Surface Morphology and Dissolution Rate of Slow Discharge Urea Coated with Starch-Urea-Borax Matrix

Pure starches do not exhibit fast tacking and high viscosity to meet the standards set by many industrial processes. Therefore, the objective of this work was to obtain high- viscosity coating solutions after modifying tapioca starch with urea as a cross-linker and borax as a thickener. Study of the physical properties confirmed that the prepared solutions were exhibiting more pronounced non-Newtonian behavior. A shear-thinning behavior followed by shear-thickening was observed for all solution compositions. At room temperature, the critical shear rate at which the transition from shear-thinning to shear-thickening occurred was ranging from 45.8 to 78 s^?1. However, the shear-thickening response to the applied shear rate was less prominent at higher temperatures. The surface tension and density of the solutions were found to decrease monotonically with an increase in temperature. Once the physical properties were fully understood, 1, 1.5 and 2 mL of each solution were used to coat 30 g of urea fluidized above its minimum level of fluidization. The phenomenological analyses of the coated and uncoated urea samples were carried out by understating their surface morphology, coating thickness, percent coating, dissolution rate, percent release and crushing strength. It was concluded that the coating thickness, percent coating, dissolution rate and percent release increase over time with an increase in solution volume and borax mass; however, some random results were obtained while investigating the effects of the solution volume on the crushing strength. The highest crushing strength was noticed for urea samples coated with 1.5 mL of solution followed by 1 mL, 2 mL and without coating.     

Influence of sepiolite and electron beam irradiation on the structural and physicochemical properties of polyethylene/starch nanocomposites

This study presents the influence of functionalized sepiolite and electron beam irradiation on the structural and physicochemical properties of high density polyethylene (HDPE)/starch blends. HDPE/Starch blends containing varying amounts of sepiolite [from 2 to 6 parts per hundred (phr) resins] were prepared in an internal mixer and subjected to electron beam irradiation. The structural analysis of nanocomposites revealed an interaction among the incorporated components. The morphological analysis depicted the void‐free dispersion of additives in the nanocomposites as well as an improvement in the compatibility between the matrix and additives. The sepiolite served as a heat barrier and improved the thermal stability of blend upto a maximum of 45°C. The ultimate tensile strength and Young's modulus (E) of blend was slightly improved with the incorporation of sepiolite and radiation. On the contrary, the E of nanocomposites was significantly improved with radiation dose. The sample containing 6 phr sepiolite and irradiated at 100 kGy showed 61% increase in E when compared with its unirradiated counterpart. Likewise, the thermal distortion temperature and Vicat softening temperature of the blend was slightly changed with the incorporation of sepiolite and radiation dose; however, increased with radiation dose in the nanocomposites. The improvements in the properties of nanocomposites with radiation dose were assigned to the formation of radiation‐induced crosslinked network as revealed by gel content analysis. The results presented here revealed substantial improvements in the properties of nanocomposites with irradiation, which pave way for their potential applications in various sectors including packaging materials for radiation sterilizable products. POLYM. COMPOS., 2013. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Generation of stable and narrow spacing dual-wavelength ytterbium-doped fiber laser using a photonic crystal fiber

Abstract

We demonstrate the design and operation of novel narrow spacing and stable dual-wavelength fiber laser (DWFL). A 70-cm ytterbium-doped fiber has been chosen as the gain medium in a ring cavity arrangement. Our design includes a short length photonic crystal fiber, acting as a dual-wavelength stabilizer based on its birefringence coefficient and nonlinear behavior and tunable band pass filter (TBPF) to achieve narrow spacing spectrum lasing. Our laser output is considered to be highly stable, with power fluctuation less than 0.8 dB over a period of 15 min. The flexibility and tunability of TBPF, together with polarization controller enable the spacing tuning of the DWFL from 0.03 nm up to 0.07 nm for 1040 nm region, and 0.10 nm up to 0.40 nm for 1060 nm region. The tunable wavelength spacing shows the flexibility of the DWFL in addition to stable and reliable properties of fiber laser in 1-μm region.     

Phase pure synthesis of BiFeO3 nanopowders using diverse precursor via co-precipitation method

Amorphous powder of BiFeO₃ (BFO) was synthesized at low-temperature (80 °C) by co-precipitation method. Optimal synthesis conditions for phase pure BFO were obtained. Powders were calcined in the temperature range from 400 to 600 °C for 1 h. Iso-statically pressed powder was sintered at 500 °C for 2 h. Differential scanning calorimetric thermo-gram guided for phase transition, crystallization and melting temperatures. X-ray diffraction confirmed the amorphous nature of as synthesized powder and phase formation of calcined powders. Calcination at temperature ≥400 °C resulted in nano crystalline powders with perovskite structure. Average crystallite size increased with the increase in calcination temperature. Scanning electron microscopic studies revealed dense granular microstructure of the sintered samples. The sintered samples exhibited high dc resistivity at room temperature which decreased with the increase in temperature. Dielectric constant, dielectric loss tangent and ac conductivity measurements were carried out in the frequency range (10 Hz to 2 MHz). The samples responded weak electric and magnetic polarization at room temperature with unsaturated and hysteresis free loops, respectively.     

Comparative study of the uses of poly(4-vinylpyridine) and poly(diallyldimethylammonium) chloride for the removal of perchlorate from aqueous solution by polyelectrolyte-enhanced ultrafiltration

An application of polyelectrolyte-enhanced ultrafiltration utilizes cationic polyelectrolytes to electrostatically bind anionic species. The colloid and target anion are then concentrated using an ultrafilter, producing a filtrate with a lower concentration of the target. This study compared the performances of poly(4-vinylpyridine) (P4VP) and poly(diallyldimethylammonium) chloride (PDADMAC) for the removal of perchlorate. Potentiometric titration data revealed that the ionization properties of P4VP in aqueous solution vary as functions of titrant utilized, degree of protonation, and counterion concentration. The greater affinity of perchlorate over chloride for the protonated pyridine residues of P4VP provided up to 95.8% retention of perchlorate under the solution conditions investigated. Through ultrafiltration experiments, the effects solution pH, counterion concentration, and polymer concentration were examined for both P4VP and PDADMAC. In addition, the effectiveness of P4VP recovery and reuse was also assessed.     

Fabrication of stretchable and high-filtration performance melt-blown nonwoven webs for PM0.3 aerosol filtration

Polypropylene (PP) is a semi-crystalline polymer that displays simple manufacturing, high stiffness, lightweight, chemical resistance, and inexpensive. However, PP has significant drawbacks, such as poor brittleness at low temperatures, high shrinkage ratio, and low impact resistance, which limit its development. Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) possesses recyclable and eco-friendly characteristics, along with the elasticity of rubber and exceptional mechanical properties. In this study, a flexible and high-filtration performance PP-TPU textile material was developed by melt-blowing for filtering PM_0.3 aerosols. For the first time, a melt-blown PP-TPU nonwoven was used as an air filter. The fiber morphological studies exhibited that addition of 10 and 20 wt.% TPU into PP resulted in a fiber diameter increment from 0.94 to 1.24 μm. Also, melt-blown PP-TPU forms helical fibers, which are different from fibers noticed in melt-blown PP. Corona-charged double-layer 80PP-20TPU nonwovens have a filtration efficiency of 99.25% and quality factor (QF) of 0.13 mm H₂O⁻¹ at an air flow rate of 95 L/min. Moreover, PP's tensile strength was increased by 72.22%, and elongation was raised by 38.1% with the addition of 20 wt.% TPU. Thus, PP-TPU melt-blown composites may bring novel perspectives into the design and development of high-performance filtering materials for a variety of applications.     

Preparation and characterization of acrylonitrile‐ethyl methacrylate copolymers and the effect of LiClO4 salt on electrical properties of copolymer films

Copolymers of poly(acrylonitrile‐co‐ethyl methacrylate), P(AN‐EMA), with three different EMA content and parent homopolymers were synthesized by emulsion polymerization. The chemical composition of copolymers were identified by FTIR, ¹H‐NMR and ¹³C‐NMR spectroscopy. The thermal properties of copolymers were modified by changing the EMA content in copolymer compositions. Various amounts of LiClO₄ salt loaded (PAN‐co‐PEMA) copolymer films were prepared by solution casting. The dielectric properties of these films at different temperatures and frequencies were investigated. It was found that the dielectric constant and ac‐conductivity of copolymer films were strongly influenced by the salt amounts and EMA content in copolymers. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Hydrogen sensing properties of ZnO nanorods: Effects of annealing,temperature and electrode structure

In this study, the hydrogen (H₂) sensing properties of vertically aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were investigated depending on annealing, Pd coating, temperature and electrode structure. ZnO nanorods were fabricated by using hydrothermal method on a glass substrate and an indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate. In order to determine the effects of annealing on the H₂ sensor performance, the nanorods were heated at 500 °C in dry air. H₂ sensing measurements were done in the temperature range of 25–200 °C. It was found that, the sensor response of Pd coated ZnO nanorods were much higher than the un-coated nanorods due to the catalytic effect of Pd thin film. Moreover, the un-annealed samples showed better sensor response than the annealed samples due to the number of oxygen deficiency. In addition, the lateral electrode structure showed higher sensor response than the sandwich electrode structure.     

An empirical study on evolutionary feature selection in intelligent tutors for learning concept detection

Concept map mining (CMM) has emerged as a new research area with recent developments in computational intelligence in educational technology. CMM includes the following steps: extracting the learning concepts from educational content, specifying relations among them, and generating a concept map as a result. The purpose of this study was to develop a mechanism using data mining technique to determine the features that characterize a learning concept extracted automatically from a single educational text. The 3 major features that distinguish the real learning concepts from other sequences of strings are detected by using a hybrid system of a feed‐forward neural network and some evolutionary algorithms. Ant colony optimization and genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization are used as a binary feature selection method. In addition, the aforementioned methods are hybridized to get better accuracy and precision. The performance comparisons with two different state‐of‐the‐art algorithms have been made from the viewpoint of a typical classification problem.