Synthesis and Characterization of NiO Nano‐Spheres by Templating on Chitosan as a Green Precursor

In this study, nickel oxide was prepared through the calcination of extrusion dripped chitosan/nickel nitrate beads. The morphology and structural properties of the products were studied using various characterization techniques. Uniformly distributed nickel oxide was formed as observed from the studies of surface morphology where the processing parameters play a huge role on the resulting morphology. TEM results have shown that nickel oxide with crystallite sizes of 10–30 nm was obtained. The Fourier‐transform infrared spectra studies show an intense peak at 525 cm^?1, which is attributed to the vibration of Ni–O bond. Furthermore, the XRD results show NiO diffraction peaks correspond to (111), (200), (220), (311), and (222) which indicates that a bunsenite structure with a face‐centered cubic phase was produced in this study. The usage of 500°C as the lower limit in this study is justified due to the complete removal of the templating material as seen in the thermalgravimetric analysis studies. Furthermore, it was obtained that the largest surface area of nickel oxide synthesized using this technique is 48.024 m²/g with pore sizes of 19.843 nm. The usage of chitosan as a green template for the synthesis of nanoparticles has shown promising results which allows a more economical and sustainable approach for the fabrication of nanomaterials.     

Microbial fuel cell-based sensor for Enterobacter sp. KBH6958 activity monitoring during hydrogen production: the effects of pH and glucose concentration

Journal of Applied Electrochemistry - A microbial fuel cell (MFC) is an electricity-generating device utilising electrochemically active microorganisms as biocatalysts. Using MFC as a biosensor to...     

Single stage production of carbon nanotubes using microwave technology

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were produced by gas phase single stage tubular microwave chemical vapor deposition (TM–CVD) using ferrocene as a catalyst and acetylene (C₂H₂) and hydrogen (H₂) as precursor gasses. The effect of the process parameters such as microwave power, radiation time, and gas ratio of C₂H₂/H₂ was investigated. The CNTs were characterized using scanning and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Results reveal that the optimized conditions for CNT production were 900 W reaction power, 35 min radiation time, and 0.6 gas ratio of C₂H₂/H₂. TEM analyses revealed that the uniformly dispersed vertical alignment of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have diameters ranging from 16 to 23 nm. The TGA analysis showed that the purity of CNT produced was 98%.     

A solar receiver-reactor with specularly reflecting walls for high-temperature thermoelectrochemical and thermochemical processes

A new kind of receiver-reactor for high temperature solar furnaces is proposed. The main body of the receiver component is an ellipsoid of revolution with specularly reflecting inner walls. The reactor component, a crucible, is placed at one focal point and the aperture at the other. With this arrangement, substantially all of the incident radiation from the concentrator should reach the reactor directly or after one reflection from the cavity walls. An analysis of the radiative exchange among the surfaces is presented. The analysis provides a tool for a parametric study and optimization of the design. It is found that, in contrast to that of conventional well-insulated cavity receivers, its collection efficiency is not very sensitive to the size of its aperture.     

Validation of a headspace solid-phase microextraction procedure with gas chromatography-electron capture detection of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables

Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) was evaluated for the determination of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables by gas chromatography with an electron capture detector (GC-ECD). The fibre used was coated with polydimethylsiloxane (100 μm thickness) and the analytical conditions employed have been developed and optimised in a previous work [Chai, M. K., Tan, G. H., & Asha, L. (2008). Optimisation of headspace solid-phase microextraction for the determination of pesticide residues in vegetables and fruits. Analytical Sciences, 24 (2), 273–276]. The results show that the HS-SPME procedure gave a better linear range, accuracy, precision, detection and quantification limits and is adequate for analysing pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables. The average recoveries obtained for each pesticide ranged between 71% and 98% at three fortification levels with the relative standard deviation of less than 5%. Repeatability (0.3–3.7%) and intermediate precision (0.8–2.5%) were shown to be satisfactory. The limits of detection (0.01–1 μg L⁻¹) and the limits of quantification (0.05–5 μg L⁻¹) of these pesticides were much lower than the maximum residue levels (MRL), allowed for fruits and vegetables in Malaysia.     

Synthesis of hierarchical MFI zeolite microspheres with stacking nanocrystals

MFI nanozeolite microspheres with intercrystal mesopores were synthesized by a steam-assisted crystallization–aggregation method, starting with close packed amorphous SiO₂ or Al-containing SiO₂ colloidal nanoparticles. The obtained samples with different Si/Al ratios were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM)/ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations, nitrogen adsorption analyses and ²⁷Al magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The SEM images clearly showed that the mean size of nanozeolite microspheres was ca. 0.5–3 μm, agglomerated from zeolite nanocrystals and varied with different Si/Al ratios. N₂ sorption analyses as well as TEM micrographs indicated the dual-porosity of samples, one is from intracrystal micropores, and the other is from intercrystal mesopores. ²⁷Al MAS-NMR suggested nearly all of the Al atoms were located at tetrahedral-coordinated sites in the framework. Furthermore, nanozeolite microspheres with various Si/Al ratios, even Si/Al equal to five, could be prepared by this facile route and less structure-directing agent was needed compared to conventional approach. This simple method could be easily extended to prepare other hierarchically structured zeolites.     

Improvement of the hydroxyapatite mechanical properties by direct microwave sintering in single mode cavity

The main purpose of this study consists in investigating the direct microwave sintering of hydroxyapatite (HA) in a single mode cavity. Firstly, stoichiometric HA powders were synthesized by a coprecipitation method from diammonium phosphate and calcium nitrate solutions and shaped by slip-casting. Then, using the one-step microwave process, dense pellets with fine microstructures were successfully obtained in short sintering timespan. A parametric study permitted to determine the influence of powder grain size, sintering temperature and dwell time on the sintered samples microstructures. The Young's modulus (E) and hardness (H) were measured by nanoindentation and the values discussed according to the microstructure. Finally, the resulting mechanical properties determined on the microwave sintered samples (E = 148.5 GPa, H = 9.6 GPa, σ_compression = 531.3 MPa and K_IC = 1.12 MPa m^1/2) are significantly higher than those usually reported in the literature, whatever the sintering process, and could allow the use of HA for structural applications.     

The influence of tool flank wear on residual stresses induced by milling aluminum alloy

The machining processes could induce residual stresses that enhance or impair greatly the performance of the machined component. Machining residual stresses correlate very closely with the cutting parameters and the tool geometries. In this paper, the effect of the tool flank wear on residual stresses profiles in milling of aluminum alloy 7050-T7451 was investigated. In the experiments, the residual stresses on the surface of the workpiece and in-depth were measured by using X-ray diffraction technique in combination with electro-polishing technique. In order to correlate the residual stresses with the thermal and mechanical phenomena developed during milling, the orthogonal components of the cutting forces were measured using a Kistler 9257A type three-component piezoelectric dynamometer. The temperature field of the machined workpiece surface was obtained with the combination of infrared thermal imaging system and finite element method. The results show that the tool flank wear has a significant effect on residual stresses profiles, especially superficial residual stress. As the tool flank wear length increases, the residual stress on the machined surface shifts obviously to tensile range, the residual compressive stress beneath the machined surface increases and the thickness of the residual stresses layer also increases. The magnitude and distributions of the residual stresses are closely correlated with cutting forces and temperature field. The three orthogonal components of the peak cutting forces increase and the highest temperature of the machined workpiece surface also increases significantly with an increase in the flank wear. The results reveal that the thermal load plays a significant role in the formation of the superficial residual stress, while the dominative factor that affects thickness of residual stresses layer is the mechanical load in high-speed milling aluminum alloy using worn tool.     

Application of Proteomics in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Biomarker Investigations: A Review

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), a highly aggressive malignancy with a poor prognosis is usually detected at the advanced stage of the disease. The only US Food and Drug Administration-approved biomarker that is available for PDAC, CA 19-9, is most useful in monitoring treatment response among PDAC patients rather than for early detection. Moreover, when CA 19-9 is solely used for diagnostic purposes, it has only a recorded sensitivity of 79% and specificity of 82% in symptomatic individuals. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify reliable biomarkers for diagnosis (specifically for the early diagnosis), ascertain prognosis as well as to monitor treatment response and tumour recurrence of PDAC. In recent years, proteomic technologies are growing exponentially at an accelerated rate for a wide range of applications in cancer research. In this review, we discussed the current status of biomarker research for PDAC using various proteomic technologies. This review will explore the potential perspective for understanding and identifying the unique alterations in protein expressions that could prove beneficial in discovering new robust biomarkers to detect PDAC at an early stage, ascertain prognosis of patients with the disease in addition to monitoring treatment response and tumour recurrence of patients.