Development of a silver nanoparticle-based method for the antioxidant capacity measurement of polyphenols

A sensitive colorimetric method for the detection of polyphenols (i.e., flavonoids, simple phenolic, and hydroxycinnamic acids) was proposed in this research based on the reduction of Ag(+) ions by polyphenols in the presence of citrate-stabilized silver seeds. The color of the stable suspension was controlled by varying the concentration of trisodium citrate, silver nitrate, and silver seeds. The reduction of Ag(+) to spherical silver nanoparticles (SNPs) by polyphenols in the presence of trisodium citrate and silver seeds produced a very intense surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorption band of SNPs at 423 nm. The plasmon absorbance of SNPs allows the quantitative spectrophotometric detection of the polyphenols, and the developed method gave a linear response over a wide concentration range of standard polyphenolic compounds. In contrast to other reported NP-based antioxidant assays, it was established in this work that growth but not nucleation of SNPs gave a linear concentration-dependent response. The trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) values of various (hydrophilic and lipophilic) antioxidants using the developed method were comparable to those of the CUPRAC assay. Common food ingredients like oxalate, citrate, fruit acids, amino acids, and reducing sugars did not interfere with the proposed sensing method. This assay was validated through linearity, additivity, precision and recovery, demonstrating that the assay is reliable and robust. The developed method was used to screen total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of some commercial fruit juices and herbal teas without preliminary treatment, and showed a promising potential for the preparation of antioxidant inventories of a wide range of food plants.     

Liquefaction assessments by field-based methodologies: foundation soils at a dam site in Northeast Turkey

Recent examples show that strong earthquakes can cause damage to dams, notably tailings or hydraulic fill dams or relatively small earth fill embankments. Liquefaction is known to be one of the most dangerous consequences of the dynamic loading of an embankment dam and hence must be considered during the dam site selection and construction stages. This paper presents the liquefaction analyses undertaken for the Demirözü dam site in Northeast Turkey. The liquefaction assessments are mainly based on field-performance data using SPT- and CPT-based methods in conjunction with the results of the available cyclic triaxial tests. The presence of a very shallow groundwater table, loose sandy layers and the seismic features of the region result in a high susceptibility to liquefaction. The results obtained from the SPT- and CPT-based criteria for evaluating the liquefaction potential are generally consistent and show that the thickness of the liquefiable layers increases in the area between the left bank and the central part of the proposed dam. Further studies are required to evaluate the suitability and efficiency of measures which could be taken to avoid liquefaction-induced problems at the dam site.     

Thermodynamic performance assessment of ocean thermal energy conversion based hydrogen production and liquefaction process

In the proposed study, the thermodynamic performance assessment of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) based hydrogen generation and liquefaction system are evaluated. In this context, the energetic and exergetic analyses of integrated system are conducted for multigeneration. This integrated process is consisted of the heat exchangers, turbine, condenser, pumps, solar collector system, hot storage tank, cold storage tank and proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer. In addition to that, the impacts of different design indicators and reference ambient parameters on the exergetic performance and exergy destruction rate of OTEC based hydrogen production system are analyzed. The energetic and exergetic efficiencies of integrated system are founded as 43.49% and 36.49%, respectively.