Hot dip fine Zn and Zn-Al alloy double coating for corrosion resistance at coastal area

A new hot dip Zn-7Al alloy coating was performed on a structural steel by double coating of fine Zn and Zn-7 wt.% Al alloy, to prevent severe corrosion in coastal area. The alloy-coated steels were exposed to seaside, quasi-industrial, and rural districts to compare with conventional Zn coating. Double coating was significantly effective in preventing corrosion, particularly in a seaside. It was estimated from the exposure test for 10 years that the life of the Zn-7Al alloy-coated steel would be almost four times that of the Zn-coated steel in the seaside. A bending test showed that no exfoliation occurred at the interface between the coated alloy and substrate steel. TEM observation revealed that the excellent adhesiveness of the doubly coated fine Zn and Zn-7Al alloy to the steel substrate was due to formation of the interface region consisting of heterogeneous fine phase mixture of zinc, aluminium and iron.     

Development of Laser Ionization Techniques for Evaluation of the Effect of Cancer Drugs Using Imaging Mass Spectrometry

Recently, combined therapy using chemotherapy and photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been proposed as a means of improving treatment outcomes. In order to evaluate the efficacy of combined therapy, it is necessary to determine the distribution of the anticancer drug and the photosensitizer. We investigated the use of imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) to simultaneously observe the distributions of an anticancer drug and photosensitizer administered to cancer cells. In particular, we sought to increase the sensitivity of detection of the anticancer drug docetaxel and the photosensitizer protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) by optimizing the ionization-assisting reagents. When we used a matrix consisting of equal weights of a zeolite (NaY5.6) and a conventional organic matrix (6-aza-2-thiothymine) in matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization, the signal intensity of the sodium-adducted ion of docetaxel (administered at 100 μM) increased about 13-fold. Moreover, we detected docetaxel with the zeolite matrix using the droplet method, and detected PpIX by fluorescence and IMS with α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA) using the spray method.     

Electron beam sterilization of cyclo olefin polymer leads to polymer degradation and production of alkyl radicals

We investigated the effects of electron‐beam (EB) sterilization on syringe barrels manufactured from cyclo olefin polymer (COP). The chemical structure of the polymer was determined by interpreting the ¹³C NMR and DEPT‐135 spectra of the COP resin. The antioxidants in the resin were identified by analyzing the liquid chromatography‐photo diode array‐mass spectrometry (LC‐PDA‐MS) data for the methanol extract of the resin and the gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (GC‐MS) data for the supercritical methanol degradation products of the extract. NMR and LC‐PDA‐MS analyses revealed that EB sterilization produces degradation products in the COP main chain and reduces the quantity of the antioxidants in the COP resin. ESR spectra of the EB‐sterilized syringe barrels indicated the presence and location of alkyl radicals, which were generated in the COP main chain by EB sterilization. ESR analyses also indicated that the quantity of alkyl radicals decreased over time. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43498.     

Moving pick‐up‐type contactless power transfer systems and their efficiency using series and parallel resonant capacitors

The equivalent circuit, the efficiency, and the important characteristics of moving pick‐up type contactless power transfer systems are described. If the primary series capacitor and the secondary parallel capacitors are chosen correctly and the winding resistances are ignored, the equivalent circuit of the transformer with these capacitors becomes the same as an ideal transformer at the resonant frequency. This simple approximation helps to understand the phenomena occurring with load changes. Because the circuit analysis becomes simple, the approximate value of the power transfer efficiency can be derived. This paper describes the determination of the capacitor values, the derivation of the equivalent circuit and the efficiency, and test results. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 172(2): 47–54, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20970     

Rheological interpretation of heat generation associated with fatigue of polycarbonate

Temperature change was measured of polycarbonate under monotonically increasing tensile and pulsating tensile loads. In the former case, the specimen temperature began to rise when an appreciable amount of viscoelastic strain was noticed on the stress—strain diagram. The rise, θ_v, could be formulated as a function of the viscoelastic strain, εv: In fatigue tests, the average temperature began to rise immediately after the decrease due to the thermoelastic effect. The amount of the heat generation, σ, was nearly constant for each cycle throughout the fatigue process and has a relation to the fatigue life, N_f, (α? a)·N_f = constant, where a is another adjustable constant. From a rheological aspect of dissipation energy, the equation is transformed to a relation between the viscoelastic strain and the fatigue life as εV^1/2 · N_f = constant, which is similar to the one for metals given by Manson and Coffin.⁶ The temperature rise in the fatigue was also related to the viscoelastic strain. The relation is of the same form as for static tension but less by a factor of one order.     

Thermal and optical properties of epoxy/zirconia hybrid materials synthesized via in situ polymerization

Epoxy/zirconia hybrid materials were synthesized from a bisphenol-A type epoxy resin, zirconium-tetra-n-propoxide and acetic acid via in situ polymerization. Acetic acid was used to control the hydrolysis and condensation reaction of the zirconium-tetra-n-propoxide. As a result, the zirconia produced by the in situ polymerization was uniformly dispersed into the epoxy matrix on a nano scale or less, and the hybrid materials exhibited an excellent optical transparency. With the increasing zirconia contents, the storage modulus in the rubbery region increased and the peak area of tanδ in the glass transition temperature region decreased. These results indicate that their heat resistance of the hybrid materials could be improved by hybridization with zirconia. Furthermore, the refractive indices of the hybrid materials were significantly improved with the increasing zirconia contents.