CuxNi1-xO nanostructures and their nanocomposites with reduced graphene oxide: Synthesis,characterization, and photocatalytic applications

NiO nanostructure was synthesized using a simple co-precipitation method and was embedded on reduced graphene oxide surface via ultrasonication. Structural investigations were made through X-ray diffraction (XRD) and functional groups were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). XRD analysis revealed the grain size reduction with doping. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed the presence of metal-oxygen bond in pristine and doped NiO nanostructure as well as the presence of carbon containing groups. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that the particle size decreased when NiO nanostructure was doped with copper. BET surface area was found to increase almost up to 43 m²/g for Cu doped NiO nanostructure/rGO composite. Current-voltage measurements were performed using two probe method. UV–Visible spectroscopic profiles showed the blue and red shift for Cu doped NiO nanostructure and Cu doped NiO Nanostructure/rGO composite respectively. Rate constant for Cu doped NiO nanostructure/rGO composite found to increase 4.4 times than pristine NiO nanostructure.     

Effects of molybdenum additions on the structure, depth, and austenite grain size of the case of carburized 0.13% carbon steels

Carbon (0.13%) steel samples containing about 0.48% molybdenum (Mo) singly and in combination with nickel (Ni) were carburized in a natural Titas gas atmosphere at a temperature of 1223 K (950 °C) and at a pressure of about 0.10 MPa (15 psia) for time periods ranging from 1–4 h followed by slow cooling in the furnace. Their microstructure was studied by optical microscopy. The austenite grain size of the case and the case depths were determined. It was found that Mo and Ni alone and in combination decrease the thickness of the cementite network near the surface of the carburized case of the steels. However, Ni is found to be more effective than Mo in decreasing the thickness of cementite network. Both Mo and Ni enhance the formation of Widmanstätten cementite plates at the grain boundary and within the grains near the surface of the carburized steels. However, Ni alone is more effective than Mo in the formation of Widmanstätten cementite plates. In the presence of Ni, Mo is much more effective in the formation of Widmanstätten cementite plates than Mo in absence of Ni. It was also revealed that both Mo and Ni increased the case depth. Ni is more effective than Mo in increasing the case depth. The combined effect of Mo and Ni is much greater than that of either Mo or Ni alone in increasing case depth. Mo as Mo carbide (Mo₂C) particles refined the austenite grain size of the carburized case. Ni in solution was not found to have any effect in restricting grain growth of austenite, but the presence of Ni enhances the austenite grain size refining effect of Mo in the carburized case.     

PERFORMANCE OF THREE STAGE TURBO－EQUALIZATION－DECODING

An increasing demand for high data rate transmission and protection over bandlimited channels with severe inter-symbol interference has resulted in a flurry of activity to improve channel equalization. In conjunction with equalization, channel coding-decoding can be employed to improve system performance. In this letter, the performance of the three stageturbo-equalization-decoding employing log maximum a posteriori probability is experimentally evaluated by a fading simulator. The BER is evaluated using various information sequence and interleaver sizes taking into account that the communication medium is a noisy inter symbol interference channel.     

Heat exchanger network synthesis with detailed exchanger designs: Part 1. A discretized differential algebraic equation model for shell and tube heat exchanger design

A new method for the detailed design of shell and tube heat exchangers is presented through the formulation of coupled differential heat equations, along with algebraic equations for design variables. Heat exchanger design components (tube passes, baffles, and shells) are used to discretize the differential equations and are solved simultaneously with the algebraic design equations. The coupled differential algebraic equation (DAE) system is suitable for numerical optimization as it replaces the nonsmooth log mean temperature difference (LMTD) term. Discrete decisions regarding the number of shells, fluid allocation, tube sizes, and number of baffles are determined by solving an LMTD-based method iteratively. The resulting heat exchanger topology is then used to discretize the detailed DAE model, which is solved as a nonlinear programming model to obtain the detailed exchanger design by minimizing an economic objective function through varying the tube length. The DAE model also provides the stream temperature profiles inside the exchanger simultaneously with the detailed design. It is observed that the DAE model results are almost equal to the LMTD-based design model for one-shell heat exchangers with constant stream properties but shows significant differences when streams properties are allowed to vary with temperature or the number of shells are increased. The accuracy of the solutions and the required computational costs show that the model is well suited for solving heat exchanger network synthesis problems combined with detailed exchanger designs, which is demonstrated in Part 2 of the paper.     

Infrared Spectroscopy-Based Chemometric Analysis for Lard Differentiation in Meat Samples

One of the most pressing concerns for the consumer market is the detection of adulteration in meat products due to their preciousness. The rapid and accurate identification mechanism for lard adulteration in meat products is highly necessary, for developing a mechanism trusted by consumers and that can be used to make a definitive diagnosis. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) is used in this work to identify lard adulteration in cow, lamb, and chicken samples. A simplified extraction method was implied to obtain the lipids from pure and adulterated meat. Adulterated samples were obtained by mixing lard with chicken, lamb, and beef with different concentrations (10%–50% v/v). Principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square (PLS) were used to develop a calibration model at 800–3500 cm⁻¹. Three-dimension PCA was successfully used by dividing the spectrum in three regions to classify lard meat adulteration in chicken, lamb, and beef samples. The corresponding FTIR peaks for the lard have been observed at 1159.6, 1743.4, 2853.1, and 2922.5 cm⁻¹, which differentiate chicken, lamb, and beef samples. The wavenumbers offer the highest determination coefficient R² value of 0.846 and lowest root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC) and root mean square error prediction (RMSEP) with an accuracy of 84.6%. Even the tiniest fat adulteration up to 10% can be reliably discovered using this methodology.     

Combined effect of microwave and ultrasonication treatments on the quality and stability of sugarcane juice during cold storage

The main objective of this study was to investigate the combined effect of microwave (MW) treatment (2450 MHz for 120 s), ultrasonication (US) (24 KHz, 20 °C for 20 min) and combined treatment (MW-US) on the quality and stability of sugarcane juice (SCJ) during 21 days of storage at 4 °C. The effect of the treatments and storage time on physicochemical, bioactive compounds (total phenolic, flavonoids and ascorbic acid content) and microbial analysis of SCJ. No significant (P < 0.05) changes were observed in °Brix, while there was an increase in pH and a decrease in titratable acidity in all treatments. Compared to US and MW, MW-US treatments was more effective in preserving colour attributes, total phenolic and flavonoids contents, ascorbic acid and antioxidant capacities of the SCJ during storage. The results regarding the microbial count indicate that more microbial safety and longer shelf life was achieved by MW-US. MW-US treatment is an effective technology for improving the safety and shelf life of SCJ by minimising quality changes, retaining bioactive compounds and reducing microbial growth during storage.     

Simultaneously determination of methyl and inorganic mercury in fish species by cold vapour generation atomic absorption spectrometry

A simple and rapid non-chromatographic method was developed to determine methylmercury (MeHg) and inorganic mercury (iHg) levels in muscles tissues of 10 freshwater fish species. The MeHg and iHg were determined by cold vapour atomic absorption spectrometry after alkaline wet digestion of samples. The digested samples were reduced sequentially with stannous chloride and sodium tetrahydroborate for iHg and MeHg, respectively. Parameters such as carrier gas flow rate (argon), volume of oxidizing and potassium persulphate solutions were investigated in detail. The accuracy of the technique was evaluated by using certified reference material (DORM-2) and spiking the both Hg species in muscles tissue of a fish. The limits of detection were 0.117 and 0.133 μg kg⁻¹ for MeHg and iHg, respectively. The concentrations of MeHg and iHg in muscles tissues of ten fish species were found in the range of (28.4–56.3) and (3.01–8.11) μg kg⁻¹, respectively.