Investigation of viscoelastic focusing of particles and cells in a zigzag microchannel

Microfluidic particle focusing has been a vital prerequisite step in sample preparation for downstream particle separation, counting, detection, or analysis, and has attracted broad applications in biomedical and chemical areas. Besides all the active and passive focusing methods in Newtonian fluids, particle focusing in viscoelastic fluids has been attracting increasing interest because of its advantages induced by intrinsic fluid property. However, to achieve a well-defined focusing position, there is a need to extend channel lengths when focusing micrometer-sized or sub-microsized particles, which would result in the size increase of the microfluidic devices. This work investigated the sheathless viscoelastic focusing of particles and cells in a zigzag microfluidic channel. Benefit from the zigzag structure of the channel, the channel length and the footprint of the device can be reduced without sacrificing the focusing performance. In this work, the viscoelastic focusing, including the focusing of 10 μm polystyrene particles, 5 μm polystyrene particles, 5 μm magnetic particles, white blood cells (WBCs), red blood cells (RBCs), and cancer cells, were all demonstrated. Moreover, magnetophoretic separation of magnetic and nonmagnetic particles after viscoelastic pre-focusing was shown. This focusing technique has the potential to be used in a range of biomedical applications.     

石榴石固体电解质Li3BO3界面改性研究

石榴石固体电解质由于其高的离子电导率,对锂金属稳定等优点成为了下一代高性能锂电池的重要研究方向之一。但锂金属负极界面浸润性与锂枝晶问题限制了其应用。本文通过简单的液相沉积结合高温烧结的方法,在石榴石固体电解质片表面构建了一层稳定的硼酸三锂(Li₃BO₃)修饰层。研究表明,Li₃BO₃修饰层可以有效改善石榴石固体电解质与锂金属负极界面接触,促进锂的均匀沉积/溶出,从而抑制锂枝晶生长,提高界面稳定性。Li₃BO₃修饰后石榴石电解质片与锂金属之间紧密结合,Li/石榴石界面阻抗由修饰前的1780 Ω·cm²降低至58 Ω·cm²。得益于界面接触的改善,Li₃BO₃修饰后的LLZTO电解质组装的对称电池可以在0.1 m·cm^-2的电流密度下稳定工作超过700 h。而未修饰的对称电池在0.05 mA·cm^-2的电流密度下短时间工作即出现微短路现象。     

From Fish Waste to Value: An Overview of the Sustainable Recovery of Omega-3 for Food Supplements

The disposal of food waste is a current and pressing issue, urging novel solutions to implement sustainable waste management practices. Fish leftovers and their processing byproducts represent a significant portion of the original fish, and their disposal has a high environmental and economic impact. The utilization of waste as raw materials for the production of different classes of biofuels and high-value chemicals, a concept known as “biorefinery”, is gaining interest in a vision of circular economy and zero waste policies. In this context, an interesting route of valorization is the extraction of omega-3 fatty acids (ω-3 FAs) for nutraceutical application. These fatty acids, such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) have received attention over the last decades due to their beneficial effects on human health. Their sustainable production is a key process for matching the increased market demand while reducing the pressure on marine ecosystems and lowering the impact of waste production. The high resale value of the products makes this waste a powerful tool that simultaneously protects the environment and benefits the global economy. This review aims to provide a complete overview of the sustainable exploitation of fish waste to recover ω-3 FAs for food supplement applications, covering composition, storage, and processing of the raw material.     

Comparative Studies of Selected Criteria Enabling Optimization of the Extraction of Polar Biologically Active Compounds from Alfalfa with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

The aim of this research was to provide crucial and useful data about the selection of the optimization criteria of supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of alfalfa at a quarter-technical plant. The correlation between more general output, including total phenolics and flavonoids content, and a more specified composition of polar constituents was extensively studied. In all alfalfa extracts, polar bioactive constituents were analyzed by both spectrometric (general output) and chromatographic (detailed output) analyses. Eight specific phenolic acids and nine flavonoids were determined. The most dominant were salicylic acid (221.41 µg g⁻¹), ferulic acid (119.73 µg g⁻¹), quercetin (2.23 µg g⁻¹), and apigenin (2.60 µg g⁻¹). For all seventeen analyzed compounds, response surface methodology and analysis of variance were used to provide the optimal conditions of supercritical fluid extraction for each individual constituent. The obtained data have shown that eight of those compounds have a similar range of optimal process parameters, being significantly analogous for optimization based on total flavonoid content.     

Concerted effect of boron and porosity on shear thickening behavior of hybrid mesoporous silica dispersions

In the present work, the influence of porosity and boron on shear thickening behavior of hybrid mesoporous silica has been studied. Three different levels of boron modification were performed by varying the molar composition of boric acid viz., 1.5 mmol, 2.5 mmol, and 3.5 mmol in a co-condensation approach. The incorporation of boron in mesoporous silica network was confirmed by various techniques such as Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR), and ¹¹B solid- state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The morphology and particle size were confirmed by using scanning and transmission electron microscopy. To evaluate the effect of boron and porosity on the shear thickening behavior, dispersions were prepared from mesoporous boron- modified silica (MSiB), control mesoporous silica (MSi), non-porous boron-modified silica (SiB), and control non-porous silica (Si) in polyethylene glycol. The shear thickening behavior was studied using steady shear rheology. The dispersion prepared from different loadings of synthesized MSiB containing 1.5 mmol boron showed more than 16 times increase in viscosity (657.7 Pa.s) compared to that of MSi (39.2 Pa.s) at a fairly low volume fraction (φ = 0.15) of silica. It is expected that the highly ordered mesoporous architecture of hybrid silica has improved the interaction between the particle and the dispersing medium through hydrogen bonding. The porous morphology of the hybrid mesoporous silica as well as the incorporation of boron in the silica network favors the formation of a frictional contact network, and a transition from continuous shear thickening (CST) to discontinuous shear thickening (DST) behavior was observed. Therefore, silica prepared via incorporation of boron as well as porosity can be material of interest in variety of applications, for example, soft body armors, sporting goods, and shear thickening electrolytes for high impact resistant batteries.     

Bulk derivatization and cation exchange restricted access media-based trap-and-elute liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry method for determination of trace estrogens in serum

Estrone (E1), estradiols (α/β-E2), and estriol (E3) are four major metabolically active estrogens exerting strong biological activities at very low circulating concentrations. This paper reports a sensitive and efficient method with automated, on-line clean-up and detection to determine trace estrogens in a small volume of serum samples using liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–tandem mass spectrometry directly, without off-line liquid–liquid or solid-phase extraction pretreatments. Serum aliquots (charcoal stripped fetal bovine serum, 100 μL) were spiked with four estrogen standards and their corresponding isotope-labeled internal standards, then bulk derivatized with 2-fluoro-1-methyl-pyridium p-toluenesulfonate (2-FMP) to establish the calibration curves and perform method validation. Calibration was established in the concentration ranges of 5–1000 pg mL⁻¹, and demonstrated good linearity of R² from 0.9944 to 0.9997 for the four derivatized estrogens. The lower detection limits obtained were 3–7 pg mL⁻¹. Good accuracy and precision in the range of 86–112% and 2.3–11.9%, respectively, were observed for the quality control (QC) samples at low, medium, and high concentration levels. The stability tests showed that the derivatized serum samples were stable 8 h after derivatization at room temperature and at least to 48 h if stored at −20 °C. The method was applied to measure trace estrogens in real human and bovine serum samples, and three of four estrogen compounds studied were observed and quantified.     

Supercritical fluid extraction of lipids from linseed with on-line evaporative light scattering detection

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a green alternative method of extraction for neutral lipids in seeds compared to conventional methods utilizing organic solvents. In this work, a novel method where SFE is hyphenated with an evaporative light scattering detector is presented. The method was subsequently applied to determine lipid content in crushed linseed. The new method enables rapid quantification of extracted lipids as well as be ability to continuously monitor the extraction rate in real-time, thus being able to determine the time point of completed extraction.     

预裂化理论研究:基质表面酸性位类型及不同类型酸性位接触顺序对裂化过程小分子烯烃收率的影响

在区分氢负离子转移反应与氢转移反应、非选择性氢转移反应与总的氢转移反应的情况下,通过合成物性相近但酸性不同的氧化铝,用以作为裂化催化剂基质材料,在固定床反应器上考察了催化裂化过程,基质酸性位类型及基质表面Lewis及Brönsted酸性位接触顺序对小分子烯烃(丙烯、丁烯)收率的影响。结果表明,催化裂化生成小分子烯烃过程中,分子筛与基质所呈现出的反应特点存在较大的区别,前者活性虽高,但总的氢转移反应活性过强。基质材料裂化活性虽低但其表面以氢负离子转移反应为主,反应路径角度更有利于小分子烯烃收率的提高。另外,基质表面存在Brönsted酸性位,或原料油首先与基质表面Lewis酸性位相接触再与Brönsted酸性位反应的预裂化过程,会在促进裂化反应发生的同时抑制总的氢转移反应,更有利于小分子烯烃收率的提高。     

环烷酸对油水界面膜流变性质的影响研究

研究了环烷酸对油水界面膜界面张力、弹性模量、损耗模量以及界面膜破裂速率常数的影响,同时对环烷酸与沥青质之间的相互作用进行了测定。结果表明,环烷酸使得原油油水界面张力下降;弹性模量随着环烷酸加量以及振荡频率的增加都分别逐渐增大,并且最终都趋于平衡;在任何振荡频率值时,损耗模量都随着环烷酸加量先增大后减小;当环烷酸加量增加时,界面膜破裂速率常数降低。环烷酸与沥青质之间存在相互作用,随着环烷酸加量的增加,其对沥青质界面膜弹性模量的影响与对原油界面膜弹性模量的影响相似,表明环烷酸主要是通过与沥青质相互作用而促进乳状液稳定性的。     

Synthesis and performances for treating oily wastewater produced from polymer flooding of new demulsifiers based on polyoxyalkylated N,N‐dimethylethanolamine

Usually, oily wastewater produced from polymer flooding (OWPF) was treated by cationic polymer in oilfield. In this paper, six block copolymers of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide were prepared by using N,N‐dimethylethanolamine (DMEA) as the acceptor (DMEA‐mnp and DMEA‐mnpq, n:m:p:q represented the weight ratio of different blocks). Most of DMEA products could perform well for treating OWPF, especially DMEA1231. Their performances were mainly affected by temperature. The reason of increasing oil removal performance of DMEA1231 with temperature was the decrease of interfacial dilational modulus (ε) with increasing temperature. When temperature raised up to 55°C, the ε of DMEA1231 had the minimum (1.5 l mN/m). Therefore, the OiW had the minimum (90 mg/l). Because DMEA1231 had the best performance, its flocculation kinetics was studied systemically. The results showed that the optimum condition for DMEA1231 was as follows: dosage was 300 mg/l, temperature was 55°C, stirring speed was 200 rpm and stirring time was 5 min. At last, the offshore oil field test was carried out to check the DMEA1231 performance. The result showed that at the optimum condition, DMEA1231 could perform as well as the cationic polymer. The most important thing was that flocs of DMEA1231 were not viscous and floated on the surface of the water. The results obtained by this paper provide a good choice for the treatment of OWPF in offshore oilfield to avoid the formation of viscous flocs. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.