An improved hybrid nanocomposites of rice husk derived graphene (GRHA)/Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 for hydrogen adsorption

In this work, hybrid nanocomposites rice husk derived graphene (GRHA) and zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) were prepared for hydrogen adsorption. The main contribution of this study is the simplification of the synthesized GRHA/ZIF-8 hybrid nanocomposites. Besides that, the use of synthesized graphene from rice husk (RH) could help in overcoming environmental issue since disposal of RH is rather challenging. GRHA was obtained through calcining rice husk ash (RHA) at 900 °C for 2 h in a muffle furnace at atmospheric condition while the nanocomposite of GRHA/ZIF-8 was produced in free solvent condition using deionized water at room temperature for only 1 h. The N₂ adsorption-desorption indicated a type I isotherm. Interestingly, it was found that the BET specific surface area (BET_SSA) of GRHA/ZIF-8 showed enhancement up to 3 times higher as compared to pristine GRHA with the addition of 0.2 g of GRHA. From the experimental data, the adsorption of H₂ by nanocomposite GRHA/ZIF-8 obeyed the pseudo-second order kinetic model and intraparticle diffusion model with R² value up to 0.9890 and 0.8087 respectively at 12 bar. Moreover, the GRHA/ZIF-8 possessed highest hydrogen adsorption of 31.84 mmol/g at 12 bar. These impressive results are justified by the combination of ZIF-8's microporosity and GRHA's mesoporosity.     

Water management in a single cell proton exchange membrane fuel cells with a serpentine flow field

Gas and water management is the key to achieving good performance from a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stack. Imbalance between production and evaporation rates can result in either flooding of the electrodes or membrane dehydration, both of which severely limit fuel cell performance. In the present study, a mathematical model was developed to evaluate moisture profiles of hydrogen and air flows in the flow field channels of both the anode and the cathode. For model validation, a single fuel cell was designed with an active area of 200 cm². Six humidity sensors were installed in the flow fields of both the anode and the cathode at 457 mm, 1266 mm and 2532 mm from the inlets. The experiment was performed using an Arbin Fuel Cell Test Station. The temperature was varied (25 °C, 40 °C, 50 °C and 60 °C), while hydrogen and air velocities were fixed at 3 L min⁻¹ and 6 L min⁻¹, respectively, during the operation of the single cell. The feed relative humidity at the anode was fixed at 1.0, while the feed relative humidity at the cathode was fixed at 0.005 (dry air). All humidity sensor readings were taken at steady state after 2 h of operation. Model predictions were then compared with experimental results by using the least squares algorithm. The moisture content was found to decrease along the flow field at the anode, but to increase at the cathode. The moisture content profile at the anode was shown to depend on the moisture Peclet number, which decreased with temperature. On the other hand, the moisture profile at the cathode was shown to depend on both the Peclet number and the Damkohler number. The trend of the Peclet number in the cathode followed closely that of the anode. The Damkohler number decreased with temperature, indicating increasing moisture mass transfer with temperature. The moisture profile models were successfully validated by the published data of the estimated overall mass transfer coefficient and moisture effective diffusivity of the same order of magnitude. The strategy of saturating the hydrogen feed and using dry air, as in the present work, has been shown to successfully prevent water droplet formation in the cathode, and hence prevent flooding.     

Synthesis of Phenolics and Flavonoids in Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) and Their Effects on Photosynthesis Rate

The relationship between phenolics and flavonoids synthesis/accumulation and photosynthesis rate was investigated for two Malaysian ginger (Zingiber officinale) varieties grown under four levels of glasshouse light intensity, namely 310, 460, 630 and 790 μmol m(-2)s(-1). High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was employed to identify and quantify the polyphenolic components. The results of HPLC analysis indicated that synthesis and partitioning of quercetin, rutin, catechin, epicatechin and naringenin were high in plants grown under 310 μmol m(-2)s(-1). The average value of flavonoids synthesis in leaves for both varieties increased (Halia Bentong 26.1%; Halia Bara 19.5%) when light intensity decreased. Photosynthetic rate and plant biomass increased in both varieties with increasing light intensity. More specifically, a high photosynthesis rate (12.25 μmol CO(2) m(-2)s(-1) in Halia Bara) and plant biomass (79.47 g in Halia Bentong) were observed at 790 μmol m(-2)s(-1). Furthermore, plants with the lowest rate of photosynthesis had highest flavonoids content. Previous studies have shown that quercetin inhibits and salicylic acid induces the electron transport rate in photosynthesis photosystems. In the current study, quercetin was an abundant flavonoid in both ginger varieties. Moreover, higher concentration of quercetin (1.12 mg/g dry weight) was found in Halia Bara leaves grown under 310 μmol m(-2)s(-1) with a low photosynthesis rate. Furthermore, a high content of salicylic acid (0.673 mg/g dry weight) was detected in Halia Bara leaves exposed under 790 μmol m(-2)s(-1) with a high photosynthesis rate. No salicylic acid was detected in gingers grown under 310 μmol m(-2)s(-1). Ginger is a semi-shade loving plant that does not require high light intensity for photosynthesis. Different photosynthesis rates at different light intensities may be related to the absence or presence of some flavonoid and phenolic compounds.     

A review on degradation mechanisms of polylactic acid: Hydrolytic,photodegradative, microbial,and enzymatic degradation

Recently, thoughtful disagreements between scientists concerning environmental issues including the use of renewable materials have enhanced universal awareness of the use of biodegradable materials. Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the most promising biodegradable materials for commercially replacing nondegradable materials such as polyethylene terephthalate and polystyrene. The main advantages of PLA production over the conventional plastic materials is PLA can be produced from renewable resources such as corn or other carbohydrate sources. Besides, PLA provides adequate energy saving by consuming CO₂ during production. Thus, we aim to highlight recent research involving the investigation of properties of PLA, its applications and the four types of potential PLA degradation mechanisms. In the first part of the article, a brief discussion of the problems surrounding use of conventional plastic is provided and examples of biodegradable polymers currently used are provided. Next, properties of PLA, and (Poly[L-lactide]), (Poly[D-lactide]) (PDLA) and (Poly[DL-lactide]) and application of PLA in various industries such as in packaging, transportation, agriculture and the biomedical, textile and electronic industry are described. Behaviors of PLA subjected to hydrolytic, photodegradative, microbial and enzymatic degradation mechanisms are discussed in detail in the latter portion of the article.     

Properties of treated calcium copper titanate filled epoxy thin film composites for electronic applications

In this study, calcium copper titanate (CCTO) fillers were treated with 1%, 5%, and 10% of silane‐based coupling agent 3‐glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS). The CCTO treated with 10% GPTMS filled epoxy thin film composite exhibits a remarkable improvement (60%) of dielectric constant than untreated CCTO/epoxy thin film composite. Besides that, results treated CCTO/epoxy thin film composite produced using various epoxy resins showed that OP 392 epoxy thin film composite exhibited the highest glass transition temperature and degradation temperature, moderate dielectric constant, slightly lower coefficient of thermal expansion and lowest dielectric loss compared with D.E.R. 332 and Epolam 2015 epoxy thin film composites. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43313.     

Calibration of Coercive and Stray Fields of Commercial Magnetic Force Microscope Probes

Variable-field magnetic force microscope (MFM) is introduced to characterize the magnetic behavior of commercially available MFM probes that is relevant to interpret MFM imaging. A Nanotec Electronica S.L. microscope has been conveniently modified to apply magnetic fields in axial direction (up to 1.5 kOe) and in-plane direction (up to 2.0 kOe). Axial and transeverse hysteresis loops of the probes have been generated by measuring the changes in the MFM contrast observed when the magnetic field is applied. The variation of the MFM signal is ascribed to the modification of the magnetic state of the tips. This is enabled by the large coercitivity (~1.7 kOe) of the checked longitudinal recording media. The properties of the probes depend on the coating material, the macroscopic tip shape, and tip radius. In only a few cases, the magnetization of the probe can be oriented along in-plane orientation. In addition, the stray field of the tips has been deduced by measuring the influence of the probe in the magnetic state of the checked samples.     

Machine Learning and Synthetic Minority Oversampling Techniques for Imbalanced Data: Improving Machine Failure Prediction

Prediction of machine failure is challenging as the dataset is often imbalanced with a low failure rate. The common approach to handle classification involving imbalanced data is to balance the data using a sampling approach such as random undersampling, random oversampling, or Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE) algorithms. This paper compared the classification performance of three popular classifiers (Logistic Regression, Gaussian Naïve Bayes, and Support Vector Machine) in predicting machine failure in the Oil and Gas industry. The original machine failure dataset consists of 20,473 hourly data and is imbalanced with 19945 (97%) ‘non-failure’ and 528 (3%) ‘failure data’. The three independent variables to predict machine failure were pressure indicator, flow indicator, and level indicator. The accuracy of the classifiers is very high and close to 100%, but the sensitivity of all classifiers using the original dataset was close to zero. The performance of the three classifiers was then evaluated for data with different imbalance rates (10% to 50%) generated from the original data using SMOTE, SMOTE-Support Vector Machine (SMOTE-SVM) and SMOTE-Edited Nearest Neighbour (SMOTE-ENN). The classifiers were evaluated based on improvement in sensitivity and F-measure. Results showed that the sensitivity of all classifiers increases as the imbalance rate increases. SVM with radial basis function (RBF) kernel has the highest sensitivity when data is balanced (50:50) using SMOTE (Sensitivity_test =0.5686, F_test= 0.6927) compared to Naïve Bayes (Sensitivity_test =0.4033, F_test= 0.6218) and Logistic Regression (Sensitivity_test =0.4194, F_test= 0.621). Overall, the Gaussian Naïve Bayes model consistently improves sensitivity and F-measure as the imbalance ratio increases, but the sensitivity is below 50%. The classifiers performed better when data was balanced using SMOTE-SVM compared to SMOTE and SMOTE-ENN.     

Measurement of Percentage Depth Dose and Half Value Layer of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Rhizophora</Emphasis> spp. Particleboard Bonded by <Emphasis Type="Italic">Eremurus</Emphasis> spp. to 60, 80 and 100 kVp Diagnostic X-rays

Some researchers formerly provided the mechanical, physical, and attenuation properties of the fabricated Eremurus–Rhizophora spp. particleboard phantom. In this study, the percentage depth dose (PDD) and the half value layer (HVL) of fabricated Eremurus–Rhizophora spp. particleboard phantom were determined and compared with those of Perspex and water phantoms, with the same standard phantom size (30 cm?×?30 cm?×?30 cm) in the diagnostic energy range using TLD 100H. In addition, the energy range of X-ray was in diagnostic range of energy. The results indicated that the PDD and HVL of the fabricated Eremurus–Rhizophora spp. particleboard phantom were close to those of the Perspex phantom. Likewise, the PDD and HVL of the fabricated Eremurus–Rhizophora spp. particleboard phantom were found in good agreement with those of water phantom. According to the results of this study, the fabricated Eremurus–Rhizophora spp. particleboard phantom can be used as medical phantoms.