect. The risk of ectopic pregnancies seems to be higher in contraceptive users. The highest fetal loss was found in women using an IUD. There were no differences in the course and outcome of pregnancy between users and nonusers of contraceptives. About 40% of the women in the corresponding group reported an irregular application of the contraceptive technique.     

Electron transport in InGaO3(ZnO)m (m=integer) studied using single-crystalline thin films and transparent MISFETs

We have investigated the characteristics of transparent metal-insulator-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MISFETs) fabricated using InGaO₃(ZnO)_m (m=integer) single-crystalline thin films as n-channel layers and amorphous alumina as gate insulator films. The MISFETs exhibit good characteristics such as insensitivity to visible light illumination, off-current as low as ∼1 nA with a positive threshold voltage of ∼3 V and on/off current ratio of 10⁵. The field-effect mobility increased from ∼1 to ∼10 cm² (V s)⁻¹ as the m-value increased. Room temperature Hall mobility also increased. However, unexpectedly these values were lower than the field-effect mobility. It is explained by existence of shallow localized state in the homologous compounds.     

A scheme of picosecond pulse shaping using gain saturationcharacteristics of semiconductor laser amplifiers

To obtain high power, well shaped picosecond pulses from gain-switched semiconductor lasers, the use of dynamic gain saturation characteristics of semiconductor laser amplifiers was investigated theoretically and experimentally. A configuration of a reflected-wave amplifier (RWA) with single-side external coupling is introduced for pulse shaping, which is found to be suitable for enhancing dynamic gain saturation. By a combination of a distributed feedback laser oscillator at 1.3 μm in wavelength and a reflected-wave amplifier of 400 μm cavity length with asymmetric facet reflectivities of 0.01% and 30%, single-mode optical pulses with almost no tailing, full width at half maximum of 15 ps, and peak power exceeding 50 mW were obtained without pulse broadening, despite the considerable tail structure of the incident pulse     

Radiation tolerance of type IIa synthetic diamond detector for 14 MeV neutrons

Radiation tolerance of a type IIa synthetic diamond detector was examined from irradiation of mono-energetic 14 MeV neutrons. Measurements of I–V (current–voltage) characteristics and energy spectrum for 5.486 MeV alpha particles were performed after neutron irradiation. In the I–V characteristics measurement, enhancement of rectification was observed after neutron irradiation of up to 2.0 × 10¹² n/cm². Concurrently with the enhancement of rectification, significant decrease in signal amplitude was observed in energy spectrum measurement for alpha particles. It is considered that these changes were due to increase in the concentration of defects acting as shallow energy levels in the forbidden band. For neutron irradiation of higher than 1.6 × 10¹³ n/cm², weakening of the rectification characteristics and recovery of the signal amplitude were observed. These changes imply that deep energy levels, which were also considered to be introduced by defects, were dominant and weakened the effects of the shallow energy levels. Increase in the concentration of the deep trapping levels resulted in gradual decrease of the signal amplitude and degradation in the energy resolution. The peak for the alpha particles was obtained up to 5.5 × 10¹³ n/cm².