New Oxyhalide Solid Electrolytes with High Lithium Ionic Conductivity >10 mS cm−1 for All-Solid-State Batteries

All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) with inorganic solid electrolytes (SEs) have attracted significant interest as next-generation energy storage. Halides such as Li₃YCl₆ are promising candidates for SE because they combine high oxidation stability and deformability. However, the ionic conductivities of halide SEs are not as high as those of other SEs, especially sulfides. Here, we discover new lithium-metal-oxy-halide materials, LiMOCl₄ (M=Nb, Ta). They exhibit extremely high ionic conductivities of 10.4 mS cm⁻¹ for M=Nb and 12.4 mS cm⁻¹ for M=Ta, respectively, even in cold-pressed powder forms at room temperature, which are comparable to or surpass those of organic liquid electrolytes used in lithium-ion batteries. Bulk-type ASSB cells using the oxyhalides as the cathode SE demonstrate an outstanding rate capability with a capacity retention of 80 % at 5 C/0.1 C. We believe that the proposed oxyhalides are promising SE candidates for the practical applications of ASSBs.     

Femtosecond pump and probe measurement of all-optical modulation based on intersubband transition in n-doped quantum wells

An all-optical modulation of interband-resonant light (near-infrared signal light: 800 nm) by intersubband-resonant light (mid-infrared control light: 4–7 μm) in n-doped AlGaAs/GaAs multiple quantum wells is investigated by two-color femtosecond pump–probe experiments at room temperature. The modulation of the near-infrared signal light with an ultrafast recovery as short as 1 ps is successfully observed when the quantum wells are pumped by the mid-infrared control light pulse (4 fJ/μm²). The dependence of the modulation depth on the wavelength of the control light is also measured, which is shown to be consistent with the intersubband absorption spectrum of the quantum wells. The results indicate that the utilization of the intersubband transition is promising for the ultrafast all-optical modulation and switching.     

Sub-10-fs Ti:sapphire Kerr-lens Mode Locked Oscillator

Assembly of a sub-10-fs Ti:sapphire oscillator using only optical components commercially available in catalogues is reported. It was demonstrated that stable sub-10-fs optical pulses near 800 nm can be generated from a Kerr-lens mode locked oscillator equipped with a pair of prisms to compensate group delay dispersions (GDD) in the cavity. For the GDD control in a 10fs-pulse oscillator it was concluded that chirped mirrors are not always necessary, and a pair of prisms is still available.     

End-point detection of the potentiometric titration of anionic polyelectrolytes using an anionic surfactant-selective plasticized poly (vinyl chloride) membrane electrode and an anionic surfactant as a marker ion

A plasticized poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) membrane electrode sensitive to dodecylbenzenesulfonate (DBS) ion is applied to the determination of anionic polyelectrolytes such as potassium poly (vinyl sulfate) (PVSK) by potentiometric titration, using a poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (Cat-floc) solution as a titrant. The end-point of the titration is detected as the potential jump of the plasticized PVC membrane electrode caused by decrease in the concentration of DBS ion added to the sample solution as a marker ion, due to the ion association reaction between the DBS ion and Cat-floc. The effects of the concentration of DBS ion, coexisting surfactants and electrolytes in the sample solution and pH of the sample on the degree of the potential jump at the end-point were examined. A linear relationship between the concentration of anionic polyelectrolyte and the end-point volume of the titrant exists in the concentration range from 2 × 10^–5 to 4 × 10^–4 N for PVSK, alginate, and carrageenan. Received: 30 April 1998 / Revised: 6 July 1998 / Accepted: 11 August 1998     

Mechanical and thermal properties of rigid polyurethane foams derived from sodium lignosulfonate mixed with diethylene-, triethylene- and polyethylene glycols

Sodium salt of lignosulfonic acid (LS), which was obtained as by-product of cooking process in sulfite pulping, was solved in diethylene, triethylene or polyethylene glycol. Three series of polyurethane foams (LSPU) were synthesized by varying the LS content from 0 to 33 wt%. Apparent density (ρ) of LSPU foams ranged from 0.08 to 0.18 g cm⁻³ and was affected by both LS content and oxyethylene chain length. Glass transition temperatures increased with increasing amount of LS and with decreasing oxyethylene chain length. Thermal gravimetry analysis indicated that the LS component decomposes first and that the thermal stability increases with decreasing oxyethylene chain length. Compression strength and compression modulus increased linearly with increasing apparent density. It is concluded that LS is successfully utilized as a hard segment of rigid PU foams, whose thermal and mechanical properties can be tuned by changing the amount of LS and the length of soft oxyethylene chains.     

Chiral superconducting phase transition in 3-K phase of Sr2RuO4

We have investigated the transports of micro-fabricated sample of 3-K phase superconductivity (T_c  3 K) in Sr₂RuO₄–Ru eutectic system in order to clarify the pairing symmetry. Up to now, pure Sr₂RuO₄ (T_c = 1.5 K: 1.5-K phase) is widely recognized to be a spin-triplet odd-parity superconductor. However, the enhancement mechanism of T_c up to 3 K and the pairing symmetry of the 3-K phase have not been cleared yet. By using micro fabrication technique with focused ion beam, we have succeeded to extract individual superconducting channels for the 3-K phase in which only a few pieces of Ru inclusions are contained. Multiple kink structures observed in differential resistance–current (dV/dI − I) characteristics indicate serially connected superconducting filaments in the 3-K phase. We confirm that the 3-K phase is an odd-parity superconductor similar to pure Sr₂RuO₄ from the monotonous temperature dependence of the critical currents. In addition, we observed a quite unusual hysteresis in dV/dI − I below 2 K, which suggests the internal degrees of freedom in the superconducting state: the most probably the chiral p-wave state.     

Chaotic phenomena on a coupled nonlinear oscillator based on the rollins-hunt's model

Based on the Rollins-Hunt's model, chaotic phenomena in a driven coupled R-L-diode oscillator are examined numerically. It is found that a straightforward extension of this model to a system with two degrees of freedom is valid as far as the quasiperiodic route to chaos is concerned. However, this model is not sufficient to explain the intermittency and the quasiperiodic routes including the discontinuous (jump) bifurcations with hysteresis. Then it is shown that the additional nonlinearity due to variable capacitance of the diode is effective to explain the above phenomena. It is also shown that a two-dimensional discrete return map in which nonlinear terms are introduced in a characteristic form simulates systematically the numerical results. In particular, this map model can explain effectively the mechanisms which cause the intermittency and the cliscontinuous bifurcation.     

A Water-Gated Organic Thin-Film Transistor for Glyphosate Detection: A Comparative Study with Fluorescence Sensing

This work reports the design of a highly sensitive solid-state sensor device based on a water-gated organic thin-film transistor (WG-OTFT) for the selective detection of herbicide glyphosate (GlyP) in water. A competitive assay among carboxylate-functionalized polythiophene, Cu²⁺, and GlyP was employed as a sensing mechanism. Molecular recognition phenomena and electrical double layer (EDL) (at the polymer/water interface) originated from the field-effect worked cooperatively to amplify the sensitivity for GlyP. The limit of detection of WG-OTFT (0.26 ppm) was lower than that of a fluorescence sensor chip (0.95 ppm) which is the conventional sensing method. In contrast to the previously reported insulated molecular wires to block interchain interactions, molecular aggregates under the field-effect has shown to be effective for amplification of sensitivity through “intra”- and “inter”-molecular wire effects. The opposite strategy in this study could pave the way for fully utilizing the sensing properties of polymer-based solid-state sensor devices.     

BTZO-1, a cardioprotective agent, reveals that macrophage migration inhibitory factor regulates ARE-mediated gene expression

1. Download : Download high-res image (190KB)
2. Download : Download full-size image

Highlights? ARE activation is involved in cellular protection against oxidative stress ? MIF is a ubiquitous protein with conserved nucleophilic Pro1 in a hydrophobic pocket ? BTZO-1 selectively binds to MIF, and its binding required the intact N-terminal Pro1 ? Binding of BTZO-1 to MIF leads to the ARE activation in cardiomyocytes.