Decreasing the Sampling Time Interval in Radioactive Particle Tracking

The study of the movement of solids in multiphase reactors using radioactive particle tracking is currently limited to fairly modest particle velocities because of count‐rate limitations of the detection system. In this work, this restriction was overcome by increasing the activity of the radioactive tracer, by decreasing the sampling time interval and by modifying the particle tracking software to recognize which detectors were saturated and to use only the data from the remaining unsaturated detectors. Higher tracer activity resulted in lower standard deviation of the calculated tracer coordinates.     

Dynamic modeling of gas phase propylene homopolymerization in fluidized bed reactors

A new model with comprehensive kinetics for propylene homopolymerization in fluidized bed reactors was developed to investigate the effect of mixing, operating conditions, kinetic and hydrodynamic parameters on the reactor performance as well as polymer properties. Presence of the particles in the bubbles and the excess gas in the emulsion phase was considered to improve the two-phase model, thus, considering the polymerization reaction to take place in both the bubble and emulsion phases. It was shown that in the practical range of superficial gas velocity and catalyst feed rate, the ratio of produced polymer in the bubble phase to the total production rate is roughly between 10% and 13%, which is a substantial amount and cannot be ignored. Simulation studies were carried out to compare the results of the improved two-phase, conventional well-mixed and constant bubble size models. The improved two-phase and well mixed models predicted a narrower and safer window at the same running conditions compared with the constant bubble size model. The improved two-phase model showed close dynamic behavior to the conventional models at the beginning of polymerization, but starts to diverge with the evolution of time.     

The Bulk Osteosarcoma and Osteosarcoma Stem Cell Activity of a Necroptosis-Inducing Nickel(II)–Phenanthroline Complex

We report the anti-osteosarcoma and anti-osteosarcoma stem cell (OSC) properties of a nickel(II) complex, 1 . Complex 1 displays similar potency towards bulk osteosarcoma cells and OSCs, in the micromolar range. Notably, 1 displays similar or better OSC potency than the clinically approved platinum(II) anticancer drugs cisplatin and carboplatin in two- and three-dimensional osteosarcoma cell cultures. Mechanistic studies revealed that 1 induces osteosarcoma cell death by necroptosis, an ordered form of necrosis. The nickel(II) complex, 1 triggers necrosome-dependent mitrochondrial membrane depolarisation and propidium iodide uptake. Interestingly, 1 does not evoke necroptosis by elevating intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) or hyperactivation of poly ADP ribose polymerase (PARP-1). ROS elevation and PARP-1 activity are traits that have been observed for established necroptosis inducers such as shikonin, TRAIL and glutamate. Thus the necroptosis pathway evoked by 1 is distinct. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report into the anti-osteosarcoma and anti-OSC properties of a nickel complex.     

Influence of preheating of fly ash precursors to produce geopolymers

This study has been focused on the effect of pretreatment of FA and POFA after geopolymerization on the mechanical properties. The aim of this work was to simplify the pretreatment that it can easily industrial be applied, using existing technology. Previous work has shown that a reduction in particle size increases the mechanical properties. However, this method involves a milling process which is not applicable for a wide industrial application. Hence, FA and POFA particles have been heated to 300°C, 500°C, and 800°C but applying different pretreatments: (i) predried at 110°C (reference sample); (ii) as received; (iii) prewetted; (iv) prewetted and later quenched in cold water. It was found that during the treatment the particle size increased due to thermal stress cracking. During fast heating, trapped pore water cannot be removed as fast as it evaporates and hence the particles crack. This increase in particle size caused an increase in compressive strength. In addition, heating to 300°C and 500°C caused a dehydroxylation of FA and POFA. This dehydroxylation resulted in a higher initial reactivity, reducing the setting time and improved mechanical strength.     

Investigation of Hydrodynamics of High‐Temperature Fluidized Beds by Pressure Fluctuations

Hydrodynamics of a gas‐solid fluidized bed at elevated temperatures was investigated by analyzing pressure fluctuations in time and frequency domains. Sand particles were fluidized with air at various bed temperatures. At a constant gas velocity, the standard deviation, power spectrum density function, and wide‐band energy of pressure fluctuations reach a maximum at 300 °C. Increasing the temperature to this value causes larger bubble sizes and after the bubbles reach their maximum size, they break into smaller bubbles. The Archimedes number decreases with higher temperature and the type of fluidization becomes closer to that of Geldart A boundary at this maximum temperature. Based on estimation of the drag force acting on the emulsion phase, it was concluded that 300 °C was a transition temperature at which the drag force reaches a minimum due to a significant change of interparticle and hydrodynamic forces.     

Non‐intrusive characterization of particle size changes in fluidized beds using recurrence plots

An on‐line method is developed for monitoring of mean particle size in fluidized beds using pressure fluctuations (PFs) and acoustic emissions (AE) signal by recurrence plot (RP) and recurrence quantification analysis (RQA). PFs and AE signals of a lab‐scale fluidized bed were measured simultaneously at various superficial gas velocities and mean particle sizes. Although the AE signals are often very complicated due to many different acoustic sources in the bed, applying RP analyses showed that small changes in mean particle size can be detected by visual comparison of AE‐RP structures, while this cannot be distinguished by graphical RP analysis of PFs. Moreover, the hydrodynamics of the bed was inspected through RQA analysis of both signals. For this purpose, recurrence rate, determinism, laminarity, average length of diagonal and vertical lines were extracted from RPs showing the effect of an increase in the mean particle size. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 3547–3561, 2016     

Thermal,mechanical, and acoustic properties of silica‐aerogel/UPVC composites

The properties of silica‐aerogel/UPVC composites have been investigated with emphasis on sound and heat insulation. UPVC is a material of construction for window profiles and drainage pipes. Hydrophobic silica aerogels were synthesized using silicate sodium as a precursor through a two‐step sol–gel process. The physical and textural properties of the synthesized silica aerogels such as density, surface area, and particle size were analyzed using SEM and BET analysis. Then, the synthesized aerogels were mixed with Unplastisized Polyvinyl Chloride (UPVC) compound at five different weight ratios in an internal mixer to find out the effects of silica aerogels on the thermal, mechanical, and acoustical characteristics. The prepared UPVC/aerogel composites were characterized for tensile properties, impact strength, hardness, Vicat softening temperature, thermal conductivity, sound absorption, and sound transmission loss. The results revealed that adding silica aerogel in to the matrix of UPVC increases its hardness and softening temperature while decreases impact strength. The thermal conductivity of UPVC was decreased by up to 50% using silica aerogel. The sound absorption property of UPVC was increased up to three times by using silica aerogels due to its high porosity. Silica aerogel increased the maximum sound transmission loss of UPVC in the low frequency range. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 44685.     

Synthesis of water dispersible reduced graphene oxide via supramolecular complexation with modified β-cyclodextrin

A noncovalent functionalization of the edges of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) with β-cyclodextrin-graft-hyperbranched polyglycerol (β-CD-g-HPG) was successfully performed via a host-guest interaction. The results showed that β-CD-g-HPG disperses the graphene sheets better than pure β-CD or HPG. The resulted supramolecular structure is stable in neutral water medium more than one week. However, in acidic medium the host-guest interaction is collapsed and graphene nanosheets precipitate.     

Graphene network enabled high speed electrical actuation of shape memory nanocomposite based on poly(vinyl acetate)

Here strong electroactive shape memory nanocomposites were prepared by incorporating graphene nanoplatelets into poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc ) through the simple solvent mixing method. TEM and XRD revealed that well exfoliated graphene nanoplatelets formed a continuous network throughout the matrix with a large amount of interconnectedness. Dynamic mechanical analysis showed that the inclusion of graphene significantly improves both glassy and rubbery moduli of the matrix. Furthermore, the prepared nanocomposites demonstrated a marked electrical conductivity up to 24.7 S m^?1 and thereby surprisingly rapid electrical actuation behaviour exhibiting a 100% recovery ratio in 2.5 s. Moreover, PVAc and its nanocomposites displayed scratch self‐healing capability. This work demonstrates that the PVAc /graphene nanocomposites with high modulus and excellent electroactive shape memory performance can be a promising material in many applications such as sensors and fast deployable and actuating devices. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry