Electrospun TiO₂ nanofibers were employed to the quasi‐solid state dye‐sensitized solar cells with porous electrodes, which enhanced the penetration of viscous polymer gel electrolytes. The morphology of electrospun TiO₂ fibers was affected by the electrospinning parameters such as the types of polymers, the concentration of polymer and titanium(IV) propoxide (TiP), the ratio of TiP/PVAc. The TiO₂ fibers electrospun from poly(vinyl acetate) matrix formed the one‐dimensionally aligned fibrillar morphology as an islands‐in‐a‐sea structure. The new TiO₂ electrodes demonstrated that the photocurrent generation with polymer gel electrolytes was over 90% of the performance in a dye‐sensitized solar cell with liquid electrolytes.

We prepared disklike tris(4-alkylbutadiynylphenyl)-1,3,5-benzenetricarboxamide and tris[4-(4-alkyloxyphenyl)butadiynylphenyl]-1,3,5-benzenetricarboxamide, where three phenyl diacetylenic and diphenyl diacetylenic groups are connected to a benzene ring through amide linkages, respectively. The structures of self-assembled substances were investigated by using transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction techniques. All the compounds were highly viscous in melt states, and only compound 9 having three phenyl diacetylenic groups and hexyl tails showed a thermotropic mesophase on cooling. The compound with three diphenyl diacetylenic groups and dodecyloxy tails (13) formed a stable gel in THF/cyclohexane. The IR and X-ray analyses showed that in the gel state molecules were assembled into a rectangular columnar lattice and held each other by hydrogen bondings between amide groups. The compound with tetradecyloxy tails (14) formed stable colloidal particles in cyclohexane. The UV irradiation of 13 in a gel and 14 in a colloidal particle did not result in a long conjugated polymer because of the inappropriate alignment of diacetylenic groups for the topochemical polymerization.

The effect of CO2 atmosphere on the chemical structure changes of resol-type phenol–formaldehyde spheres during pyrolysis was investigated, in comparison with that of N2 atmosphere, using FT-IR, TGA, and elemental analysis techniques. It was found that, in contrast to the expectation that CO2 may act as an oxidizing agent at high temperature, it behaves very similar to N2 during pyrolysis of PF spheres up to 700 °C, but results in a somewhat different extent of some specific reactions. That is, although the reactions occurring up to 700 °C were dominated by crosslinking and/or polyaromatization under both CO2 and N2 atmospheres, fewer alkyl–phenolic ether bonds were formed under CO2 than under N2. As a consequence, the samples carbonized under CO2 at 700 °C were found to have more pendant groups on the edge carbon atoms of carbon in the carbonized samples than those prepared under N2 atmosphere.

In 1963, the 117 Committee of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences (JSPS) specified standard procedures for the determination of lattice constants and crystallite sizes of carbon materials, especially graphitized materials, the so-called “Gakushin” method. In 2002 the 117 Committee started to discuss the revision of the specification in order to accept some modern computing processes, such as automatic step-scanning measurements of diffraction intensities, profile fitting for diffraction lines, etc. In this paper, the English version of the revised specification is presented to the international community of scientists working on carbon materials, and to solicit comments.

A problematic coordination behavior of highly hygroscopic FeCl3 in DMF solution was studied. From the compositional and structural analyses for the adduct of FeCl3/DMF using various techniques such as FTIR, elemental analysis, UV/vis, XPS, and TGA/DTG, it was found that the iron cation exists in the form of an Fe3+ cation and coordinates via the carbonyl oxygen atom of amide bond in DMF. The analyses of both FT-IR and XPS C 1s spectra for the adduct revealed that 2.1 molecules of DMF coordinate with a more electron-deficient Fe3+; otherwise 1.2 molecules of DMF coordinated with a relatively electron-rich Fe3+. The Cl 2p spectrum indicated that the electron-deficient Fe3+ coordinated with two chlorine ions and the electron-rich Fe3+ with four chlorines so that the chemical formula of the adduct is of [FeCl2(DMF)1.2(H2O)2.7]+[FeCl4(DMF)2.1]-. The water molecules in the adduct were found chemisorbed rather than physisorbed, with a singular binding energy.

The electroconductive polyacrylonitrile(PAN)/polyaniline composite can be synthesized by the electrochemical polymerization of aniline on the PAN-coated Pt electrode in acetonitrile/water medium. The electrochemical properties of PAN/polyaniline composites were investigated comparing with polyaniline.

New film forming aromatic poly(amide-imide)s containing isoindoloquinazolinedione (IQ) unit in the backbone chain (polymerXIV) have been successfully synthesized by preparing prepolymers of poly(amic acid-carbonamide), followed by subsequent thermal cyclization of the prepolymers. 4,4′-Diamino-3′-carbamoylbenzanilide (DACB)V has been synthesized by reduction of 3′-carbamoyl-4′-amino-4-nitrobenzanilideIV. The prepolymers of poly(amic-acid-carbonamide) (polymersVII andVIII) which exhibit viscosities ranging from 1.4 to 1.7 dl/g have been prepared by a condensation polymerization of monomers such as BPDA, ODA, and DACB. PolymerXIV has been obtained by thermal cyclization of the polymersVII andVIII. During the thermal cyclization reaction, imide ring structure was first introduced and then transformed to the structure of IQ unit. The thermal degradation rate of the resultant polymers were influenced by the cleavage of amide bond but the final char yield was comparable to that of poly(BPDA-ODA).

Bisacetoacetamides were prepared, and their polymerization was investigated. The acetoacetyl groups were introduced to diamines by the reaction with diketene to give bisacetoacetamides. They were polymerized under high pressure (34.5 MPa) at 200 °C for 30 min to create the crosslinked films. The polymerization mechanism was studied by a model reaction of acetoacetanilide. The model-reaction results indicated that the polymerization of bisacetoacetamides proceeded by addition reactions of the isocyanates formed as intermediates and in part by condensation reactions between the acetoacetamido groups. The isocyanates also reacted with the urea groups on the polymer chains to form biurets, which would cause crosslinking. In the presence of a diamine, the reaction produced a soluble oligourea.

To investigate the pre-carbonization effect on the porosity development in activated carbons, two types of activated carbons were manufactured from rice straws by the one-stage and two-stage processes, respectively. Despite of the differences in thermal history of the two processes, pore-drilling and pore-widening occurred simultaneously to increase the micro and mesopore volumes up to the activation temperature of 800°C, above which pore-widening effect was however dominant, leading to the increase of mesopore volume. The micropore volume of the one-stage activated carbons (denoted S1AC) was considerably decreased, whereas that of the two-stage activated carbons (denoted S2AC) rarely changed with the increase of activation time. S2AC exhibited higher values of the BET surface area, micro and mesopore volumes than those of S1AC. This was attributed to the effect of the pre-carbonization that ensures the formation of relatively less defective carbonaceous structures.

Electrically conducting polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/polyaniline (PAn) composite film was prepared by electrochemical polymerization of aniline on the PAN-coated Pt working electrode in the acetonitrile/water mixture solution. For the dissociation of electrolyte (acid) and the transportation of aniline and electrolyte ions through PAN to working electrode, acetonitrile (50%)/water (50%) was the optimum composition of the mixture solution in the preparation medium. The maximum peak current was obtained with sulfuric acid as an electrolyte. The electrical conductivity of PAN/PAn composite film peeled off from the Pt electrode was around 10−1 S/cm. This value is one-order of magnitude higher than the conductivity of PAN/polypyrrole composite film prepared by the same method.