Direct Fabrication Methods of Surface Relief Electro-Optic Gratings in Azo-Polymer Films

Two fabrication methods of surface relief electro-optic (EO) gratings in azo-polymer films are described: surface deformation by a continuous wave laser and laser ablation by a pulse laser. In the fabrication process, the periodic intensity modulation of laser beams is formed by an interference fringe or a phase mask. The surface relief EO grating is fabricated by poling the surface relief grating (SRG) after the SRG fabrication process. The linear dependence of an applied voltage in the modulation efficiency of the first-order diffraction beam is observed. The proposed methods are effective for highly-efficient surface relief EO grating fabrication.     

Nanoscopic Porous Iridium/Iridium Dioxide Superstructures (15 nm): Synthesis and Thermal Conversion by In Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy

Porous particle superstructures of about 15 nm diameter, consisting of ultrasmall nanoparticles of iridium and iridium dioxide, are prepared through the reduction of sodium hexachloridoiridate(+IV) with sodium citrate/sodium borohydride in water. The water-dispersible porous particles contain about 20 wt % poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP), which was added for colloidal stabilization. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy confirms the presence of both iridium and iridium dioxide primary particles (1–2 nm) in each porous superstructure. The internal porosity (≈58 vol%) is demonstrated by electron tomography. In situ transmission electron microscopy up to 1000 °C under oxygen, nitrogen, argon/hydrogen (all at 1 bar), and vacuum shows that the porous particles undergo sintering and subsequent compaction upon heating, a process that starts at around 250 °C and is completed at around 800 °C. Finally, well-crystalline iridium dioxide is obtained under all four environments. The catalytic activity of the as-prepared porous superstructures in electrochemical water splitting (oxygen evolution reaction; OER) is reduced considerably upon heating owing to sintering of the pores and loss of internal surface area.     

Generalization of Drinfeld Quantum Affine Algebras

Drinfeld gave a current realization of the quantum affine algebras as a Hopf algebra with a simple comultiplication for the quantum current operators. In this Letter, we will present a generalization of such a realization of quantum Hopf algebras. As a special case, we will choose the structure functions for this algebra to be elliptic functions to derive certain elliptic quantum groups as a Hopf algebra, which degenerates into quantum affine algebras if we take certain degeneration of the structure functions.     

Acoustic characteristics of an electrodynamic planar digital loudspeaker

In this paper, an electrodynamic planar loudspeaker driven by a digital signal is experimentally discussed. The digital loudspeaker consists of 22 voice coils, 11 permanent magnets, a diaphragm with streamlined sections molded in plastic, and a suspension made of handmade Japanese paper between the diaphragm and the frame. First, the acoustic responses are affected by the arrangement of the voice coils, so an asymmetric arrangement is studied. This asymmetric arrangement is designed to obtain as flat a frequency response to an analog signal as possible. This arrangement is compared with a symmetric one and results show that the flatness of the frequency response around 1 kHz and 4 kHz is improved and that the sound reproduction band is from 40 Hz to 10 kHz. Second, to evaluate the acoustic responses to a digital signal, the digital loudspeaker is driven with a pulse code modulation signal. Results show that the digital loudspeaker can reproduce pure sound with a total harmonic distortion of less than 5% from 40 Hz to 10 kHz, exceeding this value only in a narrow frequency band near 4 kHz. This digital loudspeaker was demonstrated to have good linearity over its dynamic range of 84 dB.     

Surface structures of equimolar mixtures of imidazolium-based ionic liquids using high-resolution Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy

Surface structures of equimolar mixtures of imidazolium-based ionic liquids (ILs) having a common cation (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium ([C₄MIM]) or 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium ([C₆MIM])) and different anions (bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide ([TFSI]), hexafluorophosphate ([PF₆]) or chlorine) are studied using high-resolution Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (HRBS). Both cations and anions have the same preferential orientations at the surface as in the pure ILs. In the mixture, the larger anion is located shallower than the smaller anion. The [TFSI] anion is slightly enriched at the surface relative to [PF₆] with coverage of ~ 60% for the equimolar mixtures of [C₄₍₆₎MIM] [TFSI] and [C₄₍₆₎MIM] [PF₆]. No surface segregation is observed for [C₆MIM] [TFSI]_0.5[Cl]_0.5 and [C₆MIM] [PF₆]_0.5[Cl]_0.5. These results are different from the recent TOF-SIMS measurement where very strong surface segregation of [TFSI] was concluded for the mixture of [C₄MIM] [TFSI] and [C₄MIM] [PF₆].     

Predicting experimental yields as an index to rank synthesis routes II: application to the Curtius rearrangement

Synthesis yields of organic reactions are one of the most important factors in ranking synthesis routes created by synthesis route design systems such as Transform‐Oriented Synthesis Planning and Knowledge base‐Oriented Synthesis Planning. If it is possible to predict the yields of synthesis reactions before starting experiments, one can easily determine an order of synthesis routes for experimental works. In the present study, the reaction profiles of the Curtius rearrangement with different substituents were calculated to generate an equation predicting experimental yields of this reaction. Reactions followed by the formation of isocyanates were also analyzed to consider the relationship between reaction times and experimental yields. A partial least squares (PLS) regression was used to correlate the experimental yields with the calculated activation energies, E_a(calc), together with experimental conditions such as dielectric constants of solvents, reaction times, and reaction temperatures as explanatory variables. Although the PLS regression using all the data gave very poor results, we succeeded in making a model equation with R² = 0.887 using a modified data set. However, there is a conflict between the predictability and the interpretability on the reaction time. This discrepancy mainly comes from unnecessarily long reaction times in the experiments for azides with calculated E_a values of less than 33 kcal mol^–1. To construct a good model equation for the experimental yields of the Curtius reaction, we have to use data sets obtained from within 90 min of the reaction for the PLS regression. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Magnetic ordering of dangling bond networks on hydrogen-deposited Si(111) surfaces

Based on total-energy electronic-structure calculations within the density-functional theory, we find that a high spin state is realized for an ultimate dangling bond unit on an otherwise hydrogen-covered Si(111) surface. We further propose a systematic method of constructing nanometer-scale dangling bond networks that exhibit the ferrimagnetic spin ordering. The interplay between the electron-electron interaction and the surface reconstruction is elucidated.     

A hydrogel with rubber elasticity transition

Reaction between dimethyldivinylsilane and 3,6-diazaoctane in the presence of 3-lithio-3,6-diazaoctane yields a new telechelic oligomer, poly(silamine), which consists of alternating 3,3-dimethyl-3-silapentane and N,N′-diethylethylenediamine units in the main chain. Poly(silamine) shows unique phase transition properties in response to the degree of protonation of amino groups in the polymer. Poly(silamine) also shows a strong interaction with several anions. Due to the interaction between poly(silamine) and anions along with the protonation of amino groups in the poly(silamine), the rubber elasticity of poly(silamine) is drastically changed. A discrete volume change can be observed when the environmental pH of the poly(silamine) gels is varied. This can be explained not only by a change in ionic osmotic pressure but also by a change in the rubber elasticity of the networks in the gel.