Magnetic liquid marbles, their manipulation and application in optical probing

Magnetic liquid marbles, an encapsulation of liquid droplet with hydrophobic magnetic particles, show remarkable responsiveness to external magnetic force and great potential to be used as a discrete droplet microfluidic system. In this study, we presented the manipulation of a magnetic liquid marble under an external magnetic field and calculated the maximum frictional force, the magnetic force required for actuating the liquid marbles and the effective surface tension of the magnetic liquid marble, as well as the threshold volume for the transition from quasi-spherical to puddle-like shape. By taking advantage of the unique feature of being opened and closed reversibly, we have proven the encapsulated droplets can be detected optically with a reflection-mode probe. Combining the open-close and optical detection also enables to probe chemical reactions taking place within liquid marbles. These remarkable features offer a simple yet powerful alternative to conventional discrete microfluidic systems and may have wide applications in biomedical and drug discovery.     

Cellulose acetate membranes fabricated by a combined vapor-induced/wet phase separation method: morphology and performance evaluation

Iranian Polymer Journal - Cellulose acetate (CA) microfiltration membranes were fabricated by a combined vapor-induced and wet phase separation technique. A systematic morphology study was...     

Stress Responses in Probiotic Lactobacillus casei

Survival in harsh environments is critical to both the industrial performance of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and their competitiveness in complex microbial ecologies. Among the LAB, members of the Lactobacillus casei group have industrial applications as acid-producing starter cultures for milk fermentations and as specialty cultures for the intensification and acceleration of flavor development in certain bacterial-ripened cheese varieties. They are amongst the most common organisms in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of humans and other animals, and have the potential to function as probiotics. Whether used in industrial or probiotic applications, environmental stresses will affect the physiological status and properties of cells, including altering their functionality and biochemistry. Understanding the mechanisms of how LAB cope with different environments is of great biotechnological importance, from both a fundamental and applied perspective: hence, interaction between these strains and their environment has gained increased interest in recent years. This paper presents an overview of the important features of stress responses in Lb. casei, and related proteomic or gene expression patterns that may improve their use as starter cultures and probiotics.     

Numerical and experimental studies on temperature and distortion patterns in butt-welded plates

A computationally efficient solution is adopted for 3D transient analyses of both thermal and structural responses of steel plates to single-pass gas tungsten arc welding. Considering the temperature-varying thermal and mechanical properties of the steel material, the temperature distribution in the plate calculated by the numerical approach turned out to have a good agreement with the experimental results of butt welding tests. The structural response of welded plates including the residual stress and deformation has also been studied. The numerical results generally agree well with the experimental measurements. The effect of the Element Birth–Death technique has been discussed in detail, considering the double ellipsoidal moving heat source. The magnitude of peak temperature in the plates is found 8.76 % higher when taking into account the Element Birth-Death effect. The effects of finite element mesh size and convection coefficient on the simulation result have been discussed. The convection coefficient has a very low effect on the maximum temperature but is critical to the temperature gradient in the cooling stage.     

Effect of surfactants in synthesis of CsH<Subscript>2</Subscript>PO<Subscript>4</Subscript> as protonic conductive membrane

Cesium dihydrogen phosphate (CDP) powders were synthesized by cetyltrimethylammoniumbromide (CTAB), polyoxyethylene-polyoxypropylene (F-68) and mixture of both surfactants F-68: CTAB with two molar ratios 0.06 and 0.12 as surfactant solutions at room temperature. The synthesized CsH₂PO₄ is characterized by ICP, XRD, TEM, SEM, FT-IR, BET and IS techniques. Based on the width of the (011) XRD diffraction peak and BET measurement, the average size of nanoparticles was ∼ 10 nm in diameter, while the TEM images indicate smaller size than both techniques. The analysis reveals existence of P and Cs with mole ratio 1.02 ± 0.03 which is compatible to molar ratio CsH₂PO₄ formula. The experimental results show that the conductivities increase in the order of CDP_CTAB > CDP_{(F-68: CTAB)0.12} > CDP_{(F-68:CTAB)0.06} > CDP_F-68. The sequence of increasing conductivity is in accordance with the ion exchange capacities of the samples that has direct proportional effect on the proton mobility of samples. Indeed CTAB as cationic surfactant shows the highest proton mobility in the as-obtained samples.     

Removal of Trichloroethylene by Clay Modified with Cationic Surfactant in Aqueous Solutions: Equilibrium,Kinetic, and Thermodynamic Study

Trichloroethylene (TCE) is commonly found in ground water, and it may serve as a major source of many types of cancers such as kidney, liver, lymphatic glands, and spinal cord. In the present research, TCE uptake from aqueous media by montmorillonite (Mt) modified by tetradecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (TTAB) surfactant was explored. Firstly, the characteristics of raw and modified montmorillonite (raw-Mt and TTAB-Mt) were analyzed by SEM, FTIR, XRD, and XRF instruments. Then, the sorption process was evaluated as a function of different factors such as surfactant loading rate, pH, ionic strength, contact time, sorbent dosage, TCE concentration, temperature, and regeneration agent. The maximum TCE sorption by the modified clay was obtained at surfactant loading rate of 120% cation exchange capacity of the clay. The maximum removal efficiency of TCE by the modified clay was 99.6% at pH 5 and 30 min contact time. The findings also exhibited that the isotherm and kinetic sorption followed the Freundlich and pseudo-second-order models, respectively. It can be concluded that TTAB-Mt, as a cheap, abundant, non-toxic, and environmental friendly adsorbent can be considered to remove TCE in aqueous phase.     

Continuous extraction of glycerol acetates from their mixture using supercritical carbon dioxide

Supercritical carbon dioxide was used for partially selective extraction of triacetin from a mixture of triacetin, diacetin, and monoacetin with a molar ratio of 1:2:1. The extraction was carried out in two stages. In the first stage, a central composite design was used to optimize the four variables of pressure, temperature, liquid CO₂ flow rate, and extraction time at three levels using a semi-continuous, supercritical carbon dioxide extraction setup. The composition of the extract under the predicted optimum conditions (i.e., 109 bar, 56 °C, 0.86 mL min⁻¹, and 61 min) was about 69% triacetin accompanied by only 30% diacetin and no detectable monoacetin. In the second stage, the effect of the two factors, pressure (100, 109, and 140 bar) and liquid CO₂ flow rates of 0.86 and 1.5 mL min⁻¹ measured at average laboratory temperature (27 °C) and pressure (0.89 bar), were studied using a continuous, supercritical carbon dioxide fractionation setup equipped with a glass-bead packed column kept under a thermal gradient of 56-70 °C. The experimental design was organized as a 3 × 2 general factorial design. Under the best conditions (i.e., 140 bar and 1.5 mL min⁻¹), the extraction yield of triacetin and diacetin were 41.8 and 3.0%, respectively, without any detectable monoacetin as verified by GC-FID.     

Solvent-free,mild, facile,and rapid one-pot three-component synthesis of some novel imidazo[2,1-b]naphtho[1,2-e][1,3] thiazin-10-ones using p-TSA

Novel [2,1-b]naphtho[1,2-e][1,3]thiazin-10-ones were synthesized in 63–89% yield via a three-component reaction of an aromatic aldehyde, β -naphthol, and thiohydantoin in the presence of 10 mol% p-toluene sulfonic acid under solvent-free conditions. This is the first protocol to be reported for the synthesis of the title compounds. The significant features of the present protocol are simplicity, high yields, eco-friendliness, and convenient purification that does not require chromatography.     

First‐Principles Study of Elastic,Structural, Electronic,Thermodynamical, and Optical Properties of Yttria (Y2O3) Ceramic in Cubic Phase

Structural, elastic, optical, thermodynamical, and electronic properties of yttrium oxide compound in cubic phase have been studied using the full‐potential augmented plane waves (FP‐LAPW) within density functional theory (DFT) framework. Four different approximations were used for exchange‐correlation potentials terms, comprised Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof generalized parameterization of gradient approximation (GGA‐PBE), Wu–Cohen (WC‐GGA), local‐density approximation (LDA), and new approximation modified Becke and Johnson (mBJ‐GGA). The structural properties such as equilibrium lattice parameter, bulk modulus and its pressure derivative have been obtained using optimization method. Moreover, Elastic constants, Young's modulus, shear modulus, Poisson's ratio, sound velocities for longitudinal and shear waves, Debye average velocity, Debye temperature, and Grüneisen parameters have been calculated. Obtained structural, elastic and other parameters are consistent with experimental data. Moreover pressure dependence of the elastic moduli was studied. From electronic calculations, it has been found that the band gap was 5.7 eV at Г point in the Brillouin zone using mBJ‐GGA approximation. Optical properties, such as the dielectric function, refractive index, extinction index, and optical band gap, were calculated for radiation up to 14 eV. In addition, the unique type of bonding in Y₂O₃ was discussed by three method including effective charge, B/G ratio, and charge density distribution.