Dewatering of cellulose nanofibrils using ultrasound

Although cellulose nanomaterials have promising properties and performance in a wide application space, one hinderance to their wide scale industrial application has been associated with their economics of dewatering and drying and the ability to redisperse them back into suspension without introducing agglomerates or lose of yield. The present work investigates the dewatering of aqueous suspensions of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) using ultrasound as a potentially low-cost, non-thermal, and scalable alternative to traditional heat-based drying methods such as spray drying. Specifically, we use vibrating mesh transducers to develop a direct-contact mode ultrasonic dewatering platform to remove water from CNF suspensions in a continuous manner. We demonstrate that the degree of dewatering is modulated by the number of transducers, their spatial configuration, and the flow rate of the CNF suspension. Water removal of up to 72 wt.% is achieved, corresponding to a final CNF concentration of 11 wt.% in 30 min using a two-transducer configuration. To evaluate the redispersibility of the dewatered CNF material, we use a microscopic analysis to quantify the morphology of the redispersed CNF suspension. By developing a custom software pipeline to automate image analysis, we compare the histograms of the dimensions of the redispersed dewatered fibrils with the original CNF samples and observe no significant difference, suggesting that no agglomeration is induced due to ultrasonic dewatering. We also perform SEM analysis to evaluate the nanoscale morphology of these fibrils showing a width range of 20 nm–4 um. We estimate that this ultrasound dewatering technique is also energy-efficient, consuming up to 36% less energy than the enthalpy of evaporation per kilogram of water. Together with the inexpensive cost of transducers (<?$1), the potential for scaling up in parallel flow configurations, and excellent redispersion of the dewatered CNFs, our work offers a proof-of-concept of a sustainable CNF dewatering system, that addresses the shortcomings of existing techniques.

     

New approach to a generalized fractional integral

The paper presents a new fractional integration, which generalizes the Riemann-Liouville and Hadamard fractional integrals into a single form. Conditions are given for such a fractional integration operator to be bounded in an extended Lebesgue measurable space. Semigroup property for the above operator is also proved. We give a general definition of the fractional derivatives and give some examples.     

Anti-ulcer activity of Smithia conferta in various animal

Smithia conferta Sm. (Leguminasae), is a commonly used plant in Indian traditional medicine. In the current study anti-ulcer activity of its petroleum ether, alcohol and aqueous extracts of leaves were investigated using different animal models. All extracts were also subjected to phytochemical analysis and their toxic potential. Petroleum ether extract was found to contain steroids; alcohol extract revealed the presence of isoflavonoids, alkaloids and carbohydrates; while aqueous extract was found to contain amino acids, carbohydrates and flavonoids. S. conferta aqueous and alcoholic extracts were found to be non-toxic up to 5000 mg/kg dose level while petroleum ether extract was safe only up to a dose of 2000 mg/kg after single dose administration of the extracts.During confirmation of the claimed anti-ulcer activity, treatment with aqueous and alcoholic extracts showed significant reduction in ulcer index, free acidity as well as total acidity in pylorus ligated rats. However, petroleum ether extract showed relatively less profound reduction in all these indices. The anti-ulcer activity observed in aqueous extract treatment group was nearly equivalent to the standard group.