Double emulsion (W/O/W) gel stabilised by polyglycerol polyricinoleate and calcium caseinate as mangiferin carrier: insights on formulation and stability properties

Mangiferin (MGF) is a phenolic compound isolated from mango, but its poor solubility significantly limits its use. In this study, MGF was embedded into the inner aqueous phase of W₁/O/W₂ emulsions. Firstly, the dissolution method of MGF was determined. MGF remained stable in solution with pH 13 at 30 min, and its solubility reached 10 mg mL⁻¹. When the pH of MGF solutions was adjusted from pH 13 to pH 6, MGF did not immediately crystallise, providing sufficient time to construct the MGF-loaded W₁/O/W₂ emulsions. Subsequently, the MGF-loaded W₁/O/W₂ emulsions were constructed using polyglycerol polyricinoleate (PGPR) and calcium caseinate (CAS). The formation and stability of the W₁/O/W₂ emulsions were investigated. The MGF-loaded W₁/O/W₂ emulsions stabilised with 1% PGPR and 1% – 3% CAS exhibited a low viscosity, limited loading capacity, and poor stability. Conversely, the MGF-loaded W₁/O/W₂ emulsions stabilised by 3%PGPR–3%CAS exhibited optimal loading capacity (encapsulation efficiency = 95.31% and loading efficiency = 0.91%) and stability, which was attributed to the fact that high viscosity and gel state retarded the migration of inner aqueous phase. These results indicated that the W₁/O/W₂ emulsions stabilised by PGPR and CAS may be a potential alternative for encapsulating mangiferin.     

Piezoelectric properties of PVDF-conjugated polymer nanofibers

This study presents the development and characterization of PVDF-conjugated polymer nanofiber-based systems. Five different conducting polymers (CPs) were synthesized successfully and used to create the nanofiber systems. The CPs used are polyaniline (PANI), polypyrrole (PPY), polyindole (PIN), polyanthranilic acid (PANA), and polycarbazole (PCZ). Nanofiber systems were produced utilizing the Forcespinning® technique. The nanofiber systems were developed by mechanical stretching. No electrical field or post-process poling was used in the nanofiber systems. The morphology, structure, electrochemical and piezoelectric performance was characterized. All of the nanofiber PVDF/CP systems displayed higher piezoelectric performance than the fine fiber PVDF systems. The PVDF/PPY nanofiber system displays the highest piezoelectric performance of 15.56 V. The piezoelectric performance of the PVDF/CP nanofiber systems favors potential for an attractive source of energy where highly flexible membranes could be used in power actuators, sensors and portable, and wireless devices to mention some.     

Process Intensification of Living Cationic Polymerization of Isobutylene by a Flow Reaction System

Increasing the reaction temperature of the living cationic polymerization of isobutylene is crucial for industrial production due to the cost of refrigeration. The reaction temperature increase was achieved with an accelerated reaction rate using a flow reaction system. The polymerization conditions, including the flow reactor design, were based on the results of kinetic studies. Utilizing a milli‐scale flow reactor, polyisobutylene, which has a narrow molecular weight distribution, was obtained within a considerably short residence time at a high temperature. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the value of M_w/M_n correlates with the product of the Reynolds number and the angle of collision.     

Nano fibrillated cellulose-based foam by Pickering emulsion: Preparation,characterizations, and application as dye adsorbent

An ecofriendly and biodegradable porous structure was prepared from drying aqueous foams based on nano fibrillated cellulose (NFC), extracted from softwood pulp by subcritical water/CO₂ treatment (SC-NFC). The primary aim of this work was to use the modified SC-NFC as stabilizer for a water-based Pickering emulsion which upon drying, yielded porous cellulosic materials, a good dye adsorbent. In order to exploit the carboxymethylated SC-NFC (CMSC-NFC, with a degree of substitution of 0.35 and a charge density of 649 μeqv/g) as a stabilizer for water-based Pickering emulsion in subsequent step, an optimized quantity of octyl amine (30 mg/g of SC-NFC) was added to make them partially hydrophobic. A series of dry foam structures were prepared by varying the concentrations of treated CMSC-NFCs and 4 wt% was found to be the optimum concentration to yield foam with high porosity (99%) and low density (0.038 g/cc) along with high compression strength (0.24 MPa), superior to the conventionally extracted NFC. The foams were applied to capture as high as 98% of methylene blue dyes, making them a potential green candidate for treating industrial effluent. In addition, the dye adsorption kinetics and isotherms were found to be well suited with second order kinetics and Langmuir isotherm models.     

Material encapsulation in poly(methyl methacrylate) shell: A review

Material encapsulation is a relatively new technique for coating a micro/nanosize particle or droplet with polymeric or inorganic shell. Encapsulation technology has many applications in various fields including drug delivery, cosmetic, agriculture, thermal energy storage, textile, and self-healing polymers. Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is widely used as shell material in encapsulation due to its high chemical stability, biocompatibility, nontoxicity, and good mechanical properties. The main approach for micro/nanoencapsulation of materials using PMMA as shell comprises emulsion-based techniques such as emulsion polymerization and solvent evaporation from oil-in-water emulsion. In the present review, we first focus on the encapsulation techniques of liquid materials with PMMA shell by analyzing the effective processing parameters influencing the preparation of PMMA micro/nanocapsules. We then describe the morphology of PMMA capsules in emulsion systems according to thermodynamic relations. The techniques to investigation of mechanical properties of capsule shell and the release mechanisms of core material from PMMA capsules were also investigated. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 48039.     

Experimental investigation of different morphology textured ceramic tools by in-situ formed for the dry cutting

Surface texture is considered an important measure to improve the cutting performance of a tool. In this study, we have prepared three types of textured and conventional tools on the rake face by an in-situ formed method. During the experiment, the best parameters of three types of textured tools were selected for dry cutting AISI 1045 steel at different cutting speeds. Cutting forces, cutting temperatures, workpiece surface roughness, and tool wear were measured during the cutting process. The results showed that textured tools have significantly reduced cutting force, cutting temperature, and tool wear, and the roughness of the workpiece was improved compared with the conventional tool. The micro-pit texture tool has less stress contact region than the micro-groove width texture tool, but the micro-groove width texture tool exhibiting the best cutting performance. This investigation clearly showed that the textured tool prepared by the in-situ formed method has improved cutting performance.     

Continuous Flow Fabrication of Block Copolymer–Grafted Silica Micro‐Particles in Environmentally Friendly Water/Ethanol Media

Polymer‐grafted inorganic particles (PGIPs) are attractive building blocks for numerous chemical and material applications. Surface‐initiated controlled radical polymerization (SI‐CRP) is the most feasible method to fabricate PGIPs. However, a conventional in‐batch reaction still suffers from several disadvantages, including time‐consuming purification processes, low grafting efficiency, and possible gelation problems. Herein, a facile method is demonstrated to synthesize block copolymer–grafted inorganic particles, that is, poly(poly(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate) (PPEGMEMA)‐b‐poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM)–grafted silica micro‐particles using continuous flow chemistry in an environmentally friendly aqueous media. Immobilizing the chain transfer agent and subsequent SI‐CRP can be accomplished sequentially in a continuous flow system, avoiding multi‐step purification processes in between. The chain length (MW) of the grafted polymers is tunable by adjusting the flow time or monomer concentration, and the narrower molar mass dispersity (Р< 1.4) of the grafted polymers reveals the uniform polymer chains on the particles. Moreover, compared with the in‐batch reaction at the same condition, the continuous system also suppresses possible gelation problems.     

负载羧基化球状介孔纳米颗粒TFN膜的研究

在薄层复合膜(thin-film composite membrane, TFC膜)中引入无机纳米颗粒，形成薄层纳米复合膜(thin-film nanocomposite membrane, TFN膜)，近几年作为反渗透膜开始应用于水处理研究。但是无机纳米颗粒在TFC膜中的性能的不稳定性和膜的机械强度等变成了突出问题。合成制备了粒径约为110 nm修饰羧基的介孔氧化硅球状纳米颗粒(MSN—COOH)，并将其成功地化学键合在TFC膜的表面功能层交联网络中。与TFC膜相比，键合有MSN—COOH的TFN膜，水通量提高了56.2%，保持高脱盐率；由于单分散介孔纳米颗粒表面亲水官能团的引入，使膜表面的亲水性有很大程度提高，单分散介孔纳米颗粒在基体中的有序排列，使膜表面粗糙度降低，提高了膜的抗污染能力。与普通TFN膜相比较，具有更好的稳定性和柔韧性，可以在长时间高压过滤操作下保持稳定。     

Evaluation of hydrodynamic behavior of the perforated gas distributor of industrial gas phase polymerization reactor using CFD-PBM coupled model

A 2D computational fluid dynamics (Eulerian–Eulerian) multiphase flow model coupled with a population balance model (CFD-PBM) was implemented to investigate the fluidization structure in terms of entrance region in an industrial-scale gas phase fluidized bed reactor. The simulation results were compared with the industrial data, and good agreement was observed. Two cases including perforated distributor and complete sparger were applied to examine the flow structure through the bed. The parametric sensitivity analysis of time step, number of node, drag coefficient, and specularity coefficient was carried out. It was found that the results were more sensitive to the drag model. The results showed that the entrance configuration has significant effect on the flow structure. While the dead zones are created in both corners of the distributors, the perforated distributor generates more startup bubbles, heterogeneous flow field, and better gas–solid interaction above the entrance region due to jet formation.     

Microstructure and permeability of porous YSZ ceramics fabricated by freeze casting of oil-in-water suspension

Porous yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) ceramics are fabricated through freeze casting of oil-in-water suspension followed by sintering at 1250−1550 °C. The pore structure, compressive strength and permeability of porous YSZ ceramics are tailored via altering the emulsion content and sintering temperature. The samples obtained using higher emulsion content or at lower sintering temperature show larger Darcian and non-Darcian constants due to their higher open porosity and larger pore size. Furthermore, the investigation on individual contributions of viscous and inertial resistances on the total pressure drop during permeation process indicates that the viscous resistance increases but the inertial resistance decreases with increasing the emulsion content or decreasing the sintering temperature for samples. Porous YSZ ceramics obtained in this work with a k₁ range of 3.14 × 10⁻¹³–1.12 × 10⁻¹² m² are appropriate for applications in filters and membrane supports.