Automated measuring system for sound power measurement

It is sometimes important to know the sound power radiated from a sound source so that, for example, the solution noise abatement can be carried out on the basis of the sound power radiated.Measurement of the sound power in general is carried out in a reverberant enclosure. This measuring method is classed as an indirect one in that the sound power is obtained via the sound pressure level. Consequently, in order to determine the sound power radiated as precisely as possible, some measurement procedures for obtaining the space-average sound pressure have been devised. However, the procedure, which involves moving the measuring microphone from point to point, is extremely tedious. Accordingly, if the system from data acquisition to data processing is automated, the work required for obtaining the space-average sound pressure will be considerably reduced, as will the time required for processing the data.The development of an automatic measuring system for sound power is discussed and it is shown that the sound power obtained with the system devised agrees well with that obtained by more familiar means.     

Structural stability in partially substituted lithium manganese spinel oxide cathode

LiMn₂O₄ is one of the most promising cathode materials for lithium secondary battery because of natural abundance of manganese in the crust and its low toxicity to environment. Lithium ion can almost reversibly intercalate into or deintercalate from lithium manganese spinel oxide LiMn₂O₄. A part of substitution of manganese with other transition metals brings the improvement of cycle life. We focused on the local structure of the spinels and considered the effect of the local distortion on the cycle life of the spinel cathodes. Paper presented at the 8th EuroConference on Ionics, Carvoeiro, Algarve, Portugal, Sept. 16–22, 2001.     

Structure and properties of the δ‐form and mesophase of syndiotactic polystyrene membranes prepared from different organic solvents

Syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) membranes were prepared with different organic solvent systems and compared to get the information about the δ‐form complexing behavior of sPS. Further, the guest molecules included in the clathrate δ form of sPS are removed by stepwise extraction method. The conformational changes during the TTGG helical formation of sPS/organic solvent systems have been identified by FTIR spectroscopy, and it was concluded that the TTGG helices were constructed in regular sequences, which depends on the nature of the respective solvents. The TTGG content in the mesophase is found to be increased by removing the guest molecules. The structural changes of sPS/organic solvent systems have been characterized by WAXD analysis. Moreover, the different clathrate structures were found and showed the different crystalline reflections in the WAXD profiles, which are significantly changed with the kind of guest solvent included in sPS. The content of solvents in the clathrated sPS and the desorption temperatures were determined by thermal analysis. The resulted mesophase of sPS membrane contains the nanoporous molecular cavities that depend on the size of the guest molecule. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 43: 1873–1880, 2005     

On mechanistic aspects of 5-deazaflavin dependent dehydrogenation of alcohol

The reaction of 5-deazaflavins with alcoholates was investigated and the direct hydride equivalent transfer from C₁ of alcoholates to C₅ of 5-deazaflavins was confirmed by chemical methods. 5-Alkoxy-10-butyl-3-methyl-5-deazaflavins were synthesized by treatment of 10-butyl-5-chloro-3-methyl-5-deazaflavin with the corresponding alcoholates. The 5-alkoxy-5-deazaflavins were reduced by sodium borodeuteride or sodium hydro-sulfite in deuterium oxide or monodeuteriomethanol to give 10-butyl-3-methyl-1,5-dihydro-5-deazaflavin-5,5-D₂ exclusively. 3,10-Dimethyl-5-deazaflavin radical anion was detected by esr technique on treatment of 3,10-dimethyl-5-deazaflavin with potassium in DMF. From the above reactions, a mechanism of 5-deazaflavin dependent dehydrogenation of alcoholate was proposed.     

Miscibility of cellulose acetate with vinyl polymers

Binary blend films of cellulose acetate (CA) with flexible syntheticpolymers including poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc), poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP),and poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone-co-vinyl acetate) [P(VP-co-VAc)] were preparedfrommixed polymer solutions by solvent evaporation. Thermal analysis by DSC showedthat CA of any degree of substitution (DS) was not miscible with PVAc, but CAwith DS less than 2.8 was miscible with PVP to form homogeneous blends. Thestate of mixing in CA/P(VP-co-VAc) blends was affected not only by the DS of CAbut also by the VP/VAc copolymer composition. As far as CAs of DS<2.8 andP(VP-co-VAc)s with VP contents more than ca. 25 mol% were used,theCA/copolymer blends mostly showed a miscible behaviour irrespective of themixing ratio. FT-IR measurements for the miscible blends of CA/PVP andCA/P(VP-co-VAc) revealed the presence of hydrogen-bonding interactions betweenresidual hydroxyls of CA and carbonyls of N-vinyl pyrrolidone units, which maybe assumed to largely contribute to the good miscibility.     

Miscibility and volume changes of mixing in the polystyrene/poly(2-chlorostyrene) blend system

The specific volume-temperature relationships of polystyrene, poly(2-chlorostyrene), and their polymer blends as well as the volume change of mixing Δv_m of the blends were obtained in the liquid state by dilatometry. The equation of state parameter and the molecular parameter of each homopolymer and blends were determined according to the lattice fluid theory of Sanchez and Lacombe. The experimental Δv_m obtained agreed quite well with that predicted from theory, and the enthalpy of mixing ΔH_m was also predicted using the pair molecular parameter. These two values were negative, indicative of miscibility of polystyrene and poly(2-chlorostyrene) in the liquid state. The absolute values of Δv_m and ΔH_m were about twice those for polystyrene and poly(phenylene oxide) blend, suggesting a specific interaction between the two polymers.     

Design of a zeolite capsule catalyst by controlling the support size for the direct synthesis of isoparaffin

Three kinds of H-ZSM-5 zeolite capsule catalysts were prepared on Co/SiO₂ catalyst pellets of different sizes. Characterization of the catalysts indicated that a defect-free H-ZSM-5 membrane had been constructed successfully on the Co/SiO₂ surface. The smaller Co/SiO₂ pellets were favorable for zeolite capsule growth under the same synthesis conditions. Zeolite capsule catalysts, especially the catalysts with smaller pellet sizes, had a higher isoparaffin selectivity compared with conventional FTS Co/SiO₂ catalyst and mixed catalyst of Co/SiO₂ with H-ZSM-5 zeolite.     

Phospholipid-linked quinones-mediated electron transfer on an electrode modified with lipid bilayers

Phospholipid-linked naphthoquinones separated by spacer methylene groups (C(n)), PE-C(n)-NQ (n=0, 5, 11), were synthesized to investigate the quinone-mediated electron transfers on a glassy carbon (GC) electrode covered with phospholipids membrane. The PE-C(n)-NQ could be incorporated in lipid bilayer composed of phosphatidylcholine and exhibited characteristic absorption spectral change corresponding to their redox state, quinone/hydroquinone. The cyclic voltammogram of PE-C(n)-NQ-containing lipid bilayer modified on a GC electrode indicated a set of waves corresponding to the consecutive two-electron and two-proton transfer reduction of the quinone moiety. The peak currents of PE-C(n)-NQ as a function of temperature showed a sharp break point in the current-temperature behavior, reflecting the gel-fluid phase transition. The shape of the cyclic voltammograms changed with the pH of the buffer solution. Below pH 6 the first step of the reduction of quinone was a monoprotonation of quinone, whereas above pH 10 the first step of the oxidation was a monodeprotonation of hydroquinone. This indicates that reaction sequences of quinone/hydroquinone were different with the change of the pH. These results showed that the PE-C(n)-NQ exhibited electron transfer associated with proton transfer in the lipid membranes, depending on the diffusivity of the redox species in the membrane and pH. Interestingly, less effect of the number of methylene of the spacer group on the peak currents was observed. Comparison of manganese porphyrin-mediated electron transfer that depends on the spacer methylene lengths [M. Nango, T. Hikita, T. Nakano, T. Yamada, M. Nagata, Y. Kurono, T. Ohtsuka, Langmuir 14 (1998) 407] is made.