Antioxidative effects of alpha-tocopherol and ascorbyl palmitate on thermal oxidation of canola oil

Canola oil, with and without added alpha-tocopherol and ascorbyl palmitate, was used to deep-fat frying potatoes once per day for 10 day or once per week for 10 weeks. Changes in chemical and physical properties were monitored. Refractive index, free fatty acids and absorbance at 232 and 270 nm increased with frying time. Smoke point, 'L' color index, iodine value and the C18:2/C16:0 ratio in the oil decreased with the frying time. According to smoke point, which shows the time of the oil should be discarded, canola oil without antioxidant (control) can be used safely 8 times daily or 7 times weekly. For canola oil with antioxidant (oil + alpha-tocopherol + ascorbyl palmitate), the smoke point did not decrease below 170 degrees C in both daily and weekly fryings. This showed that canola oil with antioxidant could be used safely at least 10 times for both frying intervals. In both daily and weekly fryings, the addition of 200 ppm alpha-tocopherol and 200 ppm ascorbyl palmitate increased the oxidative stability of canola oil.     

Investigation kinetics mechanisms of adsorption malachite green onto activated carbon

Lignite was used to prepare activated carbon (T3K618) by chemical activation with KOH. Pore properties of the activated carbon such as BET surface area, pore volume, pore size distribution, and pore diameter were characterized by t-plot based on N2 adsorption isotherm. BET surface area of activated carbon is determined as 1000 m2/g. Adsorption capacity of malachite green (MG) onto T3K618 activated carbon was investigated in a batch system by considering the effects of various parameters like initial concentration (100, 150 and 200 mg/L) and temperature (25, 40 and 50 degrees C). The adsorption process was relatively fast and equilibrium was reached after about 20 min for 100, 150 mg/L at all adsorption temperature. Equilibrium time for 200 mg/L was determined as 20 min and 40 min at 298, 313 and 323 K, respectively. Simple mass and kinetic models were applied to the experimental data to examine the mechanisms of adsorption and potential rate controlling steps such as external mass transfer, intraparticle diffusion. Pseudo second-order model was found to explain the kinetics of MG adsorption most effectively. It was found that both mass transfer and pore diffusion are important in determining the adsorption rates. The intraparticle diffusion rate constant, external mass transfer coefficient, film and pore diffusion coefficient at various temperatures were evaluated. The activation energy (Ea) was determined as 48.56, 63.16, 67.93 kJ/mol for 100, 150, 200 mg/L, respectively. The Langmiur and Freundlich isotherm were used to describe the adsorption equilibrium studies at different temperatures. Langmiur isotherm shows better fit than Freundlich isotherm in the temperature range studied. The thermodynamic parameters, such as DeltaG degrees, DeltaS and DeltaH degrees were calculated. The thermodynamics of dyes-T3K618 system indicates endothermic process.     

Mechanical properties of surface modified jute fiber/polypropylene nonwoven composites

In this study, the jute/polypropylene nonwoven reinforced composites were prepared using film stacking method. The surface of jute fibers was modified using alkali treatment. These alkali treated jute fiber nonwoven composites were analyzed for their tensile and flexural properties. Increasing the amount of jute fibers in the nonwovens has improved the mechanical properties of their composites. The effect of stacking sequence of preferentially and nonpreferentially aligned nonwovens within the composites was also investigated. The flexural and tensile moduli of composites were found to be significantly enhanced when nonwovens consisting of preferentially and nonpreferentially aligned jute fibers were stacked in an alternate manner. The existing theoretical models of tensile modulus of fiber reinforced composites have been analyzed for predicting the tensile modulus of nonwoven composites. In general, a good agreement was obtained between the experimental and theoretical results of tensile modulus of nonwoven composites. POLYM. COMPOS., 35:1044–1050, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Surface modification of polyethersulfone membrane to improve its hydrophobic characteristics for waste frying oil filtration: Radio frequency plasma treatment

In this study, polyethersulfone (PES) membrane was subjected to surface modification using hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) and 1,1,1,3,3,3‐hexafluoro‐2‐propanol ( HFIP) in radio frequency (RF) plasma system to improve its hydrophobic property for recovery of waste frying oil. Structural and morphological changes on the membrane surfaces were characterized by contact angle measurements, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy‐attenuated total reflection (FTIR‐ATR) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Permeate fluxes, physical and chemical properties of waste frying oil and waste frying oil–methanol micella (oil/methanol 1/3, 1/1, 1/3, v/v) after filtration through unmodified and modified PES membranes were investigated. The results showed that PES membranes modified with HMDSO at 75 W for 5 min (discharge power–exposure time) selectively rejected total polar compounds (TPC) and free fatty acids (FFAs) of waste frying oil to the extent of 46.9–48% and 35.3–40%, respectively. Furthermore, the viscosity of waste frying oil was reduced to the extent of 9.4–12.8%. RF‐plasma‐treated PES membranes appeared to improve the regeneration of waste frying oils and allow these oils to be used for either repeated frying operations or biodiesel production. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 123:3402–3411, 2012     

N2O decomposition on Fe- and Co-ZSM-5: A density functional study

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations are employed to study N₂O decomposition on relaxed [(SiH₃)₄AlO₄M] (where M = Fe, Co) cluster models representing Fe- and Co-ZSM-5 surfaces and Fe-ZSM-5 channel cluster. The catalytic cycle steps are completed both for Fe- and Co-ZSM-5 clusters. It is found that the general trend of the results obtained is in agreement with experimental and theoretical literature: Co-ZSM-5 has a lower activation energy barrier than Fe-ZSM-5 and O₂ desorption step is the rate-limiting step for both clusters. The activation barrier for the decomposition of the first N₂O molecule inside a Fe-ZSM-5 channel cluster increases in comparison with that of the cluster model indicating a channel effect on the activation barrier. The activation barrier reported for the channel cluster is 12.63 kcal/mol. This is also in good agreement with experimental literature.     

Investigating hydrophobicity and the effect of exopolysaccharide on aggregation properties of dairy propionibacteria isolated from Turkish homemade cheeses

Propionic acid bacteria have been used widely as starter cultures. However, their potential as probiotics has received little attention. The ability to auto- and coaggregate is a desirable property for probiotics in health-promoting foods. Therefore, in the current study, we assessed the effect of exopolysaccharides produced by dairy propionibacteria strains on the aggregative and hydrophobicity properties. All propionibacteria strains tested showed auto- and coaggregation ability with Escherichia coli ATCC 11229, but the results were strain specific and dependent on exopolysaccharides production and incubation conditions. In addition, propionibacteria strains tested were determined to be highly hydrophilic. Our results indicate that the ability to autoaggregate, together with cell-surface hydrophobicity and coaggregation abilities with an E. coli strain, can be used for preliminary screening in order to identify potentially probiotic bacteria suitable for human or animal use.     

Role of chromium in Cr–Fe oxide catalysts for high temperature water-gas shift reaction – A DFT study

Carcinogenic hexavalent Cr in the current iron oxide-based catalysts of high temperature water-gas shift (HT-WGS) reaction is great environmental concern. Interpreting the role of the Cr in this important industrial catalyst system is required. In the present study, we investigated substitution of Cr atoms into the most stable termination of Fe₃O₄ (111) slab surface by spin-polarized periodic DFT approach to comprehend the role of Cr. We applied the projector augmented-wave (PAW) method within the Perdew-Wang 1991 (PW91) form of the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) on the Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package (VASP). The calculations point out that Cr atoms choose being below the surface FeO₆ sites. Cr slightly affects the dissociative H₂O adsorption. There is no effect on the CO adsorption. Oxygen vacancy is favored to form on the topmost layer with less vacancy formation energy. Substitution of Cr into the structure increases the oxygen vacancy formation energy. This indicates that Cr does not act as a chemical promoter and does not affect the catalytic activity positively, which is experimentally confirmed by the previous studies.