Birefringent side-hole fiber for use in strain sensor

Novel birefringent single-mode fibers are fabricated with a vacant hole on either side of the central elliptical core, referred to as side-hole fiber, and their intrinsic and tension-induced modal birefringences are measured to know their characteristic properties for the purpose of making a strain sensor. Five sampled side-hole fibers are prepared for measurements. The sensitivity of the strain sensor is primarily determined by two parameters, tension-induced and intrinsic modal birefringences. Tension-induced modal birefringence is controllable by optimal arrangement of the size and location of the side-holes in the cross-section of the fiber. A sensitivity diagram for designating and fabricating side-hole fibers is presented.     

Sequential Semidefinite Program for Maximum Robustness Design of Structures under Load Uncertainty

A robust structural optimization scheme as well as an optimization algorithm are presented based on the robustness function. Under the uncertainties of the external forces based on the info-gap model, the maximization of the robustness function is formulated as an optimization problem with infinitely many constraints. By using the quadratic embedding technique of uncertainty and the S-procedure, we reformulate the problem into a nonlinear semidefinite programming problem. A sequential semidefinite programming method is proposed which has a global convergent property. It is shown through numerical examples that optimum designs of various linear elastic structures can be found without difficulty.The authors are grateful to the Associate Editor and two anonymous referees for handling the paper efficiently as well as for helpful comments and suggestions.     

Preparation of telechelic oligomers by thermal degradation of propylene copolymers

The reactive end groups of nonvolatile oligomers obtained by controlled thermal degradation of poly(propylene-ran-ethylene) and poly(propylene-ran-1-butene) were determined by ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. The molar ratio of unsaturated to saturated end groups was found to be about 9:1. The average number of unsaturated end groups per molecule was between 1.6 and 1.8, indicating that 60–80 mol% of the oligomer molecules were telechelic, having two terminal unsaturated end groups. These oligomers had a lower polydispersity than the raw material, despite their lower molecular weight and melting temperature. Although the end groups resulting from each monomer unit could be detected by ¹³C NMR, the end group composition differed from that of the main chains of the raw materials. The end group composition was satisfactorily explained by the differences in bond dissociation energy and activation energy of elementary reactions that occurred during thermal degradation, based on the monomer composition of the raw materials.     

Rh(I)-catalyzed intramolecular hydroacylation in ionic liquids

Rh(I)-catalyzed hydroacylation of 4-alkenal or 4,6-dienal using ionic liquids (ILs) as reaction media proceeded smoothly, giving cyclopentanone or cycloheptenone derivatives in good yields. It was found that the IL recovered after the reaction, which should contain the Rh(I) catalyst, could be recycled 5-10 times without the loss of catalytic activity and enantioselectivity (in the case of asymmetric hydroacylation).     

Determination of lead in seawater by flow-injection on-line preconcentration-electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry after coprecipitation with iron(III) hydroxide.

A flow-injection on-line preconcentration-electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometric (ETAAS) method coupled with a coprecipitation method has been developed for the determination of lead in seawater. The combination of two preconcentration procedures, coprecipitation with iron(II) hydroxide and solid-phase extraction with a lead-selective resin, Pb-Spec, allowed the determination of lead at the ng kg(-1) level. Lead in 250 g of a sample solution was collected by coprecipitation with 10 mg of iron. The precipitate was dissolved in 25 ml of 1 mol l(-1) nitric acid; then, a 4-ml aliquot of the sample solution was introduced into the flow-injection system to preconcentrate and separate lead from iron on a Pb.Spec microcolumn. The sorbed lead was eluted with a 1.0 x 10(-4) mol l(-1) EDTA solution. The 30-microl portion of the eluate corresponding to the highest analyte concentration zone was injected into a graphite furnace. The overall enhancement factor was about 200 for 250 g of the sample. The average and standard deviation of ten blank values obtained were 1.7 ng and 0.38 ng, respectively. The recovery was 93.7 +/- 5.0% for seawater spiked with 20 ng kg(-1) lead. The proposed method is applicable to the analysis of seawater for lead at slightly higher levels.     

Molecular-dynamics simulation for the characterization of liquid chromatographic stationary phase: effect of temperature.

The influence of temperature on the surface structure of the octadecylsilica (ODS) bonded phase was investigated with a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The MD simulation was applied to a molecular model consisting of three parts: amorphous silica base, dimethyloctadecylsilyl ligands and n-hexane as a mobile phase solvent. More detailed information on the effect of temperature was obtained at the low temperature region than that reported in our previous study. The motion of ODS ligands could be estimated by the mean square displacement (MSD) of the terminal carbon atoms of ODS ligands. The gauche fraction in the ODS ligand conformation can also be estimated to obtain the ligand conformation for each simulation condition in detail. It can be seen that an elevated temperature induced the more bent ligand conformation. The trend has a good agreement to that of the results experimentally observed by using various spectroscopic techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and Raman spectroscopy.     

Intermolecular coupling of alkynes, isocyanates, and acyl chlorides: an efficient method for the synthesis of 5-hydroxypyrrol-2(5H)-ones

New insights into the reaction of diethylzirconocene with an alkyne, an isocyanate, and an acyl chloride in this order are reported. The products of 5-hydroxypyrrol-2(5H)-ones are obtained in good yields after hydrolysis. It is an efficient method for the synthesis of 5-hydroxypyrrol-2(5H)-ones.     

Performance Change of the Oxidative Coupling of Methane Induced by the Modification Effect of Lithium on a Mn-Mg-O Solid Solution

Lithium made a Mn-Mg-O solid solution stable upon exposure of methane, decreased the ethane and ethylene formation rates, and increased the COx formation rate during the oxidative coupling of methane. On the other hand, on MgO, lithium inhibited COx formation markedly and enhanced the selectivity of ethane 47% to 76%.