The comprehensive investigation of the room temperature ionic liquid additives in PVC based polymer inclusion membrane for Cr(VI) transport

This study is to perform the comprehensive investigation of PVC based ionic plasticized membrane (IPM) production by using room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL)‐based additives and the membrane application of selective Cr(VI) removal. Some significant parameters related to membrane structures that are membrane thickness, plasticizer rate, and type, RTILs rate, and type, the average molecular weight of PVC were studied to define the excellent polymeric membrane film composition. After that, the PVC based polymeric film used in the Cr(VI) transport and initial mass transfer coefficient (J_o) were about 3.57 × 10^?7 mol s^?1 m^?2 by decyl substituted RTIL as an additive. Also, optimized membrane transport process has been considered as selective enough for Cr(VI) in the presence of the other heavy metal ions. Surface characterizations of the membranes have been performed to clarify the structural and the morphological assessment of IPMs at initial and end of Cr(VI) transport by SEM‐EDX, AFM, contact angle measurement and found a good relationship between the molecular structure of RTIL additive and membrane morphology. As we know that lots of researchers are still trying to find environmentally friendly, inexpensive and straightforward processes to remove toxic substances from industrial effluents or natural sources. At that point, our results can open a gate for cheap, novel and environmentally friendly Cr(VI) removal by PVC based membrane. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 25:E107–E119, 2019. © 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers     

A study of the local site effects on the ground response for the city of Eskişehir,Turkey

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - Local soil characteristics play a key role in determining soil-structure interaction and reliability of the superstructure behavior under...     

Design and analysis of an aging‐aware energy management system for islanded grids using mixed‐integer quadratic programming

The rapid increase of renewable energy sources made coordinated control of the distributed and intermittent generation units a more demanded task. Matching demand and supply is particularly challenging in islanded microgrids. In this study, we have demonstrated a mixed‐integer quadratic programming (MIQP) method to achieve efficient use of sources within an islanded microgrid. A unique objective function involving fuel consumption of diesel generator, degradation in a lithium‐ion battery energy storage system, carbon emissions, load shifting, and curtailment of the renewable sources is constructed, and an optimal operating point is pursued using the MIQP approach. A systematic and extensive methodology for building the objective function is given in a sequential and explicit manner with an emphasis on a novel model‐based battery aging formulation. Performance of the designed system and a sensitivity analysis of resulting battery dispatch, diesel generator usage, and storage aging against a range of optimization parameters are presented by considering real‐world specifications of the Semakau Island, an island in the vicinity of Singapore.     

Estimating crown diameters in urban forests with Unmanned Aerial System-based photogrammetric point clouds

Field measurements are the main source of information when determining stand parameters, which are essential to produce an effective forest management plan. However, conducting terrestrial measurements is neither time- nor cost-efficient in most cases. In recent years, the advent of sophisticated remote sensing technologies has enabled the extraction of accurate and robust information about the physical characteristics of trees. Crown diameter is one of the most important stand parameters that should be measured or estimated. This study proposes a Polynomial Fitting Based (PFB) methodology to estimate crown diameters of urban trees with Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)-based data. Crown diameters estimated with the PFB methodology were compared not only to a reference data but also to those estimated based on five widely used image segmentation algorithms, which were the Mean Shift Segmentation (MSS), Morphological Profiles Based Segmentation (MPBS), Multiresolution Segmentation (MRS), Seeded Region Growing Segmentation (SRGS) and Watershed Segmentation (WS). Quantitative investigations revealed that the PFB approach outperformed the other segmentation-based approaches. The PFB approach estimated the crown diameters with root-mean-square errors (RMSE) ranging from 0.69 m to 0.92 m. The PFB methodology was found to be a practical and robust approach for the estimation of crown diameters, which plays a very significant role in effective forest management.     

Esterification of 1-Octanol on Clinoptilolite-Supported TiO2 Catalysts

Silicon - In this study, a natural type of zeolite, Clinoptilolite (CLI), is used as a support for TiO2. First, TiO2-supported heterogeneous catalysts originated from the high temperature...     

New Approach for the Surface Enhanced Resonance Raman Scattering (SERRS) Detection of Dopamine at Picomolar (pM) Levels in the Presence of Ascorbic Acid

The development of a novel surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) platform that allows fast and sensitive detection of dopamine (DA) has been reported. The iron-nitrilotriacetic acid attached silver nanoparticle (Ag-Fe(NTA)) substrate provides remarkable sensitivity and reliable repeatability. The advantages of both the surface functionalization for specific analytes and the SERRS are integrated into a single functional unit. While the silver core gives the necessary enhancing properties, the Fe-NTA receptors can trap DA adjacent the silver core and the NTA-Fe-DA complex formed provides resonance enhancement with a 632.8 nm laser. DA could be detected in pM level without any pretreatment with a reliable discrimination against AA, by utilizing low laser power (10 mW) and short data acquisition time (10 s). The high sensitivity along with the improved selectivity of this sensing approach is a significant step toward molecular diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.     

Liquid–Liquid Diffusion‐Assisted Crystallization: A Fast and Versatile Approach Toward High Quality Mixed Quantum Dot‐Salt Crystals

Here, a new, fast, and versatile method for the incorporation of colloidal quantum dots (QDs) into ionic matrices enabled by liquid–liquid diffusion is demonstrated. QDs bear a huge potential for numerous applications thanks to their unique chemical and physical properties. However, stability and processability are essential for their successful use in these applications. Incorporating QDs into a tight and chemically robust ionic matrix is one possible approach to increase both their stability and processability. With the proposed liquid–liquid diffusion‐assisted crystallization (LLDC), substantially accelerated ionic crystallization of the QDs is shown, reducing the crystallization time needed by one order of magnitude. This fast process allows to incorporate even the less stable colloids including initially oil‐based ligand‐exchanged QDs into salt matrices. Furthermore, in a modified two‐step approach, the seed‐mediated LLDC provides the ability to incorporate oil‐based QDs directly into ionic matrices without a prior phase transfer. Finally, making use of their processability, a proof‐of‐concept white light emitting diode with LLDC‐based mixed QD‐salt films as an excellent color‐conversion layer is demonstrated. These findings suggest that the LLDC offers a robust, adaptable, and rapid technique for obtaining high quality QD‐salts.