Synergic influence of a surfactant and ultrasonication on the preparation of soluble,conducting polydiphenylamine/silica‐nanoparticle composites

Conducting polydiphenylamine was used to encapsulate silica nanoparticles through the oxidative polymerization of diphenylamine in the presence of ultrasonic irradiation. The polymerization was performed in the presence of sodium lauryl sulfate as a surfactant. Experiments performed in the absence of ultrasound clearly demonstrated that the application of ultrasonication played multiple roles in the preparation of a composite of polydiphenylamine with silica nanoparticles. Ultrasonication dispersed the silica nanoparticles, converted sodium lauryl sulfate to lauryl alcohol, and augmented the dispersion of the silica‐nanoparticle/polydiphenylamine composite in an organic medium. Silica‐nanoparticle/polydiphenylamine composites were also prepared in the absence of ultrasound and/or sodium lauryl sulfate. The silica‐nanoparticle/polydiphenylamine composites were characterized with Fourier trans form infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet–visible/near‐infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 3912–3918, 2006     

Electrodeposition of smooth and adherent film of polypyrrole on lead electrode

Electropolymerization of pyrrole on lead substrate electrode was studied. Due to electrochemical activity of Pb in acidic media, this process is only possible at basic pHs. For this purpose, electropolymerization process was performed in an aqueous solution of Na₂SO₄ with pH 12. Potentiodynamic cycling shows the Pb oxidation at the first cycles. In subsequent cycles, polypyrrole film grows on the oxidized lead substrate. Of course, as the passive film is highly porous, a composite of polypyrrole/PbSO₄ is formed in the first layers. However, subsequent cycling leads to the formation of pure polypyrrole film. According to this structure and strong connection of the polymer film to the substrate surface via this composite layer, the polypyrrole film deposited on the lead surface has enhanced mechanical stability. AFM measurements showed peculiar smoothness of both composite and lateral polypyrrole films. This synthesis approach is of particular interest for the preparation of highly stable polymer films and fabrication of supercapacitors with a polymer/PbSO₄ conductive structure.     

尿素嵌入法制备纤维素氨基甲酸酯的研究

探讨了尿素嵌入法制备纤维素氨基甲酸酯(CC)的生产工艺。指出:选用聚合度为450~625、α-纤维素含量大于90/的纤维素浆粕,用14/~16/的氢氧化钠溶液,于40~50℃条件下活化处理30~40min后,与尿素以1∶2~3的比例混合,在137℃的二甲苯体系中反应2~3h,便可得到含氮量为2.4/~3.5/的纤维素氨基甲酸酯产物。该产物在氢氧化钠溶液中可形成良好的稳定溶液,过滤性好,可直接用于纺丝。     

Investigation of the effects of fatty acids on the compressive strength of the concrete and the grindability of the cement

In cement industry, a great energy consumption has been observed during grinding of clinker. To reduce this consumption, some waste products have been used as grinding aids.In this investigation, the effects of sunflower oil (SO), oleic acid (OA), stearic acid (SA), myristic acid (MA) and lauric acid (LA) on the fineness and strength of the cement have been examined. These aids were added into clinker in certain ratios based on the cement clinker weight and the grinding has been done for a definite time at the same condition.All of the fatty acids used increased the fineness as compared with the cement without the grinding additives. SO and OA decreased the strength significantly, LA decreased it to a lesser extent and SA increased it definitely according to the common cement. But MA did not alter the strength of the cement as much as SA. In addition, the covering of the balls influences the grinding of cement clinker unfavourably.     

Lignan contents in sesame seeds and products

Sesame seed (Sesamum indicum L.) is a rich source of furofuran lignans with a wide range of potential biological activities. The major lignans in sesame seeds are the oil‐soluble sesamin and sesamolin, as well as glucosides of sesaminol and sesamolinol that reside in the defatted sesame flour. Upon refining of sesame oil, acid‐catalyzed transformation of sesamin to episesamin and of sesamolin to epimeric sesaminols takes place, making the profile of refined sesame oils different from that of virgin oils. In this study, the total lignan content of 14 sesame seeds ranged between 405 and 1178 mg/100 g and the total lignan content in 14 different products, including tahini, ranged between 11 and 763 mg/100 g. The content of sesamin and sesamolin in ten commercial virgin and roasted sesame oils was in the range of 444–1601 mg/100 g oil. In five refined sesame oils, sesamin ranged between 118 and 401 mg/100 g seed, episesamin between 12 and 206 mg/100 g seed, and the total contents of sesaminol epimers between 5 and 35 mg/100 g seed, and no sesamolin was found. Thus, there is a great variation in the types and amounts of lignans in sesame seeds, seed products and oils. This knowledge is important for nutritionists working on resolving the connection between diet and health. Since the consumption of sesame seed products is increasing steadily in Europe and USA, it is important to include sesame seed lignans in databases and studies pertinent to the nutritional significance of antioxidants and phytoestrogens. It is also important to differentiate between virgin, roasted and refined sesame oils.     

Hydrogen production from used lubricating oils

Used lubricating oils (lube oils) are generated throughout the year and collected in central locations in many communities. Disposing lube oil in an improper manner contaminates environment to a great degree. Used lube oil can be valuable as a re-refined lubricant or as an energy source. Lube oil is a complex mixture of aliphatic and polycyclic hydrocarbons formulated to withstand high service temperatures in internal combustion engines. Both synthetic and mineral oils contain a high concentration of hydrogen (about 13–14 wt%). At the Florida Solar Energy Center, we have developed a process that converts lube oils to hydrogen and other valuable low molecular weight hydrocarbons. The lube oil reformation experiments were carried out using several commercially available dehydrogenation catalysts at a range of reactor temperatures and pressures, residence times and steam to carbon ratios. In this paper, the data obtained to date and the results are presented and discussed.     

Ellipsoidal neighbourhood outlier factor for distributed anomaly detection in resource constrained networks

Anomaly detection in resource constrained wireless networks is an important challenge for tasks such as intrusion detection, quality assurance and event monitoring applications. The challenge is to detect these interesting events or anomalies in a timely manner, while minimising energy consumption in the network. We propose a distributed anomaly detection architecture, which uses multiple hyperellipsoidal clusters to model the data at each sensor node, and identify global and local anomalies in the network. In particular, a novel anomaly scoring method is proposed to provide a score for each hyperellipsoidal model, based on how remote the ellipsoid is relative to their neighbours. We demonstrate using several synthetic and real datasets that our proposed scheme achieves a higher detection performance with a significant reduction in communication overhead in the network compared to centralised and existing schemes.     

Variations in fat content and lipid class composition in ten different mango varieties

The kernels of 10 different mango varieties were extracted. The physico-chemical characteristics and lipid class composition of fats were studied. The fat content of mango kernels grown under the soil and climatic conditions of Bangladesh varied from 7.1% to 10%, depending on the variety. The total lipid extracts were fractionated into lipid classes by a combination of column and thin layer chromatography (TLC). The hydrocarbon and sterol esters varied from 0.3% to 0.7%, triglycerides from 55.6% to 91.5%, partial glycerides from 2.3% to 4% and free sterol from 0.3% to 0.6%. Free fatty acids amounted to 3.0–37% as oleic; glycolipids were 0.6–1.2% and phospholipids 0.11–0.8%. The fatty acid composition of triglyceride (TG) fractions was analyzed by gas liquid chromatography (GLC). Palmitic acid varied from 7.9 molar % to 10.0 molar %, stearic from 38.2% to 40.2%, oleic from 41.1% to 43.8%, linoleic from 6.0% to 7.6%, linolenic from 0.6% to 1.0% and arachidic acid from 1.7% to 2.6%. TLC revealed the presence of lyso-phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidic acid in the phospholipid fraction.     

Thermoplastic interpenetrating polymer networks based on a poly(styrene-b-butadiene) copolymer and an ionically-terminated polybutadiene ionomer

Thermoplastic interpenetrating polymer networks (IPN) are mixtures of two physically crosslinked polymers. Thermoplastic IPNs were prepared by blending an SBS triblock elastomer with a 1,2-polybutadiene that was ionically-terminated at both ends. The morphologies of these IPNs were studied using differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. It was concluded that the ionomer was incompatible with the SBS elastomer, since the T_gs of both the 1,2-polybutadiene from the ionomer and the essentially 1,4-polybutadiene from the SBS component were observable at temperatures that were close to those of the individual components. The addition of the polybutadiene material had, however, an influence on the relaxation processes of the polystyrene blocks. The polystyrene glass transition in the pure SBS copolymer is broadened by the interfacial region between polystyrene and polybutadiene. The low temperature shoulder was much more pronounced when the ion-terminated polybutadiene was present, indicating it has a preference to be located in these interfacial regions. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Effect of changing groundwater levels caused by land-use changes on greenhouse gas fluxes from tropical peat lands

Monthly measurements of carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) fluxes in peat soils were carried out and compared with groundwater level over a year at four sites (drained forest, upland cassava,upland and lowland paddy fields) located in Jambi province, Indonesia. Fluxes from swamp forest soils were also measured once per year as the native state of this investigated area. Land-use change from drained forest to lowland paddy field significantly decreased the CO₂ (from 266 to 30 mg C m^–2 h^–1) and N₂O fluxes (from 25.4 to 3.8 g N m^–2 h^–1), but increased the CH₄ flux (from 0.1 to 4.2 mg C m^–2 h^–1) in the soils. Change from drained forest to cassava field significantly increased N₂O flux (from 25.4 to 62.2 g N m^–2 h^–1), but had no significant influence on CO₂ (from 266 to 200 mg C m^–2 h^–1) and CH₄ fluxes (from 0.1 to 0.3 mg C m^–2 h^–1) in the soils. Averaged CO₂ fluxes in the swamp forests (94 mg C m^–2 h^–1) were estimated to be one-third of that in the drained forest. Groundwater levels of drained forest and upland crop fields had been lowered by drainage ditches while swamp forest and lowland paddy field were flooded, although groundwater levels were also affected by precipitation. Groundwater levels were negatively related to CO₂ flux but positively related to CH₄ flux at all investigation sites. The peak of the N₂O flux was observed at –20 cm of groundwater level. Lowering the groundwater level by 10 cm from the soil surface resulted in a 50 increase in CO₂ emission (from 109.1 to 162.4 mg C m^–2 h^–1) and a 25% decrease in CH₄ emission (from 0.440 to 0.325 mg C m^–2 h^–1) in this study. These results suggest that lowering of groundwater level by the drainage ditches in the peat lands contributes to global warming and devastation of fields. Swamp forest was probably the best land-use management in peat lands to suppress the carbon loss and greenhouse gas emission. Lowland paddy field was a better agricultural system in the peat lands in terms of C sequestration and greenhouse gas emission. Carbon loss from lowland paddy field was one-eighth of that of the other upland crop systems, although the Global Warming Potential was almost the same level as that of the other upland crop systems because of CH₄ emission through rice plants.