How can Cleaner Production practices contribute to meet ISO 14001 requirements? Critical analysis from a survey with industrial companies

The companies’ needs to adopt changes in their way of production to maximize the environmental performance required by their stakeholders, and at the same time, to maximize their economic and market performance, have made them seek for environmental strategies and certifications. In this sense, the Cleaner Production and the Environmental Management System based on ISO 14001 have been, respectively, presented, since the main objective of this research is to identify and analyze Cleaner Production contributions to comply with ISO 14001 requirements. For such, a survey research has been carried out in Brazilian industrial companies certified by ISO 14001. We have identified the main performance factors by leading practices and variables of Cleaner Production that contribute to the compliance with the standard requirements by companies. Thus, it has been noted that Cleaner Production is an important strategy for the preparation of companies for certification as well as for improving their environmental performance.     

Anticipating Cutoff Diameters in Deterministic Lateral Displacement (DLD) Microfluidic Devices for an Optimized Particle Separation

Deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) devices enable to separate nanometer to micrometer‐sized particles around a cutoff diameter, during their transport through a microfluidic channel with slanted rows of pillars. In order to design appropriate DLD geometries for specific separation sizes, robust models are required to anticipate the value of the cutoff diameter. So far, the proposed models result in a single cutoff diameter for a given DLD geometry. This paper shows that the cutoff diameter actually varies along the DLD channel, especially in narrow pillar arrays. Experimental and numerical results reveal that the variation of the cutoff diameter is induced by boundary effects at the channel side walls, called the wall effect. The wall effect generates unexpected particle trajectories that may compromise the separation efficiency. In order to anticipate the wall effect when designing DLD devices, a predictive model is proposed in this work and has been validated experimentally. In addition to the usual geometrical parameters, a new parameter, the number of pillars in the channel cross dimension, is considered in this model to investigate its influence on the particle trajectories.     

Quantification of different effects occurring during fatigue tests on bituminous mixtures

Quantification of different effects (nonlinearity, heating, thixotropy, and fatigue) occurring during fatigue tests on bituminous mixtures is presented in this paper. A focus is given on the nonlinearity phenomenon. Continuous fatigue tests and a test with specific protocol (called fatigue tests to estimate biasing effects) were performed in tension/compression mode on cylindrical samples of the same material. The analysis of results reveals that reversible effects (nonlinearity, heating, and thixotropy) are important (more than 90% decrease at 100,000 cycles for a strain amplitude of 100 μm/m at 10 Hz) and cannot be ignored when interpreting classical fatigue tests. The nonlinearity effects respect the time‐temperature superposition principle, and they are more pronounced at “high” temperature (at the same frequency). Direction of nonlinearity curve in the Cole‐Cole axes is shown to be independent of temperature and frequency for the considered range.     

Interest of molecular functionalization for electrochemical storage

Despite great interests in electrochemical energy storage systems for numerous applications, considerable challenges remain to be overcome. Among the various approaches to improving the stability, safety, performance, and cost of these systems, molecular functionalization has recently been proved an attractive method that allows the tuning of material surface reactivity while retaining the properties of the bulk material. For this purpose, the reduction of aryldiazonium salt, which is a versatile method, is considered suitable; it forms robust covalent bonds with the material surface, however, with the formation of multilayer structures and sp³ defects (for carbon substrate) that can be detrimental to the electronic conductivity. Alternatively, non-covalent molecular functionalization based on π–π interactions using aromatic ring units has been proposed. In this review, the various advances in molecular functionalization concerning the current limitations in lithium-ion batteries and electrochemical capacitors are discussed. According to the targeted applications and required properties, both covalent and non-covalent functionalization methods have proved to be very efficient and versatile. Fundamental aspects to achieve a better understanding of the functionalization reactions as well as molecular layer properties and their effects on the electrochemical performance are also discussed. Finally, perspectives are proposed for future implementation of molecular functionalization in the field of electrochemical storage.

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CeO<Subscript>2</Subscript> and Co<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript>–CeO<Subscript>2</Subscript> nanoparticles: effect of the synthesis method on the structure and catalytic properties in COPrOx and methanation reactions

CeO₂ and Co₃O₄–CeO₂ nanoparticles were synthesized, thoroughly characterized, and evaluated in the COPrOx reaction. The CeO₂ nanoparticles were synthesized by the diffusion-controlled precipitation method with ethylene glycol. A notably higher yield was obtained when H₂O₂ was used in the synthesis procedure. For comparison, two commercial samples of CeO₂ nanoparticles (Nyacol^®)—one calcined and the other sintered—were also studied. Catalytic results of bare CeO₂ calcined at 500 °C showed a strong influence of the method of synthesis. Despite having similar BET area values, the CeO₂ synthesized without H₂O₂ was the most active sample. Co₃O₄–CeO₂ catalysts with three different Co/(Co + Ce) atomic ratios, 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5, were prepared by the wet impregnation of the CeO₂ nanoparticles. TEM and STEM observations showed that impregnation produced mixed oxides composed of small CeO₂ nanoparticles located both over the surface and inside the Co₃O₄ crystals. The mixed oxide catalysts prepared with a cobalt atomic ratio of 0.5 showed methane formation, which started at 200 °C due to the reaction between CO₂ and H₂. However, above 250 °C, the reaction between CO and H₂ became important, thus contributing to CO elimination with a small H₂ loss. As a result, CO could be totally eliminated in a wide temperature range, from 200 to 400 °C. The methanation reaction was favored by the reduction of the cobalt oxide, as suggested by the TPR experiments. This result is probably originated in Ce–Co interactions, related to the method of synthesis and the surface area of the mixed oxides obtained.     

Effect of porosity and hydrostatic pressure on water absorption in a semicrystalline fluoropolymer

This paper discusses the effect of porosity and hydrostatic pressure on diffusion kinetics and equilibrium water uptake in a semicrystalline fluoropolymer. Water sorption experiments at atmospheric pressure and under water pressures up to 250 MPa were carried out during 18 months at 40 °C on reference and porous samples. Porosity of samples was induced due to a cavitation process occurring at the highest triaxiality area of waisted and notched specimens during tensile tests. Water uptake was found to be very sensitive to porosity, showing an increase in samples with a high void fraction. On the other hand, water content decreased with increasing pressure suggesting a compaction of the porous space in which water can be stored. Two models describing this water uptake behaviour were considered. The first is a classical model which assumes that sorption occurs only by diffusion following Fick’s law. Fick’s model was found to be in agreement with the experimental results. A “Langmuir-type” sorption model was also proposed to describe water uptake in porous samples, considering a two-phase water transport mechanism: one portion of the absorbed water diffuses through the polymer matrix and the other portion is stored in voids. This model was implemented in a user subroutine using ABAQUS? software and simulations were confronted to experimental sorption curves showing satisfactory agreements. The potential of the Langmuir-type sorption model resides on its availability to be coupled to a poro-mechanical model, in order to improve the understanding of coupling between the mechanical behaviour and water sorption mechanism in a porous polymer.     

The Grid Method for In‐plane Displacement and Strain Measurement: A Review and Analysis

The grid method is a technique suitable for the measurement of in‐plane displacement and strain components on specimens undergoing a small deformation. It relies on a regular marking of the surfaces under investigation. Various techniques are proposed in the literature to retrieve these sought quantities from images of regular markings, but recent advances show that techniques developed initially to process fringe patterns lead to the best results. The grid method features a good compromise between measurement resolution and spatial resolution, thus making it an efficient tool to characterise strain gradients. Another advantage of this technique is the ability to establish closed‐form expressions between its main metrological characteristics, thus enabling to predict them within certain limits. In this context, the objective of this paper is to give the state of the art in the grid method, the information being currently spread out in the literature. We propose first to recall various techniques that were used in the past to process grid images, to focus progressively on the one that is the most used in recent examples: the windowed Fourier transform. From a practical point of view, surfaces under investigation must be marked with grids, so the techniques available to mark specimens with grids are presented. Then we gather the information available in the recent literature to synthesise the connection between three important characteristics of full‐field measurement techniques: the spatial resolution, the measurement resolution and the measurement bias. Some practical information is then offered to help the readers who discover this technique to start using it. In particular, programmes used here to process the grid images are offered to the readers on a dedicated website. We finally present some recent examples available in the literature to highlight the effectiveness of the grid method for in‐plane displacement and strain measurement in real situations.