Comparison of liquid-phase and methanol-swelling crosslinking processes of polyimide dense membrane for CO2/CH4 separation

To overcome the plasticization effect in polyimide membranes, many researchers have proposed crosslinking method. This can reduce an inter-segmental mobility by tightening and rigidifying the polymer chains. However, it is difficult to modify the whole polymer chains throughout the membrane because the reaction can be hindered by the diffusion rate of the crosslinker. In particular, it is hard for bulky crosslinker to penetrate a dense membrane with a small d-spacing. This study investigated the effect of crosslinking a dense Matrimid membrane with p-phenylenediamine (p-PDA) via two different crosslinking methods (i.e., methanol-swelling crosslinking process [M-SCP] and liquid-phase crosslinking process [L-PCP]). Most of the crosslinking reaction in M-SCP occurs on the membrane surface due to difficulty in penetration of the bulky p-PDA into the Matrimid dense membrane. In contrast, the L-PCP allows uniform crosslinking across the membrane. The membranes crosslinked using L-PCP showed excellent chemical resistance. Furthermore, the plasticization phenomenon was not observed in the membranes crosslinked using L-PCP with p-PDA more than 15%. Meanwhile, the membrane crosslinked using M-SCP exhibited poor plasticization and chemical resistance properties. These results showed that the L-PCP method can be more effective for the crosslinking of dense membrane to deliver both high plasticization and chemical resistance.     

A study on corrosion resistance characteristics of PVD Cr-N coated steels by electrochemical method

The corrosion behavior of Cr-N coated steels with different phases (-Cr, CrN and Cr₂N) deposited by cathodic arc deposition on AISI H13 steel was investigated in a 3.5% NaCl solution at ambient temperature. Potentiodynamic polarization tests, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were the techniques applied to characterize the corrosion behavior. It was found that the CrN coating had a lower current density from potentiodynamic polarization tests than others. The porosity, corresponding to the ratio of the polarization resistance of the uncoated and the coated substrate, was higher in the Cr₂N coating than in the other Cr-N coated steels. EIS measurements showed, for most of the Cr-N coated steels, that the Bode plot presented two time constants. Also, the Cr₂N coating represented the characteristic of Warburg behavior after 72 h of immersion. The coating morphologies were examined in planar view and cross-section by SEM analysis and the results were compared with those of the electrochemical measurement. The CrN coating had a dense, columnar grain-sized microstructure with minor intergranular porosity. From the above results, it is concluded that the CrN coating provided a better corrosion protection than the other Cr-N coated steels.     

Nitrogen removal using recycled polystyrene bottles as biofilm media

The performance of an attached growth wastewater treatment process was investigated in an effort to improve nitrogen removal efficiency. Recycled Yakult (lactic acid fermentation drink) bottles made of polystyrene were used as a biofilm media. The use of Yakult bottles as a biofilm media has been attempted by numerous researchers in Japan for the removal of solids and organics. However, these studies focused only on the removal of solids and organics. This study extended their application to the removal of nitrogen for domestic sewage treatment. Yakult media was placed in a reactor with 70% apparent reactor volume in a conventional A/O process. The bottom of the Yakult media was removed, and randomly filled Yakult media were effectively able to reduce the flow in tanks, resulting in an increase in the contact time between pollutants and microorganisms. With higher HRT, the nitrogen removal efficiency was increased by up to 83% with 12 hr of HRT. Nitrification appeared to be the limiting factor of nitrogen removal at an HRT that is less than 12 hr, indicating that the Yakult process requires more retention time to achieve nitrification compared to other biofilm processes. The removal efficiencies of organics and solids were high regardless of the change of operational parameters. This article is based on a presentation in “The 7th Korea-China Workshop On Advanced Materials” organized by the Korea-China Advanced Materials Cooperation Center and the China-Korea Advanced Materials Cooperation Center, held at Ramada Plaza Jeju Hotel, Jeju Island, Korea on August 24–27, 2003.     

Improvement of wear resistance of plasma-sprayed molybdenum blend coatings

The wear resistance of plasma sprayed molybdenum blend coatings applicable to synchronizer rings or piston rings was investigated in this study. Four spray powders, one of which was pure molybdenum and the others blended powders of bronze and aluminum-silicon alloy powders mixed with molybdenum powders, were sprayed on a low-carbon steel substrate by atmospheric plasma spraying. Microstructural analysis of the coatings showed that the phases formed during spraying were relatively homogeneously distributed in the molybdenum matrix. The wear test results revealed that the wear rate of all the coatings increased with increasing wear load and that the blended coatings exhibited better wear resistance than the pure molybdenum coating, although the hardness was lower. In the pure molybdenum coatings, splats were readily fractured, or cracks were initiated between splats under high wear loads, thereby leading to the decrease in wear resistance. On the other hand, the molybdenum coating blended with bronze and aluminum-silicon alloy powders exhibited excellent wear resistance because hard phases such as CuAl₂ and Cu₉Al₄ formed inside the coating.     

Effects of anodizing voltage on the anodized and hydrothermally treated titanium surface

Anodic oxidation is the process of creating a titanium oxide layer with various defects more dense and stable. In this study, a dense, stable and porous oxide layer was formed using anodic spark oxidation on pure titanium surface and hydroxyapatite crystals were formed on its surface via a hydrothermal treatment. A mixture of 0.02M−GP (Glycerolphosphate disodium salt) and 0.2M-CA (Calcium acetate) was used as an electrolyte. By increasing the anodizing voltage to 220, 260, 300, and 360 V, the effects of the anodizing voltage were examined by evaluating the film properties after anodization and a hydrothermal treatment. Breakdown occurred around 230 V. As the voltage increased after breakdown, the pore size increased. After the hydrothermal treatment, the amount of HA crystal precipitation was also increased as the voltage increased. The mean surface roughness (Ra) of the anodizing surface was also increased as the voltage increased. The Ra value was larger in the hydrothermally treated group compared with the group treated with anodization as a result of the HA crystals present on the surface after the hydrothermal treatment. Corrosion resistance of the surface modified by anodization was significantly increased in a saline solution compared to that for the non-treated group; this increased further after the hydrothermal treatment. These increases were most likely due to a thick stable oxide layer formed through anodization. Thus, it is believed that titanium with its surface modified through anodic spark oxidation would be a suitable biomaterial due to its corrosion resistance and biocompatibility.     

Discharge characteristics of lead dioxide electrode prepared with cementation lead oxide

Lead acid batteries have had restricted applications because of relatively low energy density below 50Wh/kg. Many efforts have achieved lighter battery components such as separators, connections and containers etc. Thus, the most important problem of the lead acid battery is to improve the low capacity of the active material in the positive electrode. The purpose of this study is to improve the utilization of the active material in the lead dioxide electrode for the lead acid battery through the production of lead oxide with better physicochemical characteristics through cementation. A cementation reaction was performed in 1.0wt.%HCl solution using pure magnesium plate as the reductant. We investigated the utilization of the active material and discharge characteristics of the positive electrode with a current density ranging from 3.4 to 108.8mAcm⁻². As a result, the active material utilization was about 72% at 3.48 mAcm⁻² and increased with decreasing current density. The discharge characteristics according to current density are especially very good at high current density     

Microstructure and mechanical property of irradiated Zr−2.5Nb pressure tube in Wolsong unit-1

With the aim of assessing the degradation of Zr−2.5Nb pressure tubes operating in the Wolsong unit-1 nuclear power plant, characterization tests are being conducted on irradiated Zr−2.5Nb tubes removed after 10-year operation. The examined tube had been exposed to temperatures ranging from 264 to 306°C and a neutron fluence of 8.9×10²¹ n/cm² (E>1 MeV) at the maximum. Tensile tests were carried out at temperatures ranging from RT to 300°C. The density of a-type and c-type dislocations was examined on the irradiated Zr-2.5Nb tube using a transmission electron microscope. Neutron irradiation up to 8.9×10²¹ n/cm² (E>1 MeV) yielded an increase in a-type dislocation density of the Zr−2.5Nb pressure tube to 7.5×10¹⁴ m⁻², which was highest at the inlet of the tube exposed to the low temperature of 275°C. In contranst, the c-component dislocation density did not change with irradiation, keeping an initial dislocation density of 0.8×10¹⁴ m⁻² over the whole length of the tube. As expected, the neutron irradiation increased mechanical strength by about 17–26% in the transverse direction and by 34–39% in the longitudinal direction compared to that of the unirradiated tube at 300°C. The change in the mechanical properties with irradiation is discussed in association with the microstructural change as a function of temperature and neutron fluence.     

Partial consensus of identical feedforward dynamic systems with input saturations

This paper studies the partial consensus problem for identical feedforward dynamic systems with input saturations. We construct two consensus protocols using the partial‐state information and full‐state information, respectively. Applying a change of coordinates, feedforward system is transformed into the block diagonal form. Then, by utilizing the bounded real lemma and small gain theorem, we solve the partial consensus problem, and the existence of each protocol is derived. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experiencing Nature: Embodying Animals in Immersive Virtual Environments Increases Inclusion of Nature in Self and Involvement With Nature

Immersive virtual environments (IVEs) produce simulations that mimic unmediated sensory experiences. 3 experiments (N = 228) tested how different modalities increase environmental involvement by allowing users to inhabit the body of animals in IVEs or watch the experience on video. Embodying sensory‐rich experiences of animals in IVEs led to greater feeling of embodiment, perception of being present in the virtual world, and interconnection between the self and nature compared to video. Heightened interconnection with nature elicited greater perceptions of imminence of the environmental risk and involvement with nature, which persisted for 1 week. Although the effect sizes were small to moderate, findings suggest that embodied experiences in IVEs may be an effective tool to promote involvement with environmental issues.     

DCT statistics-based digital dropout detection in degraded archived media

With the rapid development of visual digital media, the demand for better quality of service has increased the pressure on broadcasters to automate their error detection and restoration activities for preserving their archives. Digital dropout is one of the defects that affect archived visual materials and tends to occur in block by block basis (size of 8 × 8). It is well established that human visual system (HVS) is highly adapted to the statistics of its visual natural environment. Consequently, in this paper, we have formulated digital dropout detection as a classification problem which predicts block label based on statistical features. These statistical features are indicative of perceptual quality relevant to human visual perception, and allow pristine images to be distinguished from distorted ones. Here, the idea is to extract discriminant block statistical features based on discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients and determine an optimal neighborhood sampling strategy to enhance the discrimination ability of block representation. Since this spatial frame based approach is free from any motion computation dependency, it works perfectly in the presence of fast moving objects. Experiments are performed on video archives to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed technique.