The treatment of an antiaromatic norcorrole Ni(II) complex with a kinetically stabilized silylene provided ring-expansion products in excellent yields through the highly regio- and stereoselective insertion into the β-β pyrrolic CC bonds. The resultant Ni(II) porphyrinoid monoinsertion product exhibited relatively strong near-IR absorption bands due to the small HOMO-LUMO gap in spite of the disrupted cyclic π-conjugation by the silicon atom.

In continuation of the present authors' studies on production of high strength coke from lignite by sequential binderless hot briquetting and carbonization, this study has been carried out aiming at proposing methods to produce high strength coke from non-/slightly caking coals of subbituminous to bituminous rank. This paper firstly demonstrates preparation of cokes with cold tensile strengths above 10 MPa from two single non-caking coals (particle size; < 106 μm) by applying briquetting at temperature and mechanical pressure of over 200°C and 100 MPa, respectively. Such strength of coke is obtained over a wide range of heating rate, 3-30°C/min, during carbonization with final temperature of 1 000°C. Then, a simple pretreatment, fine pulverization of coal to particle sizes smaller than 10 or 5 μm, is examined. This pretreatment enables to prepare coke with tensile strength even over 25 MPa, by decreasing porosity of resulting coke and more extensively the size of macropores simultaneously. The coke strength changes with carbonization temperature having a particular feature; significant development of strength at 600-1 000°C, i.e., after completion of tar evolution, in which macropores and non-porous (dense) part of coke shrink in volume, inducing bonding and coalescence of particles and thereby arising the strength.

Sequential coal briquetting and carbonization was applied to preparation of cokes from 9 non-or slightly caking coals with carbon contents (f C) of 67-85 wt%-daf. Coal pulverization to sizes of < 106 μm and briquetting at 40°C enabled to prepare cokes with tensile strength (σ) over 10 MPa from 4 coals with f C of 82-85 or 67 wt%-daf. Then, by introducing fine pulverization to sizes of < 10 μm before the briquetting, 7 coals were converted successfully into cokes with σ = 11-25 MPa. Increasing the briquetting temperature to 240°C further increased σ to 19-35 MPa for all the 9 coals. It was thus demonstrated that the hot briquetting of finely pulverized coal was a method to prepare high strength coke regardless of the rank of parent coal. Cokes were also prepared from 14 binary coal blends. All the cokes prepared by applying the fine pulverization and hot briquetting had σ of 20-35 MPa, which agreed well with that calculated by weighted average of those from the component coals. On the other hand, positive and also negative synergistic effects of blending occurred when blends were briquetted at 40°C. Characteristics of bonding/ coalescence among particles of different types of coals were responsible for such synergies.

Electrospinning is a versatile and straightforward method for the formation of continuous thin fibers and is based on an electrohydrodynamic process from polymer solutions and melts. To improve the throughput of electrospinning and the quality of the electrospun thin fibers, an in-depth understanding of the fiber formation process is required. In the present study, we attempted to quantitatively analyze the bending instability of an electrified thin jet during electrospinning. The electrified-jet flying phenomenon from the spinneret to the substrate was investigated by high-speed camera observation and electromagnetic and kinetic analyses, i.e., the flying velocity of the electrified jet was measured, and the electric potential was obtained from finite element method analysis of an electric field. The charge density and diameter of the electrified jet in the bending instability region during electrospinning were determined by solving the equation of motion.

The treatment of an antiaromatic norcorrole NiII complex with a kinetically stabilized silylene provided ring‐expansion products in excellent yields through the highly regio‐ and stereoselective insertion into the β‐β pyrrolic CC bonds. The resultant NiII porphyrinoid monoinsertion product exhibited relatively strong near‐IR absorption bands due to the small HOMO–LUMO gap in spite of the disrupted cyclic π‐conjugation by the silicon atom.