Toyota

About: Toyota is a company organization based out in Safenwil, Switzerland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Internal combustion engine & Battery (electricity). The organization has 40032 authors who have published 55003 publications receiving 735317 citations. The organization is also known as: Toyota Motor Corporation & Toyota Jidosha KK.

One‐pot synthesis of nylon 6–clay hybrid

Abstract: Nylon 6–clay hybrid is a molecular composite of nylon 6 and uniformly dispersed silicate layers of montmorillonite. One-pot synthesis of the hybrid was carried out by the following procedures. Montmorillonite was dispersed in water, and then e-caprolactam, acid (phosphoric acid, hydrochloric acid, benzenesulfonic acid, isophthalic acid, trichloroacetic acid, or acetic acid), and 6-aminocaproic acid were added to the dispersion. The mixtures were reacted at 260°C for 6 h, yielding the nylon 6–clay hybrids (1potNCHs). X-ray diffraction revealed that the silicate layers of 1potNCH by phosphoric acid were uniformly dispersed in the nylon 6 matrix. The 1potNCH had excellent mechanical properties. The strength and the modulus of the hybrid increased compared with previously reported nylon 6–clay hybrid (NCH) synthesized by montmorillonite intercalated with 12-aminolauric acid. The heat distortion temperature (HDT) of the 1potNCH was 160°C, which was 8°C higher than that of NCH. In other 1potNCHs, montmorillonite had a smaller effect on the increase of those properties, and interlayer spacing of montmorillonite was observed at ca. 20 A. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Correlation between thermodynamical stabilities of metal borohydrides and cation electronegativites: First-principles calculations and experiments

Abstract: Note: Times Cited: 251 Reference EPFL-ARTICLE-206012doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.74.045126View record in Web of Science URL: ://WOS:000239426800043 Record created on 2015-03-03, modified on 2017-05-12

3D Traffic Scene Understanding From Movable Platforms

Abstract: In this paper, we present a novel probabilistic generative model for multi-object traffic scene understanding from movable platforms which reasons jointly about the 3D scene layout as well as the location and orientation of objects in the scene. In particular, the scene topology, geometry, and traffic activities are inferred from short video sequences. Inspired by the impressive driving capabilities of humans, our model does not rely on GPS, lidar, or map knowledge. Instead, it takes advantage of a diverse set of visual cues in the form of vehicle tracklets, vanishing points, semantic scene labels, scene flow, and occupancy grids. For each of these cues, we propose likelihood functions that are integrated into a probabilistic generative model. We learn all model parameters from training data using contrastive divergence. Experiments conducted on videos of 113 representative intersections show that our approach successfully infers the correct layout in a variety of very challenging scenarios. To evaluate the importance of each feature cue, experiments using different feature combinations are conducted. Furthermore, we show how by employing context derived from the proposed method we are able to improve over the state-of-the-art in terms of object detection and object orientation estimation in challenging and cluttered urban environments.

Cyclic voltammetry of biofilms of wild type and mutant Geobacter sulfurreducens on fuel cell anodes indicates possible roles of OmcB, OmcZ, type IV pili, and protons in extracellular electron transfer

Abstract: Geobacteracea are distinct for their ability to reduce insoluble oxidants including minerals and electrodes without apparent reliance on soluble extracellular electron transfer (ET) mediators. This property makes them important anode catalysts in new generation microbial fuel cells (MFCs) because it obviates the need to replenish ET mediators otherwise necessary to sustain power. Here we report cyclic voltammetry (CV) of biofilms of wild type (WT) and mutant G. sulfurreducens strains grown on graphite cloth anodes acting as electron acceptors with acetate as the electron donor. Our analysis indicates that WT biofilms contain a conductive network of bound ET mediators in which OmcZ (outer membranec-type cytochrome Z) participates in homogeneous ET (through the biofilm bulk) while OmcB mediates heterogeneous ET (across the biofilm/electrode interface); that type IV pili are important in both reactions; that OmcS plays a secondary role in homogenous ET; that OmcE, important in Fe(III) oxide reduction, is not involved in either reaction; that catalytic current is limited overall by the rate of microbial uptake of acetate; that protons generated from acetate oxidation act as charge compensating ions in homogenous ET; and that homogenous ET, when accelerated by fast voltammetric scan rates, is limited by diffusion of protons within the biofilm. These results provide the first direct electrochemical evidence substantiating utilization of bound ET mediators by Geobacter biofilms and the distinct roles of OmcB and OmcZ in the extracellular ET properties of anode-reducing G. sulfurreducens.

Anisotropic etching of silicon in TMAH solutions

Abstract: Detailed characteristics of tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH, (CH3)4NOH) as silicon anisotropic etching solutions with various concentrations from 5 to 40 wt.% and temperatures from 60 to 90 °C have been studied. The etch rates of (100) and (110) crystal planes decrease with increasing concentration. The etched (100) planes are covered by pyramidal hillocks below 15 wt.%, but very smooth surfaces are obtained above 22 wt.%. Etch rates of 1.0 μ/min for the (100) plane and 1.4 μ/min for the (110) plane at 90 °C are obtained using a 22 wt.% solution. The etch-rate ratio of (111)/(100) varies from 0.02 to 0.08. The etch rate of thermally oxidized SiO2 is almost four orders of magnitude lower than that for (100) and (110) planes. The etch rates of aluminium are reduced by dissolving silicon in TMAH solution. Etch-stop techniques using a heavily boron-doped layer or p—n junction prove to be applicable to TMAH solutions.