Novel extensional device to efficiently form fine oil-in-water food emulsions

Two immiscible liquids are commonly mixed by mechanically dispersing one into the other to form emulsions. Surfactants or emulsifiers confer stability. Mechanical mixing, in practice, is an energy-intensive shear flow that is ineffective when the ratio of the dispersed-phase viscosity to the continuous-phase viscosity exceeds about four. Extensional flows are not subject to this viscosity ratio limit. This superiority of extensional flow was exploited to fabricate a novel, continuous-flow, cone-shaped device with an extensional strain of eight to make fine soybean oil-in-water emulsions. A spherical insert having a wall clearance of 25 μm was an effective design factor. Starting with ‘coarse’ 50 wt.% oil emulsions, two stretching episodes were needed for size reduction. The temperature rise was negligible, and the results were independent of the emulsifier type employed. Increasing flow rate and stretching episodes, reducing wall clearance, enhancing emulsifier concentration, and multiple passes through the device gave progressively smaller drops; the volume-averaged diameter became less than 2 μm, and the number-averaged diameter reached 0.5 μm, narrowing the size distribution. The emulsions that formed had a high viscosity and were stable. The performance of a scaled-up device was compared with other mixers. At equivalent energy density and 50 wt.% oil, drop sizes were similar for a valve homogenizer but larger for a rotor-stator mixer. At 80 wt.% oil, the rotor stator-mixer again required more energy for the same drop size, but emulsions prepared with the valve homogenizer broke. The findings of this study can help to design industrial-scale energy-efficient extensional-flow dominant devices for the formation of food emulsions.     

Advanced oxidation processes for the degradation of microplastics from the environment: A review

Microplastic pollution has rapidly become one of the major global environmental concerns because of its low biodegradability rate and threat to biota. Although many treatment methods are reported, the advanced oxidation process (AOP) is recommended because of its capacity to completely mineralize organic pollutants into carbon dioxide and water. This review gathers published investigations on recent AOP techniques (UV/solar photolysis and photocatalysis (PC), UV/H₂O₂, Fenton reaction, sonolysis, heat-activated persulphate and peroxymonosulphate) tested for the degradation of microplastics from water and wastewater. The review lists 54 studies, by far the most comprehensive collection on the AOP-driven treatment of microplastics, and is also the first to explain the methods related to the ultrasonic degradation of microplastics. We found that all the reviewed AOP techniques achieved satisfying performance in the degradation of microplastics. This paper proposes recommendations for future research based on the review.     

An effective NIDS framework based on a comprehensive survey of feature optimization and classification techniques

Neural Computing and Applications - The technological advancement leads to an increase in the usage of the Internet with many applications and connected devices. This increased network size causes...     

The Defining Role of Local Shear on the Development of As-Rolled Microstructure and Crystallographic Texture in Steel

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - This study involved laboratory unidirectional (UDR) and reverse (RR) cold rolling of steel, and corresponding direct (and indirect) observations of...     

Machine Learning Assisted Analysis,Prediction, and Fabrication of High-Efficiency CZTSSe Thin Film Solar Cells

The Earth-abundant element-based Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ (CZTSSe) absorber is considered as a promising material for thin-film solar cells (TFSCs). The current record power conversion efficiency (PCE) of CZTSSe TFSCs is ≈13%, and it's still lower than CdTe and CIGS-based TFSCs. A further breakthrough in its PCE mainly relies on deep insights into the various device fabrication conditions; accordingly, the experimental–oriented machine learning (ML) approach can be an effective way to discover key governing factors in improving PCE. The present work aims to identify the key governing factors throughout the device fabrication processes and apply them to break the saturated PCE for CZTSSe TFSCs. For realization, over 25,000 data points were broadly collected by fabricating more than 1300 CZTSSe TFSC devices and analyzed them using various ML techniques. Through extensive ML analysis, the i-ZnO thickness is found to be the first, while Zn/Sn compositional ratio and sulfo-selenization temperature are other key governing factors under thin or thick i-ZnO thickness to achieve over 11% PCE. Based on these key governing factors, the applied random forest ML prediction model for PCE showed Adj. R² = >0.96. Finally, the best-predicted ML conditions considered for experimental validation showed well-matched experimental outcomes with different ML models.     

Pyrroloquinoline Based Styryl Dyes Doped PMMA,PS, and PS/TiO2 Polymer for Fluorescent Applications

This article presents two highly fluorescent donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) moieties containing an electron-donating carbazole and phenothiazine donors fused with electron-withdrawing pyrrolo-quinoline acceptor dyes, PQC and PQPT. We also discussed the polymerization and film-forming process of dye PQC and PQPT doped in poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS) polymer to find their optical applications in polymer-based technology. We investigated the fluorescent properties of dyes PQC and PQPT from 0.01 to 1 wt% in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). We also investigated the changes in the spectrum shape and shift in wavelength with changes in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polystyrene (PS), and TiO₂ doped in polystyrene (PS/TiO₂). The analysis of surface morphology of prepared polymer samples was done with the help of a scanning electron microscope. The thermal and photostability of synthesized dyes in poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polystyrene (PS), and TiO₂ doped in polystyrene (PS/TiO₂) were investigated to get detailed information owing to the application of fluorescent polymers in the field of optoelectronic, nanohybrid coatings in solar concentrators, etc.

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