Effect of Experimental Variables on the Combustion Characteristics of Water-in-Diesel Emulsion Fuels

Water-in-diesel (W/D) emulsion fuels were prepared through an ultrasonic processor by using high energy emulsification method. Accordingly, the physical and chemical properties were analyzed. A decrease in viscosity was found in the emulsion fuel in contrast to the neat diesel which signifies the enhanced fluidity of the fuel. The emulsion fuel was then used to carry combustion tests in an internal combustion engine. A decrease in exhaust temperature was observed when a high surfactant to water ratio was used, which lead to minimal heat loss. As water is emulsified with diesel, effectiveness of combustion is improved rather than neat diesel fuel. It was also explored that the addition of water-in-diesel is influential in terms of reduction in exhaust gas emission such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ammonia from the internal combustion engine. Therefore, this type of emulsion fuel would be a useful contribution in the fuel economy, but also in making it environmentally friendly since diesel fuel is now considered one of the leading fuels causing ecological contamination.     

Miniaturization of GPS patch antennas based on novel dielectric ceramics Zn(1−x)MgxAl2O4 by sol–gel method

The need for miniaturization and weight reduction of GPS patch antennas has prompted the search for new microwave dielectric materials. In this study, a sol–gel method was used to prepare Zn_(1?x)Mg_xAl₂O₄ thin films and fabricate GPS patch antennas at a low annealing temperature (700 °C). X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns, field emission scanning electron microscopy images, Fourier transform infrared spectra, and optical band gap analyses confirmed the nanostructure of (Mg/Zn)Al₂O₄. The XRD patterns displayed the characteristic peaks of (Mg/Zn)Al₂O₄ with a face-centered cubic structure. Mg addition decreased the crystallite size, surface morphology, and lattice parameters of the resultant films, evidently affecting their density and dielectric constant (? _r ). Based on the material investigated and microwave antenna theory, GPS patch antennas were fabricated using Zn_(1?x)Mg_xAl₂O₄ and then studied using a PNA series network analyzer. The fabricated patch antennas with different ? _r ceramics decreased in size from 12.5 to 10.8 cm². The patch antennas resonated at a frequency of 1.570 GHz and provided a return loss bandwidth between ?16.6 and ?20.0 dB; their bandwidth also improved from 90 to 255 MHz. The GPS patch antenna fabricated from Zn_0.70Mg_0.30Al₂O₄ showed an excellent combination of return loss (?20.0 dB), small size (10.8 cm²), and wide bandwidth (255 MHz). Therefore, addition of Mg improves antenna performance and decreases the dimensions of the device.     

Understanding the acceleration in the ring-opening of lactones delivered by microwave heating

This paper reports the first detailed study focussed upon identifying the influence that microwave heating (MWH) has upon the mechanic steps involved in the tin catalysed ring-opening of lactones such as ?-caprolactone (CL). Direct comparison of conventional (CH) and microwave (MWH) heated kinetic studies showed that a key factor in the reduction of the polymerisation cycle time with MWH was the elimination of the induction period associated with in situ catalyst manufacture and initiation. NMR studies demonstrated that the most significant mechanistic change contributing to the observed induction time reduction/elimination was faster initiation (i.e., reaction of the initiatior/catalyst complex with the first monomer unit). Consequently, analysis of the dielectric properties of the reaction components predicted that this MWH induced change was related to the selective volumetric heating of both the catalyst and the monomer. Furthermore, this indication of the greater significance of the initiation step in defining the length of the induction period suggests that this is the rate determining step of the process, whether conducted by CH or MWH. Increasing the catalyst concentration was demonstrated to produce significant reductions in reaction heat-up time and to induce a significant (up to 30 °C) overshoot in reaction mixture bulk temperature in with MWH only. Thus supporting the conclusion that selective heating of the organometallic species in the system contributes directly to differences in the reaction conditions and which need to be taken into account when drawing comparisons with CH systems. Consequently, both effects were concluded to be thermally generated from selective volumetric heating.     

Lead structures for applications in photodynamic therapy. Part 2: Synthetic studies for photo-triggered release systems of bioconjugate porphyrin photosensitizers

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) selectivity and specificity can be improved by binding the photosensitizers to target receptors. One approach is to cross-link porphyrins to a biological target receptor via the photocleavable o-nitrobenzyl linker, where a controlled released of the porphyrin can be monitored upon irradiation. The synthetic pathways involved esterification of a porphyrin-carboxylic acid and a unit containing the o-nitrobenzyl alcohol moiety and the bioconjugate. Reactions of a model porphyrin and o-nitrobenzyl alcohol using the carbonyl activating carbodiimide reagent DCC gave a stable N-acyl urea porphyrin, whereas use of EDAC (1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethyl aminopropyl)carbodiimide hydrochloride) gave the desired compounds. Further studies were carried out on the attachment of carbohydrates (i.e., potentially receptor binding ligands) through such a linker to porphyrins. Preliminary irradiation experiments of such a compound show that upon UV irradiation (350 nm) for 80 min, approximately 50% of the porphyrin was cleaved to release the carboxylic acid porphyrin photosensitizer indicating the utility of such systems as photosensitizers delivery systems.     

Application of continual injection liquid‐phase microextraction method coupled with liquid chromatography to the analysis of organophosphorus pesticides

A liquid‐phase microextraction coupled with LC method has been developed for the determination of organophosphorus pesticides (methidation, quinalphos and profenofos) in drinking water samples. In this method, a small amount (3 μL) of isooctane as the acceptor phase was introduced continually to fill‐up the channel of a 1.5 cm polypropylene hollow fiber using a microsyringe while the hollow fiber was immersed in an aqueous donor solution. A portion of the acceptor phase (ca. 0.4 μL) was first introduced into the hollow fiber and additional amounts (ca. 0.2 μL) of the acceptor phase were introduced to replenish at intervals of 3 min until set end of extraction (40 min). After extraction, the acceptor phase was withdrawn and transferred into a 2 mL vial for a drying step prior to injection into a LC system. Parameters that affect the extraction efficiency were studied including the organic solvent, length of fiber, volume of acceptor and donor phase, stirring rate, extraction time, and effect of salting out. The proposed method provided good enrichment factors of up to 189.50, with RSD ranging from 0.10 to 0.29%, analyte recoveries of over 79.80% and good linearity ranging from 10.0 to 1.25 mg/L. The LOD ranged from 2.86 to 82.66 μg/L. This method was applied successfully to the determination of organophosphorus pesticides in selected drinking water samples.     

Application of Artificial Neural Network for Yield Prediction of Lipase-Catalyzed Synthesis of Dioctyl Adipate

In this study, an artificial neural network (ANN) trained by backpropagation algorithm, Levenberg–Marquadart, was applied to predict the yield of enzymatic synthesis of dioctyl adipate. Immobilized Candida antarctica lipase B was used as a biocatalyst for the reaction. Temperature, time, amount of enzyme, and substrate molar ratio were the four input variables. After evaluating various ANN configurations, the best network was composed of seven hidden nodes using a hyperbolic tangent sigmoid transfer function. The correlation coefficient (R ²) and mean absolute error (MAE) values between the actual and predicted responses were determined as 0.9998 and 0.0966 for training set and 0.9241 and 1.9439 for validating dataset. A simulation test with a testing dataset showed that the MAE was low and R ² was close to 1. These results imply the good generalization of the developed model and its capability to predict the reaction yield. Comparison of the performance of radial basis network with the developed models showed that radial basis function was more accurate but its performance was poor when tested with unseen data. In further part of the study, the feedforward backpropagation model was used for prediction of the ester yield within the given range of the main parameters.     

Synthesis, structural characterization and antibacterial activity of 2,6-diacetylpyridine bis(benzenesulfonohydrazide) Schiff bases and their copper(II) complexes

2,6-Diacetylpyridine bis(benzenesulfonohydrazide) Schiff bases (L¹, L² and L³) and their Cu(II) complexes of the general formula [CuL·H₂O] were synthesized and characterized by various spectroscopic techniques. The crystal structure of [CuL³·(py)]·py was investigated by single crystal X-ray structure analysis. The Cu(II) cation has near square pyramidal, penta-coordinate geometry. The binegatively charged tetradentate Schiff base is asymmetrically coordinated to the Cu(II) ion via the pyridine N atom, the azomethine N atom, the sulfonyl O atom and the deprotonated hydrazine N atom. There is a pyridine molecule apically coordinated to the Cu(II) ion. All the Schiff bases and their copper(II) complexes were screened by the disc diffusion method against multi-drug resistant (MDR) gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values were also determined. These results show that the antibacterial activity of the Schiff bases against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is enhanced when they are chelated with the copper(II) ion.     

Interactions between cationic gemini/conventional surfactants with polyvinylpyrrolidone: Specific conductivity and dynamic light scattering studies

The interaction between bis(hexadecyldimethylammonium)hexane dibromide (16-6-16), bis(tetradecyldimethylammonium)hexane dibromide (14-6-14), their conventional counterparts cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and tetradecyltrimethylammonium bromide (TTAB) with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was investigated using the conductivity technique. The results show that gemini surfactants interact strongly with PVP as compared to conventional surfactants. The results also reveal that the surfactants with shorter hydrocarbon chain interact weakly as those of longer hydrocarbon chain. The interactions of 16-6-16 and 14-6-14 and their conventional counterparts with PVP were also studied using dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements. We have also highlighted the effect of surfactant–polymer interactions on the dispersion force in the solution. Critical aggregation concentration (cac) and critical micelle concentration (cmc) were obtained using the conductivity data. The degrees of micelle ionization and free energies associated with aggregation, micellization, and transfer have also been evaluated and discussed.     

Synthesis,Characterization and Properties of Single-Walled Carbon Nanohorns

Single-walled nanohorns (SWNHs) have been prepared by sub-merged arc discharge of graphite electrodes in liquid nitrogen. The samples were examined by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Nitrogen and boron doped SWNHs have been prepared by the sub-merged arc discharge method using melamine and elemental boron as precursors. Intensification of Raman D-band and stiffening of G-band has been observed in the doped samples. The electrical resistance of the SWNHs varies in opposite directions with nitrogen and boron doping. Functionalization of SWNHs through amidation has been carried out for solubilizing them in non-polar solvents. Water-soluble SWNHs have been produced by acid treatment and non-covalent functionalization with a coronene salt. SWNHs have been decorated with nanoparticles of Au, Ag and Pt. Interaction of electron donor (tetrathiafulvalene, TTF) and acceptor molecules (tetracyanoethylene, TCNE) with SWNHs has been investigated by Raman spectroscopy. Progressive softening and stiffening of Raman G-band has been observed respectively with increase in the concentration of TTF and TCNE.     

High-performance 850 nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser in Gigabit Ethernet network

High-performance oxide vertical-cavity surface-emitting (VCSEL) laser is fabricated, and its usefulness is demonstrated as a suitable transmitting light source at 850 nm operating wavelength for Gigabit Ethernet application. Utilization of barrier reduction layers reveals low-threshold current requirement for operation at high modulation bandwidth. The electrical and optical characteristics, measured from the fabricated VCSEL, are simulated for Gigabit Ethernet transmission. Data rates of 1.25 Gbps with a bit error rate of 10⁻¹¹ are achieved by the use of a specific multimode network simulator.