Phase behavior of mixture of supercritical CO2 + ionic liquid: Thermodynamic consistency test of experimental data

Various models have been applied composed of the Peng‐Robinson equation of state (PR‐EoS) and the Soave‐Redlich‐Kwong equation of state (SRK‐EoS) associated with three mixing rules including the following: Wong‐Sandler (WS), van der Waals one (vdW1), and van der Waals two (vdW2) for phase behavior modeling of mixtures of supercritical CO₂ + different ionic liquids in vapor–liquid equilibrium (VLE) region. It has been found that the PR EoS implying the WS mixing rule can be used as a reliable thermodynamic model to perform a thermodynamic consistency test on the experimental data of phase behaviors of the supercritical CO₂ + ionic liquid systems (19 commonly‐used ionic liquids have been studied). The results show that 40% of the experimental data seem to be thermodynamically consistent, 55.5% seem to be thermodynamically inconsistent, and 4.5% seem to be not fully consistent. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 3892–3913, 2013     

Surface Parameters and Biological Activity of <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-(3-(Dimethyl Benzyl Ammonio) Propyl) Alkanamide Chloride Cationic Surfactants

Three cationic surfactants containing amide groups were prepared by quaternization of dimethylaminopropylamine with benzyl chloride. FTIR and ¹H-NMR spectroscopy were used to confirm the chemical structure of the prepared cationic surfactants. The surface parameters were estimated using surface tension measurements at three different temperatures. The prepared cationic surfactant showed a lower CMC than conventional cationic surfactants. Thermodynamic parameters of adsorption and micellization depend mainly of alkyl chain length and temperature. The adsorption process is more favorable than micellization. The biological activity of the three surfactants was estimated using inhibition zone showing that amidoamine cationic surfactants have good activity and the surfactants C12Bn is the most effective one.     

Modeling of the mechanical behavior of polyethylene/polypropylene blends using artificial neural networks

Polymers possess good thermal and electrical insulation properties, low density, and high resistance to chemicals, thus they have been widely used in industrial applications. Nevertheless, they are mechanically weaker and exhibit lower strength and stiffness than metals. However, their mechanical behavior can be enhanced through different techniques such as blending. Accurate estimation of the mechanical behavior is essential in structural design. Since the process of experimental measurements of a blend’s properties can be costly and time consuming, this paper explores the potential use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) in the field of polymer characterization. It addresses the use of ANNs in modeling the tensile curves and mechanical properties of two commonly utilized polymers (polyethylene PE and polypropylene PP) and their blends. Blends of different proportions have been considered. The experimentally acquired data is used to train and test the neural network’s performance. The key system inputs for the ANN modeler are blend ratio and percent strain, and the system output is the stress. The ANN-predicted outputs were compared and verified against the experimental date. The study indicates that a multilayered ANN can simulate the effect of the blending ratio on the mechanical behavior and properties to a high degree of accuracy. It also demonstrates that ANN approach is an effective tool that can be adopted to reduce cost and time of the experimental work. Moreover, the results show that ANNs demonstrate promising potential in the area of polymer characterization.     

Application of the Monte Carlo simulation method to the investigation of peculiar free‐radical copolymerization reactions: Systems with both reactivity ratios greater than unity (rA > 1 and rB > 1)

With a Monte Carlo simulationmethod, copolymer properties have been thoroughly studied, and the influence of the reactivity ratios and feed composition has been taken into consideration. Instantaneous alterations of the copolymer composition and copolymer heterogeneity, which is also called a randomness parameter, have been examined with data obtained from the simulation at each stage of the copolymerization reaction. The results prove the azeotropic behavior of copolymerization reactions in which both reactivity ratios are greater than unity, although some special reactivity ratio combinations ignore the azeotropic behavior. The copolymer composition reaches an azeotrope point at the end of the copolymerization reaction when the copolymerization is an azeotropic reaction. In addition, the randomness parameter takes its maximum value at the azeotrope point when reactivity ratio r_A is equal to reactivity ratio r_B. Finally, increasing the reactivity ratios causes no change in the trend of copolymer composition/feed composition curves when r_A is equal to r_B. However, the curves produced with larger r_A and r_B values show more fluctuations. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2007     

Infrared synchrotron radiation from bending magnet and edge radiation sources for the study of orientation and conformation in anisotropic materials

Over the last decade the use of synchrotron infrared microspectroscopy to spatially discriminate chemical and structural features in many different types of materials has grown considerably and has made significant impact in numerous research areas, in particular, in biological sciences and medicine. Although the brightness advantage of the synchrotron infrared (IR) source is well accepted as the key to high spatial discrimination, little attention has been given to measure the polarization properties of the synchrotron light at the sample stage in IR microscopy. In this work the intrinsic polarization of the IR source and its consequences for the study of anisotropic materials are discussed. The polarization characteristics of predominantly bending magnet radiation and predominantly edge radiation sources were measured at the microscope focus and compared. To illustrate the direct use of the intrinsic polarization of these sources in microscopy, the orientation and conformational details of a drawn polymer sample are considered.     

Optimal design of split partial second pass reverse osmosis network for desalination applications

Reverse osmosis (RO) network design problem is presented in this study for seawater desalination. The RO pressure vessel is multiple spiral wound modules connected in series. We exploit in this study the RO pressure vessel operation by considering stream property variations within the pressure vessel itself. The design problem allows extraction of high‐quality permeates from different locations along the pressure vessel length. Superstructure optimization is adopted to model the RO network in order to find: (1) optimal arrangement of the process units, (2) optimal permeate extraction locations, and (3) production of several permeate streams with different qualities. Several case studies are presented to show the applications of the proposed mathematical programming model. In general, lower treatment cost and higher permeate recovery can be achieved by allowing permeate extraction streams from the RO pressure vessels. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J 60: 520–532, 2014     

An approach to design and fabrication of a piezo-actuated microdroplet generator

In this research, a piezo-actuated microdroplet printing device for drop on demand (DOD) is studied. Microdroplet devices are used in applications such as inkjet printing, rapid prototyping, and production of metal powder. An experimental device is designed and manufactured, in which the fluctuation of a flexible diaphragm–by a piezoelectric element–pushes the liquid out of the nozzle and produces droplets. The deflection of diaphragm due to different voltages is investigated by analytical and experimental study. In experiments, beside deflection voltage, the effect of suction and compression time and nozzle diameter on droplet size, droplet velocity, satellite droplets, and cutoff length is also investigated. High-speed camera is used to take photo of the formation of droplets. In order to calculate droplet diameter and velocity, outputs of high-speed camera are processed by MATLAB R2008a. Results obtained by analytical and experimental are in good agreement with each other and could be used to control droplet properties. It is shown that the device is able to produce droplet of diameter from 450 to 1,000 μm. Velocity of droplet can be also controlled in a range of about 0.2 to 1.4 m/s. The repeatability is investigated by ink printing on a paper attached to a rotary table.     

Experimental investigation of parameters influencing electrostatic motor’s performance with air bearing operation

In this paper, the design and fabrication of a rotational electrostatic motor with air bearing is presented. Electrostatic motors have many advantages such as convenient fabrication and compact size. In this study, the rotor is a Plexiglas disc with 38-mm diameter and 1-mm thickness and stator is a round set of electrodes etched by standard printed circuit board technique. Plexiglas was used in laser disc optical media and has been developed for use in CDs and DVDs. To reduce the friction between the rotor and the stator, an air bearing is used. Also, in this paper, kinetics of the motion, design, and fabrication process of a prototype is described and then some parameters influencing motor operation are experimentally investigated; experimental results show successful motor operation. In addition, high rotational velocity and optimum acceleration are achieved throughout the operation of the motor.     

Synthesis and studies of egyptian bagasse pith phenol formaldehyde cationic exchangers

The article is concerned with a simple method for preparing cationic resins from polycondensation of Egyptian bagasse pith (as a source of cheap and renewable material) with phenol and paraformaldehyde as a cross-linking agent. Optimum principal reaction conditions of the preparation and properties are determined and compared with resin without bagasse pith content. The Synthesized resins are stable in water, organic solvents, thermal treatment, and mineral acids (1M). The sample having a cation exchange capacity up to 3.92 meq g^?1 of dry resins are being introduced as new cationic exchangers. The synthesized resins are used in the study of the possible separation of univalent cations. The rational thermodynamic equilibrium constants (In K) are calculated for Li⁺ ?Na⁺ exchanges on the resins having a various amount of bagasse pith. The thermodynamic parameters are computed and suitable explanations are described. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.