Spontaneous formation of mesoporous silica films using non-surfactant template, and optimization with Doehlert designs, for adsorbent for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

To prepare mesoporous silica thin-films by a simple and environmentally friendly pathway, spontaneous formation of silica thin-films in a sol–gel solution without surfactants was studied. The silica thin-films were prepared by immersing a glass substrate, such as a cylindrical test-tube, into a sol–gel solution containing tetraethoxysilane, water, acetic acid, 2-propanol, and triethylene glycol as a pore-forming agent. The resulting thin-films were transparent. The presence of mesopores was confirmed by field-emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic-force microscopy and nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms. The Barrett–Joyner–Halenda plot from the adsorption branch of the isotherms indicated that the pore diameter was 2.6 nm. To illustrate the potential use of the film as an adsorbent, the extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons was conducted using the chemically modified silica thin-film coated on a test-tube. The composition of the sol–gel solution was optimized using experimental design, i.e., Doehlert design, and recovery of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.     

A study on detonation-diffraction reflection point distances in H2/O2, C2H2/O2, and C2H4/O2 systems

Recently, Kawasaki and Kasahara (2019) reported that reflection point distance, which is a detonation characteristic length relevant to the diffraction process, is a useful measure; i.e., the critical condition for detonation diffraction can be universally expressed in terms of the diffraction point distance, independent of mixture stability. However, their findings were limited to their experimental conditions only. In this study, we performed high-speed visualization of processes of cylindrical (line-symmetric) detonation diffraction around a 90-degree corner for two series of experiments to obtained reflection point distances, l_r, as a novel characteristic length, and examined critical conditions of reinitiation expressed in terms of the reflection point distance. In the first experimental series, stoichiometric C₂H₂/O₂ mixtures with 50% Ar dilution were employed, and the channel width l_c was varied to 5, 10, 15, and 20 mm to investigate the influences of the boundary condition of the flow field. In the second experimental series, H₂/O₂, C₂H₂/O₂, or C₂H₄/O₂ mixtures with different equivalence ratios were employed to investigate influences of the reaction systems. Our results confirmed that the channel width does not affect the reflection point distance or the critical condition. The critical condition was also independent of fuel species and equivalence ratio, and can be uniquely expressed as l_r / l_c = 4.0 ± 0.6 in terms of the reflection point distance.     

Investigation of combustion modes and pressure of reflective shuttling detonation combustor

Detonation combustors are considered promising alternatives to conventional combustors because they offer high thermal efficiency and fast combustion. However, especially for the rotating detonation combustor, the theoretical propulsive performance has not been confirmed in experimental studies because the highly unsteady flow field hinders the measurements process. To understand the involved phenomena in more detail, a reflective shuttling detonation combustor (RSDC) with a rectangular combustion chamber was developed. The interior of the chamber can easily be visualized owing to its two-dimensional quality. Utilizing the RSDC, several combustion tests with gaseous ethylene and oxygen were conducted for different values of mass flow rates and equivalence ratios. Combustion modes from the tests were classified into four types based on the fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis of the luminous intensity of the CH* self-luminescence images captured by a high-speed camera and a band pass filter. Simultaneously, the theoretical total pressure of a conventional isobaric combustor was compared to the static pressure measured at the bottom of the RSDC chamber. For the detonation modes, the ratio between experimentally measured static pressure and the theoretical pressure varied depending on the location in the chamber owing to the distribution of the time-averaged static pressure. Furthermore, the pressure ratio of the detonation modes was up to 18% lower than that of the deflagration mode potentially owing to the flow velocity induced by the detonation waves.     

Heat transfer and pressure loss of a very shallow fluidized-bed heat exchanger Part 2. Experiment with multirow tube banks

Experiments were carried out on heat transfer and pressure-loss characteristics of a low-pressure-loss fluidized-bed heat exchanger with an extremely small ststic bed height of glass beads. This heat exchanger was composed of a tube bankd in a staggered arrangement and a multislit distributor designed especially to reduce the pressure loss. The effect of the cross-sectional shape of the distributor, the particle size of the glass beads, the static bed height, and the number of rows on heat transfer performance were examined. The heat transfer and pressure-loss characteristics are compared with experimental data in terms of fan power consumption and the compactness of the heat exchanger.     

Virtual‐system‐coupled adaptive umbrella sampling to compute free‐energy landscape for flexible molecular docking

A novel enhanced conformational sampling method, virtual‐system‐coupled adaptive umbrella sampling (V‐AUS), was proposed to compute 300‐K free‐energy landscape for flexible molecular docking, where a virtual degrees of freedom was introduced to control the sampling. This degree of freedom interacts with the biomolecular system. V‐AUS was applied to complex formation of two disordered amyloid‐β (Aβ_30–35) peptides in a periodic box filled by an explicit solvent. An interpeptide distance was defined as the reaction coordinate, along which sampling was enhanced. A uniform conformational distribution was obtained covering a wide interpeptide distance ranging from the bound to unbound states. The 300‐K free‐energy landscape was characterized by thermodynamically stable basins of antiparallel and parallel β‐sheet complexes and some other complex forms. Helices were frequently observed, when the two peptides contacted loosely or fluctuated freely without interpeptide contacts. We observed that V‐AUS converged to uniform distribution more effectively than conventional AUS sampling did. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Elemental distribution in individual rain droplets determined by a combination of the replication method and the synchrotoron radiation X-ray fluorescence microprobe technique.

The main objective of the present study is to specify the chemical properties of individual rain droplets. For this purpose, we have combined the collodion replication method and the SR-XRF microprobe technique. The dry residual materials retained in a single rain droplet, which correspond to the former cloud condensation nuclei and the scavenged particles during droplet falling, were successively reconstructed by the multiple elemental maps using SR-XRF microprobe analytical system. Also the SR-XRF microprobe system allows us to quantify the masses of ultra trace elements in residues of individual rain droplet with fg level. The proposed combination method in the present study is found to be helpful to understand the physicochemical properties of individual rain droplets.     

Low frictional property of copper oxide thin films optimised using a combinatorial sputter coating system

A combinatorial sputter coating system has been developed that can optimize the crystal preferred orientation of coating films. With this system, it is possible to synthesize various kinds of coatings whilst precisely controlling conditions such as the sputter gas, the gas pressure, the gas partial pressure, the r.f. power, the substrate temperature, the distance between the substrate and target, etc. In this way, we successfully synthesized copper oxide coatings with different crystal preferred orientations, and low frictional property was obtained by optimizing the crystal preferred orientation.     

Micro-organic ion-associate phase extraction via in situ fresh phase formation for the preconcentration and determination of di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate in river water by HPLC.

A high-enrichment method was proposed for the HPLC determination of trace di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) in environmental water. A micro-organic ion-associate phase (IAP) was formed in situ from an aqueous sample by adding 4-trifluoromethylanilinium ion and dodecylbenzenesulfonate ions. Centrifugation of the solution led to the isolation of a liquid organic phase containing DEHP at the bottom of the centrifuge tube. The volume of the phase formed was less than 30 microL. DEHP was extracted into the IAP quantitatively during phase formation. After discarding the aqueous phase, the ion associate was dissolved with 50 microL of 2-methoxyethanol, and DEHP in the concentrate was determined by HPLC with an ultra-violet (UV) diode-array detector. DEHP in the concentrations range from 0.8 to 78 microg L(-1) was determined with good precision. The recovery tests for DEHP added to some river water were satisfactory. The detection limit of DEHP, defined as 3-times the standard deviation of the blank signals, was 0.07 microg L(-1) (n = 3). The present method is very simple, and was applied to the determination of DEHP in the river water samples collected around Toyama City, Japan.     

Microfabrication of FeMnPt films involving magnetic phase change due to structural transformation caused by ion irradiation

Correlations between crystal structures and magnetic properties of Fe_1–xMn_x Pt films were studied. The disordered films with x ≥ 0.44 had paramagnetic properties and the ordered films with x ≥ 0.46 had antiferromagnetic properties, viz. a difference of 0.02 in the x ‐value (i.e., 1.0 at%) was found. At x = 0.44 with the ordered structure, the uniaxial magnetocrystalline anisotropy was about 2.1 × 10⁷ erg cm^–3. A microfabrication process involving the slight composition difference of 0.02, which results in ferromagnetic–paramagnetic phase change due to the structural transformation caused by ion irradiation, was investigated. Only the area irradiated by Mn ions changed from ferromagnetic to paramagnetic phase. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)