Dielectrophoresis in aqueous suspension: impact of electrode configuration

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) allows to moving neutral or charged particles in liquids by supplying a non-uniform electric field. When using alternating current and insulated electrodes, this is possible in conducting media such as aqueous solutions. However, relatively high field strength is required that is discussed to induce also an undesired Joule heating effect. In this paper, we demonstrate boundary conditions for avoiding this side effect and suggest a novel design of an interdigitated electrode (IDE) configuration to reduce the power consumption. Numerical simulation using OpenFOAM demonstrated that, when replacing conventional plate IDE by cylindrical micro-IDE in microchannel systems, the dielectrophoretic force field, i.e., the electric field gradient squared, becomes stronger and more homogeneously distributed along the electrodes array. Also the resulting particle DEP velocities were highest for the cylindrical IDE. The simulations were experimentally confirmed by measuring velocity of resin particle located at the subsurface of demineralized water. Surprisingly the fluid flow induced by electrothermal effect turned out to be negligible in microchannels when compared to the DEP effect and becomes dominant only for distances between particle and IDE larger than 6,000 μm. The well-agreed experimental and simulation results allow for predicting particle motion. This can be expected to pave the way for designing DEP microchannel separators with high throughput and low energy consumption.     

Engineering microfluidic papers: effect of fiber source and paper sheet properties on capillary-driven fluid flow

In the present study, we introduce a novel approach to control and modulate fluid transport inside microfluidic papers using lab-engineered paper sheets. Lab-sheets consisting of different fiber sources (eucalyptus sulfate and cotton linters pulp) and varying porosities were designed and further modified with small millimeter-scaled channels using hydrophobic barriers consisting of fiber-attached, hydrophobic polymers. The capillary-driven transport of an aqueous solution was monitored visually, and the influence of parameters such as fiber source, paper grammage, and channel width on the flow rates through the channel was investigated. The experimental results were compared with those obtained with commercially available filter papers. Our findings suggest that accurate control of fluid transport processes with standard filter papers is complex. Additionally, if the channel width is smaller than the mean fiber length, flow rates become dependent on the geometric parameters of the channel because of the formation of dead-end pores at the hydrophobic barriers. Finally, control of the paper sheets porosity, by varying the fiber density of the lab-made paper, affords the fabrication of chemically identical sheets whereby capillary flow is largely influenced and can be modulated accordingly by simple papermaking processes.     

Coordination between strategic forest management and tactical logistic and production planning in the forestry supply chain

In this paper, we study the coordination mechanism in the forestry supply chain between strategic forest management and tactical production planning. We first formulate an integrated model to establish a theoretical benchmark for performance of the entire supply chain. It is a mixed integer programming model that involves harvesting, bucking, transportation, production, and sales decisions for both tactical and strategic planning levels. We then present two sequential approaches S‐A and S‐B where the coordination is done through internal pricing. S‐A is the approach currently used in practice where harvesting in the forest is the main driver of the supply chain activities and internal pricing is introduced to control bucking decision in a separate stage. In contrast, S‐B takes downstream demand information into consideration and internal pricing directly influences harvesting decision in the first stage. In order to find the appropriate setting of internal pricing that leads to the system optimum, we suggest two heuristics H‐I and H‐II. The internal pricing in H‐I is based on dual values and in H‐II, it is derived from a Lagrangian decomposition. A real‐life case study in the Chilean forestry industry is used to compare the results of different approaches. It is shown that the new sequential approach S‐B generates as good feasible solution as that obtained from the integrated approach but in much less time. Both heuristics H‐I and H‐II bring about near‐optimal feasible solutions. H‐II also provides optimistic bound of the optimal objective function value, which can be used as a measure of the solution quality.     

Pore structure of bulk tungsten carbide powder catalysts

Bulk tungsten carbide catalysts are prepared by direct carburization/reduction of tungsten trioxide in methane-hydrogen mixtures. The catalytic properties of such catalysts have been studied by several authors. The porous structure of these catalysts is studied by adsorption of N₂, Kr, CF₄ and neohexane. Adsorption isotherms and hysteresis loops for the catalysts suggest the presence of a microporous structure made of parallel plates distant approximately by 20 Å. These results are compared to those obtained using such catalysts for hydrogen oxidation and where condensation in the porous structure was observed.     

Rate of adsorption to and desorption from a langmuir surface: The case of zero activation barrier to adsorption without dissociation

Many rate constants of elementary steps on single crystals have been measured. Their pre-exponential factors can now be compared to those calculated by transition state theory. Such a calculation is presented in this Letter with due attention to microscopic reversibility, standard states, and configurational entropy.     

Application of K2CO3 catalysts in the coal gasification process using nuclear heat

Conventional gasification processes use coal not only as feedstock to be gasified but also for supply of energy for reaction heat, steam production, and other purposes. With a nuclear high temperature reactor (HTR) as a source for process heat, it is possible to transform the whole of the coal feed into gas. This concept offers advantages over existing gasification processes: saving of coal, as more gas can be produced from coal; less emission of pollutants, as the HTR is used for the production of steam and electricity instead of a coal-fired boiler; and a lower production cost for the gas. However, the process has the disadvantage that the temperature is limited to the outlet temperature (950 °C max) of the helium cooling gas of the HTR. Therefore the possibility of catalytic steam gasification was examined. Model calculations based on experimental results show that use of 3–4 wt% relative to coal of K²CO³ catalyst increases the throughput of a large scale nuclear gasification plant by ≈65%, while gas production costs decrease by ≈15%. Corrosion by catalysts is not significant at low concentration (< 5 wt%) and low temperature (< 900 °C).     

Forced intercalation probes (FIT Probes): thiazole orange as a fluorescent base in peptide nucleic acids for homogeneous single-nucleotide-polymorphism detection

Fluorescent base analogues in DNA are versatile probes of nucleic acid-nucleic acid and nucleic acid-protein interactions. New peptide nucleic acid (PNA) based probes are described in which the intercalator dye thiazole orange (TO) serves as a base surrogate. The investigation of six TO derivatives revealed that the linker length and the conjugation site decided whether a base surrogate conveys sequence-selective DNA binding and whether fluorescence is increased or decreased upon single-mismatched hybridization. One TO derivative conferred universal PNA-DNA base pairing while maintaining duplex stability and hybridization selectivity. TO fluorescence increased up to 26-fold upon hybridization. In contrast to most other probes, in which fluorescence is invariant once hybridization had occurred, the emission of TO-containing PNA probes is attenuated when forced to intercalate next to a mismatched base pair. The specificity of DNA detection is therefore not limited by the selectivity of probe-target binding and a DNA target can be distinguished from its single-base mutant under nonstringent hybridization conditions. This property should be of advantage for real-time quantitative PCR and nucleic acid detection within living cells.     

Early hydration of tricalcium silicate I. Kinetics of the hydration process and the stoichiometry of the hydration products

The initial hydration of C₃S in paste form at room temperature was studied. The process is initiated by a short lasting rapid hydration in which about 1 – 2% of C₃S is hydrated and a hydrate with low C/S and high H/S ratio is formed. After a subsequent induction period of 4 hours a renewed rapid hydration is observed in which a hydrate of constant stoichiometric composition, independent on the time of hydration is formed. This hydrate has a higher C/S and lower H/S ratio than the one formed initially. The liquid phase stays supersaturated with respect to calcium hydroxide for several hours after the induction period is terminated.     

The reduction/oxidation behaviour of MnAPO-5 as studied by ESR spectroscopy

It is shown by ESR spectroscopy that Mn²⁺ ions in MnAPO-5 are oxidized to Mn³⁺ during calcination atT475 K. Mn²⁺ occupies variously distorted tetrahedral positions within the framework and in extra-lattice sites. Octahedrally coordinated Mn²⁺ presumably located in the channels becomes detectable after adsorption of water. The ESR spectra of reduced MnAPO-5 show line-narrowing due to spin exchange interactions. The material behaves reversible in redox cycles at temperatures near 500 K.