Comparison of activities in selective catalytic reduction of NOx by C3H8 over Co/MFI, Fe/MFI, and H/MFI zeolite catalysts

The Co/MFI(SiO₂/Al₂O₃ = 30) were prepared by a precipitation method with NaOCl in alkali solutions exhibited high activities to N₂ at 250 °C for the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO_x. These catalysts showed two UV–vis bands at 700 and 400 nm, indicating the presence of octahedral Co(III) as well as tetrahedral Co(II). The high SCR activity over such Co(III, II)/MFI(30) seems to come from Co(III)---O moieties. The Co(II)MFI(30) catalysts prepared from Co(II)Cl₂ exhibited low SCR activities due to the presence of tetrahedral Co(II) ions in MFI. Less CO formation occurred over Co/MFI catalysts. The Fe/MFI(30) catalyst exhibited high activity due to the presence of some Fe---O species in MFI but more amount of CO were produced during SCR. H/MFI(30) catalyst exhibited a good SCR activity. However, more amount of carbonaceous deposits were produced on it. The correlation between acid concentration and SCR activity was discussed over H/MFIs.     

Resistive superconducting transition of κ-type BEDT-TTF organic superconductors in a magnetic field

The superconducting transition of the organic compoundsκ-(BEDT-TTF)₂ X is studied by resistive measurement in a magnetic field up to 10 T applied normal to the conducting plane. For the salts withX=Cu[N(CN)₂]Br andX=CuCN[N(CN)₂] the transition shows fanshaped broadening caused by superconductivity fluctuation. For theX=Cu(NCS)₂ salt the resistivity shows a peak in the transition region in a magnetic field below 4 T.This phenomenon is suppressed in defect-reduced samples for intralayer conduction. We discuss this peak in relation to the thermal fluctuation on the Josephson junction structures in this salt.     

Numerical analysis of wave-type heat transfer propagating in a thin foil irradiated by short-pulsed laser

This paper presents a numerical simulation of wave-type heat transfer phenomena propagating in an aluminum thin foil irradiated by a pulsed laser using the cubic interpolated propagation method coupled with a thermo-convective model. We did not use the two-step model and dual-phase lag model, which are generally known as the non-Fourier heat conduction law, but wave-type heat transfer phenomena could be observed by our method. The main characteristic of the method is to solve the governing equation including the equation of continuity, the equation of motion, the equation of energy and the equation of state. It is found that when the pulse duration is under the order of picosecond, the pure heat conduction is hardly observed and heat transfer toward the inside of materials occurs only by a thermal shock wave. The heat conduction mode after pulse laser irradiation is strongly dependent upon the value of total incident laser energy density E_in and the threshold value for pure heat conduction is 5.0 × 10⁴ J/m² for an aluminum.     

Carrying capacity and vulnerability of four Asian lakes: A comparative study

To present axes for evaluating the water resources, lake environment and water use in a lake and its watershed, a comparative study was done for four East Asian lakes; lake Kasumigaura (Japan), Lake Laguna (Philippines), Lake Songkhla (Thailand) and Lake Dianchi (China). Two axes were then determined from the relationship between: (1) water use and water supply rate, and (2) water use and water quality. To clarify the meanings ‘carrying capacity’ and ‘vulnerability’, the maximum population density in the lake basin and total nitrogen concentration in the lake water were calculated and discussed to decide the direction of environmentally sound management of the drainage basin.     

Vapor phase hydroformylation of ethene over Co/SiO2 promoted by noble metals: dynamic in situ diffuse reflectance FT-IR study of surface species

An in situ diffuse reflectance FT-IR technique was employed to investigate the active surface species and the reaction mechanism of the oxygenate formation in the vapor phase hydroformylation of ethene on Co/SiO₂ promoted with various noble metals such as Ir, Rh, Pt, Re, Ru, and Pd. Co(A)/SiO₂ and Ir(CO)/SiO₂ which were derived from cobalt(II) acetate and Ir₄(CO)₁₂, respectively, were quite inactive in the reaction, and showed only quite small peaks of adsorbed CO under the conditions of 1.1 MPa of C₂H₄/CO/H₂ at 298 K. In contrast, Co(A)-Ir(CO)/SiO₂, which were very active in the reaction, exhibited strong absorption bands of linear and bridged CO species. At 423–463 K, propanal adsorbed on the catalyst and acyl species which is suggested as the intermediate for the formation of propanal were also observed on this catalyst. By exposing CO preadsorbed on this catalyst to C₂H₄/H₂ at 289 K and 0.1 MPa, the intensity of the linear CO band decreased, and the bands of propanal and acyl species emerged simultaneously, whereas that of the bridged CO band remained constant after the initial drop. These results suggested that the oxygenates are formed via the CO insertion into adsorbed ethyl species, and linear CO species plays a major role in the CO insertion on these noble metal-promoted cobalt catalysts.     

Properties of networks obtained by internal plasticization of epoxy resin with aromatic and aliphatic glycidyl compounds

In order to improve the fracture properties of p, p′-diaminodiphenylmethane-cured epoxy resin, various kinds of aromatic and aliphatic glycidyl compounds were investigated as a modifier at an amount of 30 wt %. Several compounds promoted the fracture toughness. In any glycidyl compounds, however, heat resistance was decreased by the modification. The dynamic mechanical properties of the modified epoxy resins were measured. The crosslinking density ρ was calculated from the theory of rubber elasticity, and the mechanical properties of the resins were discussed in regard to the crosslinking density. Tensile strength was scarcely affected by the crosslinking density. Elongation at break and Izod impact strength increased remarkably with decrease in crosslinking density. The fracture toughness K_Ic- increased with decrease in crosslinking density except at small ρ.     

Balanced corpus of contemporary written Japanese

The balanced corpus of contemporary written Japanese (BCCWJ) is Japan’s first 100 million words balanced corpus. It consists of three subcorpora (publication subcorpus, library subcorpus, and special-purpose subcorpus) and covers a wide range of text registers including books in general, magazines, newspapers, governmental white papers, best-selling books, an internet bulletin-board, a blog, school textbooks, minutes of the national diet, publicity newsletters of local governments, laws, and poetry verses. A random sampling technique is utilized whenever possible in order to maximize the representativeness of the corpus. The corpus is annotated in terms of dual POS analysis, document structure, and bibliographical information. The BCCWJ is currently accessible in three different ways including Chunagon a web-based interface to the dual POS analysis data. Lastly, results of some pilot evaluation of the corpus with respect to the textual diversity are reported. The analyses include POS distribution, word-class distribution, entropy of orthography, sentence length, and variation of the adjective predicate. High textual diversity is observed in all these analyses.     

Selective vapor phase hydroformylation of ethylene over cluster-derived cobalt catalyst

Vapor phase hydroformylation of ethylene was studied with silica-supported metal catalysts. A cobalt metal catalyst derived from Co₂(CO)₈ gave propanal and its derivatives in as high selectivity of about 36% as Rh/SiO₂ catalyst under the reaction conditions of 1.1 MPa of a gas-mixture of ArCOC₂H₄H₂ = 1333 at 423–503 K. On the other hand, conventional cobalt catalysts derived from cobalt nitrate, chloride, or acetate, and other noble metal catalysts (Pd/SiO₂ and Ir/SiO₂) produced mainly ethane.     

Thermal behaviors and flame‐retardancy of styrene–ethylene–butadiene–styrene–block copolymer containing various additives

The thermal behaviors and the flame‐retardancy of styrene–ethylene–butadiene–styrene–block copolymer containing various additives were studied. The combustion was measured by the Underwriter laboratory (UL) test and cone calorimeter test and thermogravimetric analysis and program‐mass spectroscopy were applied to analyze the thermal behaviors. The blend with halogen additives showed the best result in the UL test. However, the blend with red‐phosphorous was the best in the cone calorimeter test. As the styrene sequence in the copolymer tended to degradate at a lower temperature, the major scission products spouted out from the polymer surface originated from polystyrene. The shorter the ignition times of the blends with red‐phosphorous were, the lower the peak heat release rates were. It was an interesting phenomenon because it suggested that the chemical structure of the residue changed to more stable polymers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104: 156–161, 2007     

Compact electrostatic levitator for diffraction measurements with a two axis diffractometer and a laboratory x-ray source

A compact electrostatic levitator was developed for the structural analysis of high-temperature liquids by x-ray diffraction methods. The size of the levitator was 200 mm in diameter and 200 mm in height and can be set up on a two axis diffractometer with a laboratory x-ray source, which is very convenient in performing structural measurements of high-temperature liquids. In particular, since the laboratory x-ray source allows a great amount of user time, preliminary or challenging experiments can be performed with trial and error, which prepares and complements synchrotron x-ray experiments. The present small apparatus also provides the advantage of portability and facility of setting. To demonstrate the capability of this electrostatic levitator, the static structure factors of alumina and silicon samples in their liquid phases were successfully measured.