The use of basalt powder as a natural heterogeneous catalyst in the Fenton and Photo-Fenton oxidation of cationic dyes

The use of naturally present heterogeneous catalysts has recently been an essential issue in the Fenton and photo-Fenton processes. In this study, the uses of basalt as a catalyst for the Fenton and photo-Fenton reactions for methylene Blue (MB) and Basic Red 18 (BR18) degradations were investigated. Basalt was selected because of the presence of the iron (III) oxide in the structure. Basalt was characterized by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis to obtain the chemical composition and the crystalline phase. The surface charge and the surface area were obtained by zeta potential and Brunauer Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were utilized to explore the functional group and the surface morphology. Fenton and photo-Fenton processes were applied to explore the best degradation method. Adsorption was also tested and the adsorption process had minimum removal efficiency (12% for MB and 17% for BR18). The removal efficiencies for MB and BR18 by the Fenton process were 87% and 28%, respectively. The photo-Fenton process had maximum removal efficiency with 100% for MB and 70% for BR18. The optimum conditions were 70 mg/L dye concentration, 5 mM H₂O₂, 1.0 g/L basalt loading and pH 2. Basalt has shown reuse capability as a catalyst for three consecutive cycles.     

Effect of current density on the corrosion protection performance of polyaniline coated AISI 4140 steel

The present work reports on electropolymerisation of aniline onto AISI 4140 steel substrate at room temperature in oxalic acid media by the potentiodynamic electrodeposition method. The effect of coating current density on the morphology of conductive polymer films and their corrosion behaviour has been investigated. The electrolyte solution comprised 0.1 M aniline?+?0.3 M oxalic acid. The effects of deposition current density changes (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5?mA cm^?2) on the films were investigated. The PANI film was characterised using cyclic voltammetry and optical microscopy; it was covered with a dark green-yellow homopolymer film of strongly adherent homogeneous characteristic. The corrosion behaviour of steel electrodes with and without polyaniline (PANI) film in 3.5 wt-% NaCl solution was investigated through anodic polarisation curves. The results indicated that the PANI coating obtained under 0.2?mA cm^?2 was the most corrosion protective.     

Processing of urea‐formaldehyde‐based particleboard from hazelnut shell and improvement of its fire and water resistance

The purpose of this study was to manufacture urea‐formaldehyde‐based particleboard from hazelnut shell and eliminate its disadvantages such as flammability, water absorption, swelling thickness by using fly ash and phenol‐formaldehyde. Synthesized urea‐formaldehyde and grained hazelnut shells were blended at different ratios ranging from 0.8 to 3.2 hazelnut shell/urea‐formaldehyde and dried at 70°C in an oven until constant weight was reached. In addition, other parameters affecting polymer composite particleboard from hazelnut shell and urea‐formaldehyde were investigated to be the amount of fly ash, amount of phenol formaldehyde and the effects of these parameters on bending stress, limit oxygen index, water absorption capacity and swelling in the thickness. The optimization results showed that the maximum bending strength was 4.1N/mm², at urea‐formaldehyde ratio of 1.0, reaction temperature of 70°C, reaction time of 25 min, hazelnut shell/urea‐formaldehyde resin of 2.4 and mean particle size of 0.1 mm. Although the limited oxygen index and smoke density of composite particleboard without fly ash has 22.3 and 1.62, with fly ash of 16% (w/w) according to the filler has 38.2 and 1.47, respectively. Water absorption and increase in the swelling thickness exponentially decreased with increasing phenol formaldehyde. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The optimization of welding parameters for friction stir spot welding of high density polyethylene sheets

Friction stir spot welding parameters affect the weld strength of thermoplastics, such as high density polyethylene (HDPE) sheets. The strength of a friction stir spot weld is usually determined by a lap-shear test. For maximizing the weld strength, the selection of welding parameters is very important. This paper presents an application of Taguchi method to friction stir spot welding strength of HDPE sheets. An orthogonal array, the signal to noise ratio (S/N), and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) are employed to investigate friction stir welding parameter effects on the weld strength. From the ANOVA and the S/N ratio response graphs, the significant parameters and the optimal combination level of welding parameters were obtained. Experimental results confirmed the effectiveness of the method.     

Dynamic analysis of a trickle bed reactor by moment technique

The performance of a trickle bed reactor is investigated by the moment technique. Residence time distributions of SO₂ tracer in both gas (Helium) and liquid (distilled water) effluents are used to predict zero reduced and first absolute moments and these values are compared with the derived theoretical expressions. Correlations are suggested for gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient, liquid hold up, and extent of axial mixing in liquid phase.True adsorption equilibrium constant of the system is estimated as 0.378 from liquid full bed experiments and contacting efficiency of the trickle bed reactor is found as 0.987.Effect of axial dispersion is not significant on gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient since absorption factor is small, but is found to be quite important on the true estimation of adsorption factor.