An in situ neutron diffraction measurement of the pressure–temperature evolution of a MgD2:TiD2 mixture

The hydrogen storage capacity of Mg–Ti–H films is approximately five times that of conventional metal hydride electrodes in NiMH-batteries. Mg and Ti are considered to be immiscible in the bulk and the ambient pressure phase diagram of Mg and Ti indicates that no binary stable bulk compounds are formed. However, in the presence of hydrogen, an Mg–Ti–H phase has been obtained by Kyoi et al. using a high pressure synthesis – where magnesium hydride is compacted with different TM-hydrides in an anvil cell at pressures of the order several GPa (4–8 GPa) and at a temperature of 873 K. In this work, we have proved the feasibility of in situ powder diffraction using the Paris–Edinburgh high pressure cell for the observation of structural changes on this system and we propose modifications to improve the output of the experiment.     

Performance and comparison of fiber vibration sensing using SAC-OCDMA with direct decoding techniques

Intensity modulated fiber vibrations sensing using Khazani Syed (KS) and Modified Quadratic Congruence Code (MQC) code for quasi distributed vibration measurement have been evaluated. The systems employed Spectral Direct (SD) Decoding for Spectral Amplitude Coding-Optical Code Division Multiple Access (SAC-OCDMA). SAC-OCDMA is adopted because of its enormous impact in dealing with Multiple Access Interference (MAI). The setup was carried out for three sensor points in three consecutive measurements. The performance of the sensing system with the KS and MQC codes were compared at the same weight and number of code sequence. It was observed that the applied vibration frequencies were obtained at the receivers and the signal employing MQC are received at slightly better power than KS code. However, KS code setup employed less number of components and therefore, reduce the cost and complexity of achieving quasi-distributed vibration sensing.     

Conductivity and dielectric relaxation of Li salt in poly(ethylene oxide) and epoxidized natural rubber polymer electrolytes

Two types of polymer electrolytes were studied: poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) both filled with lithium perchlorate. Universal dielectric behavior and impedance relaxation were investigated at room temperature over a wide range of salt concentration. Complex impedance plots exhibit one semicircle in some cases (PEO polymer electrolytes) with an extended spike at low frequencies. This implies a double layer capacity strongly influences conductivity at low frequencies. In the ENR–salt system, semicircles can be obtained only at very high concentrations. This points towards stable resistor dominated networks only develop at very high salt concentrations for this system. Centers of the semicircles lie below real axis indicating non-Debye dielectric relaxation. The relaxation peak broadens and shifts to higher frequencies with increasing salt content. It indicates that the relaxation time of polarization relaxations decreases with ascending salt content. Relaxations occur at extremely low salt concentrations in PEO and only at very high salt concentrations in ENR. Hence, conductivity of ENR–salt is one to two orders of magnitude lower as for PEO–salt.     

Sonication improves kasturi lime (Citrus microcarpa) juice quality

Freshly squeezed kasturi lime fruit juice was sonicated (for 0, 30 and 60min at 20°C, 25kHz frequency) to evaluate its impact on selected physico-chemical and antioxidant properties, such as pH, °Brix, titratable acidity, Hunter color values (L(?), a(?), b(?)), ascorbic acid, DPPH radical scavenging activity, total phenolics, antioxidant capacity, flavonoids and flavonols. Additionally, the effect of sonication treatments on the microbial load (TPC, yeast and mold) were also evaluated. Sonication of juice samples for 60min showed enhancement in most of the bioactive compounds compared to samples treated for 30min and control samples (untreated). Significant reductions in the microbial load corresponding to sonication time were also recorded. Results of the present study indicate that sonication may be employed as a suitable technique for kasturi lime juice processing, where antioxidant and other bioactive compound retention or enhancement is desired, along with the achievement of safety and quality standards.     

An Efficient Simultaneous Electrochemical Detection of Nanomolar Epinephrine and Uric Acid using Low Temperature Synthesized Nano-sized Copper Telluride

Herein we developed a simple, cost effective, electrochemical sensor based on nanosized copper telluride (nps-CuTe) for simultaneous detection of epinephrine (EP) and uric acid (UA). Voltammetric responses suggests dramatical improvement of electrocatalytic properties of both molecules by incorporating CuTe nps into unmodified graphite paste electrode (bare GP). Differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) measurement depicts large potential separation of 128 mV between EP and UA, allows their simultaneous determination from binary mixture. Under optimized condition, CuTe modified graphite paste electrode (CuTe/GP) manifested linear relationships of EP and UA in the range of 5–60 μM and 5–120 μM with detection limit (S/N=3) of 18 nM and 32 nM respectively. Moreover, CuTe/GP showed satisfactory response towards pharmaceutical and clinical samples for determining EP and UA concentrations.     

Improved properties of sulfonated octaphenyl polyhedral silsequioxane cross-link with highly sulfonated polyphenylsulfone as proton exchange membrane

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - This study explored the concept of improving the properties of the cross-linked membrane using a 1.5-nm closed cage octaphenyl polyhedral silsesquioxane...     

Micropolar fluid flow over a shrinking sheet

An analysis is carried out for the steady two-dimensional flow of a micropolar fluid over a shrinking sheet in its own plane. The shrinking velocity is assumed to vary linearly with the distance from a fixed point on the sheet. The features of the flow and heat transfer characteristics are analyzed and discussed. It is found that the solution exists only if adequate suction through the permeable sheet is introduced. Moreover, stronger suction is necessary for the solution to exist for a micropolar fluid compared to a classical Newtonian fluid. Dual solutions are obtained for certain suction and material parameters.     

Spectrophotometer with enhanced sensitivity for uric acid detection

A spectrophotometer with an LED as the light source for uric acid detection is proposed in this work. The mechanism of uric acid detection is based on energy absorbed by sodium urate, which is a chemical product of uric acid and sodium hydroxide solution. For the performance validation, comparison between the spectrophotometer with an LED and halogen lamp is carried out. Measurement results suggest that the spectrophotometer system with LED light has better sensitivity than that with halogen light. At a 460 nm wavelength,the sensitivity for the spectrophotometer with an LED is 0.0046 dL/mg, which is 73% higher than that with halogen light that records 0.0012 dL/mg. This enhanced sensitivity is attributed to the higher luminous efficacy of the LED light beam. As a result, a larger amount of flux interacts with the sample, leading to the sensitivity enhancement. The spectrophotometer with an LED is also applied for the detection of uric acid in a real human urine sample. Based on the experimental data at a 460 nm wavelength, the method manages to achieve the sensitivity of 0.0016 dL/mg, accuracy of 96.01%, limit of detection of 4.79 mg/dL, and limit of quantification of 14.52 mg/dL. These findings show that the use of LED as the input light source is promising for the spectrophotometer.     

Recent state of nanofluid in automobile cooling systems

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Nanofluid that made up of fluid and solid nanoparticles has gained attention from diverse fields due to its superior thermophysical properties to...