Takako Konoike has expertise in Evaluation and her passion in improving the various measurements under pressure and crystal growth of organic conductors, especially organic Dirac fermion system α-(BEDT-TTF) 2I3. We have measured the specific heat and thermo power of organic Dirac fermion System under high pressure. We have succeeded in obtaining the first experimental results of the specific heat of Dirac fermions and observing the giant Nernst effect reflecting the intrinsic nature of the zero-mode Landau level, which is characteristic of the Dirac fermion system. From these results, we can conclude that the high-purity organic crystal can provide an ideal testing ground for experimental studies of Dirac fermions.

Statement of the Problem: Since the discovery of graphene, it attracted a great interest because the electrons in graphene behave like massless Dirac fermions. It shows anomalous behaviors resulting from the peculiar liner dispersion. It has been recognized that Dirac fermion system is also realized in organic conductor α-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 under high pressure. This system is composed of organic molecule BEDT-TTF and inorganic anions I3. These molecules are stacked alternatively and forming a multi-layered structure of conducting and insulating layer, respectively. By taking advantage of its bulk nature, we have experimentally studied the physical properties of Dirac fermions in this compound. In high magnetic field, the characteristic edge state with spin current at the sample edges is theoretically predicted. By using the micro/nano crystals, which contains large amount of edges, we aimed to observe the evidence of the edge state of this system. Methodology: Micro/nano crystal growth of α-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 is based on nano-scale electrocrystallization was carried out by using Nano-Wire Fabrication Kit, Iwata Glass Industrial Co., Ltd., The electrodes used in the crystal growth were made on a silicon substrate with 300 nm SiO2. Platinum electrode was deposited on a masked substrate and 5 m gap was made by photolithography. The substrate was set into a saturated THF solution of above two molecules. DC current was applied between the electrodes at 20C in incubator during 24 h. Findings: The typical crystal obtained by this method is shown in Figure 2. The shape of the grown micro-crystal resembles with that grown by usual electrocrystallization. The surface of the crystal is almost flat and specularly reflected suggesting that the crystal is high purity. Conclusion: By using the nano-scale electro-crystallization, we could obtain high purity micro-crystals. We will study this micro-crystal to detect the evidence of the edge state and spin current.

Metals alloys are of great technological interest which may even increase if they are nanostructured. Also, it can be found in the literature, same proposed chemical synthesis methodologies obtain different kind of materials with nanocrystal particles content. Then, the main objective of this work was to obtain a CuNiCo alloy, by an alternative procedure capable of generating nanostructured grains, followed by its preliminary characterization. It has been done by dividing the process into two steps the first one is the thermal decomposition of a nitrate solution [Cu(NO3)2, Ni(NO3)2 and Co(NO3)3] aiming to obtain a homogeneous co-formed metal oxide. In the second step, these oxides are heated up to a desired temperature and kept in a reductive flow of hydrogen, leaving the CuNiCo alloy as final product. The applied reduction temperatures were 300 °C and 900 °C. The materials obtained after each step were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray detector (EDS). As result of the first step, it was found that oxygen, Cu, Ni and Co were, as desired, homogeneously distributed, as shown in the SEM elemental mapping (Figure-1). The after reduction obtained material present different shape and particle size, depending on the applied reducing temperatures (Figure-2). The more circular and greater size observed at 900 °C confirms an increased sintering occurrence at higher temperature and the EDS results indicate the expected composition for Co, Ni and Cu (Figure-3). The initial results given by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have shown the presence of particles with spherical morphology and a homogeneous distribution of the elements, which are sharing the same crystal structure. Also, it was noted the presence of particles smaller than 100 nm in the CuNiCo alloy, as show in Figure-4 (bright and dark fields).

Heeyeon Kim has completed her PhD in Chemical Engineering from Seoul National University. She is being working in Korea Institute of Energy Research since 2004. She has investigated nano metals, nano carbons and their hybrids for energy applications. The main applications of the metal-carbon hybrids are catalysts for low temperature fuel cell, the catalysts for hydrogen production, the CO2 absorbents and the electrode material of secondary battery. The focus of her study is to develop cost-effective materials which improve the catalytic performance and concurrently maintain the long-term stability.

We have developed facile CVD techniques for the synthesis of metal hybrid nano-catalysts used for fuel cell or secondary battery. By using CVD technique, we can easily obtain the perfect catalytic structure and manipulate the microstructure of the nano metal catalysts. It is noteworthy that the conventional multi-step synthetic processes can be simplified into a single-step process or a sequential process by these processes. For the single-step CVD synthesis of Pt nano catalyst decorated with porous graphene shells, MeCpPtMe3 was used as a precursor of Pt nano particles. For the synthesis of graphene shells, various hydrocarbon precursors such as acetylene, acetone or ethyl alcohol were used as precursors, which were vaporized and simultaneously flowed into the CVD reactor. For the low-temperature synthesis of bimetallic nano alloys for fuel cell electrode, we applied one-pot sequential CVD technique. For the synthesis of Pt-Co bimetallic nanoparticles, MeCpPtMe3 was vaporized and flowed into a CVD reactor, where carbon black was placed as a support of Pt-Co bimetallic catalyst. For Co deposition, CpCo(CO)2 was vaporized and flowed into the CVD chamber. Then, the Pt with Co nano particles deposited on carbon black was annealed for the synthesis of Pt3Co bimetallic nanoparticles. By single step CVD technique, Pt with porous graphene shells were synthesized, which showed higher efficiency compared to bare Pt and maintaining long-term stability after extended potential cycling which is due to the protective effect of graphene shells. Also, our sequential CVD techniques for bimetallic Pt-Co nanocatalyst are efficient for the quick, simple and easy synthesis of optimal catalytic structure. This technique is very useful for lowering the synthetic temperature of metal alloys by more than 200oC compared to conventional processes.

Tai-Horng Young is currently a Professor at National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei, Taiwan. Since 2000, he was a Full Professor at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University. He received several awards, including outstanding research award of National Science Council, and has been the Chair Professor of National Taiwan University since 2007. From 2008 to 2011, he served as the Director of Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University. He has been a member of many academic societies and has been selected as the President of Formosa Association of Regenerative Medicine (2012-2016).

This study evaluated the effect of chitosan, poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) and poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) on delaying the human fibroblast senescence. Cells could form suspending multicellular spheroids on these biomaterials, but only chitosan was capable of decreasing the SA β-gal activity and increasing the proliferation ability of senescent fibroblasts. Therefore, in addition to the structure of multicellular spheroids, chitosan itself should play an important role in delaying fibroblast senescence. The main difference of senescence related protein expressions for cells cultured on chitosan, PVA and pHEMA occurred on the TGF-β signaling pathway. In addition to the intracellular TGF-β expression, the extracellular TGF-β expression was also down regulated. Chitosan with cationic amino structure was assumed to bind with anionic TGF-β by forming polyelectrolyte complexes. This assumption was demonstrated by directly adding chitosan into the medium to down regulate the cell TGF-β expression and further to delay cell senescence, indicating TGF-β signaling pathway was involved in the chitosan mediating fibroblast senescence process. Finally, the delaying cell senescence ability of chitosan increased with increasing the amount of amino groups in chitosan and its ionization degree. In summary, these results provide important information for considering the application of chitosan in the future cell therapy and regeneration medicine.

Yusuke Daiko has his expertise in ion conducting materials including glasses, ceramics and organic - inorganic hybrids. He received Donald R Ulrich Award 2013 from International Sol-Gel Society (ISGS) and; Awards for Advancements in Ceramic Science and Technology in 2013 from 67th Ceramic Society of Japan (CerSJ) for his research development about proton conducting glasses.

Ion implantation is one effective method for surface modification of materials and has been applied for various field including semiconductor industry and bio-technology. For example, proton (H+) implantation, so called proton therapy, has recently used most often in the treatment of cancer, in which accelerated protons are irradiated directly to cancer cells. In general, discharge plasma (gas) or liquid (e.g., liquid gallium (Ga) focused ion beam (FIB)) has been utilized for an ion source. However, in these cases, side reactions (generation of radicals or various ions with different mass such as H2+ and H3+ etc.,) are unavoidable. Also, ion (particle) accelerators are huge and expensive. On the other hand, ion emission from solid electrolytes such as YSZ has also been considered. Hosono et al., showed that O- ions exist inside cages of 12CaO·7Al2O3 (C12A7) crystal and they successfully observed O- ion emission from the C12A7 by applying a high voltage. In the case of these ion emissions from solid electrolyte, one crucial aspect is its high ion conductivity and ion emission current increases with increasing ion conductivity of electrolyte. Compared with gas and liquid ion sources, ion emission mechanism of such solid-emitter is simple and almost ~100% of emitted ions are O- ion in the case for C12A7. We have studied high ion conducting glasses and those applications for ion emission gun. One big advantage of glass is its good formability and we anticipate such ion conducting glasses can be applied for an emitter of ionic gun since the strength of the electric field is concentrated around the tip of the sharp edged glass emitter. Here we show preparation and emission properties of Ag+ ions from a tip of Ag+ ion conducting glass fiber. A good linear correlation was obtained between log (current) and square root of the voltage, suggesting the emission of Ag+ ion from the tip of glass fiber is expressed by Schottky model.

Junzhe Dong has completed his Bachelor’s degree in Materials Physics at Southwest University, China in 2011. Then he went to Northwestern Polytechnical University, China for research project on Ti alloy deformation. He has completed his PhD in “Transition metal oxides and their applications” at University of Auckland, New Zealand. He has expertise in Micro and Nano Indentation Test, Electrochemical Anodization Technique, Raman Signal Enhancement and Photocatalysis.

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) has attracted extensive attention as multifunctional semiconductors in various applications, such as sensors, photocatalysis and medical devices. Electrochemical anodization is a simple and cost-effective way to produce one dimensional TiO2 nanotubes with large surface area and tunable morphology. Recently great efforts have been made on understanding the formation mechanism behind the regular morphology and influencing anodization parameters. However, rare studies were reported focusing on the mechanical properties of anodic TiO2, such as hardness, modulus and adhesion, which are vital to practical application of TiO2. The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of electrolyte aging on the morphology and mechanical properties of anodic TiO2 nanotube arrays. Electrochemical anodization of titanium foil was conducted in different aging electrolyte to produce regular self-organized TiO2 nanotube arrays. Nano indentation test was then performed on as synthesized TiO2 nanotube surface to measure their mechanical properties. The regularity of obtained TiO2 nanotube improves in short aging electrolyte while deteriorates in long aging electrolyte with pore size decreasing from 146.58 nm to 46 nm. However, the hardness and reduced modulus increase with prolonging aging time as well as adhesion strength. The electrolyte aging has a significant role in the morphology and mechanical properties during titanium anodization. It improves the hardness, modulus and tribological behavior of anodic TiO2 nanotube arrays, but reduces their pore size and surface area. Therefore, the proper aging time of electrolyte should be selected according to the specific applications.

Dr. Athena Papadopoulou studied biology at the University of Ioannina (Greece). She received her Master of Science degree from the department of Chemistry (University of Ioannina). In 2017 she completed her Ph.D working in the area of Biocatalysis and Enzyme Technology. Her research focuses on the development of immobilized biocatalytic systems based on the use of solid supports such as nanomatrices for the production of biofuels, high-added value products with prospects in food and pharmaceutical industry or for pollutants degradation.

The development of novel nanobiocatalytic systems through the immobilization of enzymes on nanoscale materials has attracted much scientific interest and their potential use for applications in various industrial fields has been widely recognized [1]. Among the different types of nanomaterials applied for this purpose, carbon-based materials, such as graphene oxide (GO), the oxidized derivative of graphene, and hierarchical porous carbons (HPC), which possess a multimodal pore size distribution of micro-, meso-, and/or macropores, have been used for enzyme immobilization. On the other hand, magnetic nanoparticles due to their high surface area, large surface-to-volume ratio and easy separation under external magnetic fields have been broadly utilized as carriers for enzyme immobilization [2]. The functionalization of magnetic nanoparticles with carbon-based nanomaterials has recently attracted great interest as the resulting hybrid nanomaterials combine the properties of both building blocks. In the present study, we investigate the use of hybrid nanomaterials of magnetic iron nanoparticles with GO or HPC as nanosupports for the immobilization of cellulolytic enzymes which could be applied to generate glucose feedstock using lignocellulosic biomass. The aim of this work focuses on the investigation of the effect of structural characteristics, of hybrid GO- and HPC-magnetic nanoparticles on the catalytic behavior (activity, thermostability and operational stability) of cellulolytic enzymes.

Jun-Hyun Kim has completed his BS and MS degrees in Chemical Engineering at Ajou University, Suwon, South Korea in 2011 and 2013 respectively. He is currently a PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering at Ajou University. He has expertise in Plasma Processing, especially Plasma Etching.

Antireflective surfaces are useful in many applications such as solar cells, light emitting diodes and optical lens systems. Coating anti reflection layers is one of the ways to improve light trapping and decrease the optical reflectivity from the surface. By controlling the refractive index of the coating layer, the destructive interference of light minimizes the reflection. However, the use of hetero materials can limit the thermal stability and eventually the long-term reliability. The surface texturing is another way of producing antireflective surfaces. Surfaces with silicon pillars in various shapes have been shown to exhibit low reflectivity compared with bare surfaces. These pillars are mostly vertical. If the pillars are tilted from the surface normal, more light would be trapped between the pillars. This would result in lower reflectivity of the surfaces. The surface can be textured through either wet or dry etching. Wet chemical etching is very simple to operate, but only crystalline substrates can be used to obtain slanted structures in wet chemical etching. Dry etching using gaseous plasmas offers high aspect ratio structures due to its anisotropic etching characteristics. In a conventional plasma etching process, a sheath is formed along the surface of a substrate, irrespective of its angle. Therefore, simply tilting of a sample is not adequate for obtaining slanted etch profiles during conventional plasma etching. In this study, slanted silicon pillars at arbitrary angles were fabricated using the slanted plasma etching technique. Optical analysis of surfaces with silicon pillars was made to investigate their antireflection properties. It was shown that the reflectance of the surface with Si pillars was affected by the aspect ratio as well as the opening area of the pillars.

K Koushik is pursuing his 3rd year Mechanical Engineering at R V College, Bangalore, India. He is currently working as a Chassis Engineer in Team Helios Racing. He is also working on alloy materials for high temperature applications. He has presented his technical paper on Chassis of an ATV at M3 2018 Conference, Singapore.

There is renewed interest in sand casting components due to new technological developments and simulation techniques. Several researchers have developed algorithms and softwares to simulate casting process and predict defects such as porosity, blow holes, cracks and cold shuts. The objective of this paper is to obtain defect free counter weight casting (component) by best gating system based on flow simulation. CAD model of one such critical component counter weight is done in ADSTEFAN software where process parameters like weight, type and temperature of the molten metal and no-bake sand are given as input and flow simulations of three iterations of different gating systems to obtain defect free casting are performed. Actual castings for three gating systems are developed and results (defects) are compared. From first principle, the sizes of risers and flow offs are calculated with cross sections being either rectangular/cylindrical/conical shapes. Pressurized gating system is considered with a D: R: I (Down sprue: runner bar: Ingate) ratio is 1: 1.6: 0.9. Due to improper location of ingates and risers shrinkage formation is about 8-11% and 11-15% by volume in first and second iterations respectively. Installing of sleeve risers (at the point prone to casting defects) at hot spot where solidification ends results in reduction of volumetric shrinkage by 98%. Time taken to fill the mould cavity by molten metal is about 24-26 s for all three iterations. Visual inspection of actual counter weight casting of 1st and 2nd iteration showed the formation of shrinkages, cold shuts and surface blow holes and 3rd iteration showed no defects. Hence, third iteration gating system was recommended for manufacturing.

Jianyan Ding has expertise in Physics and Materials Science. At present, his main research interest is focused on nitride based red phosphors used for white light emitting diodes (WLEDs). In order to realize the red phosphors, several nitride based phosphors activated by Eu3+/Eu2+ have been reported by him. The red phosphors with narrow emission band and broad excitation band have been realized. However, there are still some problems need to be resolved, such as: thermal stability, quantum efficiency and preparation condition. In the future work, Eu3+/Eu2+ activated nitride based red phosphors would be improved through investigating the relationship between luminescence properties and crystal or electron structure.

The rare earth Eu2+/Eu3+ ions have been widely used to act as activator for phosphors, especially red phosphors. Compared with oxide, Eu2+ activated nitride based phosphors commonly present broad excitation band and red emission light due to the larger crystal field splitting and higher nephelauxetic resulting from N3- ions. The compact host lattices produced by the edge or face shared (Al, Si) N4 tetrahedrons present excellent thermal stability and high bright red emission light. However, its broad emission band resulted from 4f-5d transitions of Eu2+ ions leads to low color purity. Different from Eu2+ ions, Eu3+ activated phosphors can emit a sharp red emission light due to its f-f transitions, but sharp excitation band limits their application. For solving this problem, the charge transfer band of Eu3+-N3- in α-M3B2N4 (M=Ca, Sr) and Li2SiN2 has been investigated in our work. Meanwhile, Eu2+ activated Ca5Si2Al2N8 has also been displayed for comparison. The results show that Eu2+ or Eu3+ activated phosphors have its own advantages and disadvantages, which also indicates their different application in WLEDs and FEWs.

Xufeng Zhou is a PHD student in Lanzhou University. His main research direction is solid luminescence material.

A novel germanate based orange-emitting long persistent luminescence (PersL) phosphor: K4CaGe3O9(KCGO):Mn2+,Yb3+ has been successfully synthesized by the solid-state reaction. The special nano structures of KCGO:Mn2+ and KCGO:Mn2+,Yb3+ were indicated by transmission electron microscope (TEM) images that the block particles fo these samples are consist of many irregular spherical nano-particles and the size of these spherical particles is less than 10 nm. This special nano structure exist many defects and could provide precondition for the PersL properties of KCGO:Mn2+. Furthermore, after co-doped with Yb3+, the PersL properties have been effectively improved due to the new traps with high concentration caused by the nonequivalent substitution of Yb3+. With the optimum doping concentration and sufficient excitation with UV light, the afterglow of KCGO:0.02Mn2+,0.015Yb3+ can persist over 5 h above the recognizable intensity level (≧0.32 mcd/m2). Both fluorescence and phosphorescence spectra of KCGO:Mn2+,Yb3+ exhibit only one broad emission band, which belongs to the 4T1(G)-6A1(S) transitions of Mn2+. In addition, with the help of thermoluminescence (TL) curves, the processes and possible mechanism are studied and discussed.