A study of a simulated low Earth environment on the degradation of FEP polymer

Spacecraft flying in a low Earth orbit environment require thermal blankets to provide protection from direct solar heat from the sun. Fluorinated ethylene propylene copolymer is one of the major components of these thermal blankets. In this study, the effect of a simulated low Earth orbit environment on FEP was investigated. UV and VUV degradation of fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) copolymer was studied using ESR and XPS. The ESR study revealed the formation of a terminal polymer chain radical. The stability of this radical has been investigated under different environments. An XPS study of FEP film exposed to VUV and atomic oxygen showed that oxidation takes place on the polymer surface. The study revealed also that the percentage of CF₂ in the polymer surface decreased with exposure time and the percentage of CF, CF₃ and carbon attached to oxygen increased. SEM micrographs of FEP film exposed to VUV and atomic oxygen produced a rough surface with regular undulations similar to sand dunes. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Viscous fluid damping in a laterally oscillating finger of a comb-drive micro-resonator based on micro-polar fluid theory

Viscous damping is a dominant source of energy dissipation in laterally oscillating micro-structures. In micro-resonators in which the characteristic dimensions are compa-rable to the dimensions of the fluid molecules, the assumption of the continuum fluid theory is no longer justified and the use of micro-polar fluid theory is indispensable. In this paper a mathematical model was presented in order to predict the viscous fluid damping in a laterally oscillating finger of a micro-resonator considering micro-polar fluid theory. The coupled governing partial differential equations of motion for the vibration of the finger and the micro-polar fluid field have been derived. Considering spin and no-spin boundary conditions, the related shape functions for the fluid field were presented. The obtained governing differential equations with time varying boundary conditions have been trans-formed to an enhanced form with homogenous boundary conditions and have been discretized using a Galerkin-based reduced order model. The effects of physical properties of the micro-polar fluid and geometrical parameters of the oscillat-ing structure on the damping ratio of the system have been investigated.     

Electrochemical Sensing of Uric Acid Using a ZnO/Graphene Nanocomposite Modified Graphite Screen Printed Electrode

Russian Journal of Electrochemistry - An electrochemical sensor has been fabricated using ZnO/GR nanocomposite for selective determination of uric acid (UA) in a phosphate buffer solution (PBS, pH...     

Impact of MHD on hybrid nanomaterial free convective flow within a permeable region

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Computational modeling was employed to scrutinize the nanomaterial influence of flow patterns and thermal treatment within a porous region....     

Current trends in direct transformation of waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) into value-added materials and products

1. Download : Download high-res image (174KB)
2. Download : Download full-size image

     

Ultrasound-assisted synthesis of CoFe2O4/Ce-UiO-66 nanocomposite for photocatalytic aerobic oxidation of aliphatic alcohols

During the past years, light-driven selective oxidation of various alcohols has attracted increasing attention as a green and eco-friendly manner to convert visible light energy into valuable compounds. In this work, magnetic CoFe₂O₄/Ce-UiO-66 embedded structure composites are elaborately designed for the photocatalytic oxidation of aliphatic alcohols under visible-light irradiation and aerobic condition at room temperature. The CoFe₂O₄/Ce-UiO-66 structure was prepared using a simple and fast ultrasound-assisted technique in 60 min at room temperature. As compared with the unmodified CoFe₂O₄, the embedded composite exhibited better visible-light sensitization performance. The catalyst showed high chemical stability in the reaction conditions and can be recovered quickly and reused for at least five reaction runs in the aerobic oxidation reaction condition.     

immobilized cobalt chloride within nanoreactors of ?Si-MCM-48 as selective catalyst for epoxidation of alkenes

Summary It was found that immobilized CoCl₂ within nanoreactors of Si-MCM-48 catalyzes the oxidation of 1-octene, styrene, cyclohexene, norbornene, trans-stilbene and trans-2-hexene-1-ol with 35 to 95% conversion and 75 to 100% selectivity to the corresponding epoxides.     

Development of a new strategy for the synthesis of graphene oxide-alumina nanocomposite as an efficient adsorbent for dispersive solid-phase extraction of parabens

The present study investigates the synthesis and application of the graphene oxide-alumina nanocomposite as a new adsorbent for the dispersive solid-phase extraction of three parabens and their determination using high-performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection. The characterization of the synthesized material was accomplished and its size, morphology, chemical composition, porosity, and thermal stability were studied. Application of the proposed strategy for the synthesis of the nanocomposite resulted in the incorporation of Al₂O₃ nanoparticles into graphene oxide nanosheets, further resulting in the exfoliation of graphene oxide nanosheets increasing their surface area. An orthogonal rotatable central composite design was used to optimize the extraction. Under the optimum conditions, the analytical performance of the method showed a suitable linear dynamic range (0.2–100.0 μg/L), reasonable limits of detection (0.03–0.05 μg/L), and preconcentration factors ranging from 128 to 173. Finally, the new validated method was applied for the determination of parabens in some real samples including wastewater, cream, toothpaste, and juice samples with satisfactory recoveries (88%–109%), and relative standard deviations less than 8.7% (n = 3). Results demonstrated that inserting alumina nanoparticles into graphene oxide nanosheets improved the extraction efficiency of parabens, as polar acidic compounds, by providing additional efficient interactions including hydrogen bonding, dipole-dipole, and Brønsted and Lewis acid-base interactions.     

Effect of a novel green modification of alumina nanoparticles on the curing kinetics and electrical insulation properties of epoxy composites

A novel green surface modification was successfully implemented on alumina nanoparticles using chitosan (CS) to prevent nanoparticles' aggregation. To evaluate the surface changes of nanoparticles, FTIR, TGA, TEM, and SEM analyses were used. The cure kinetics of the uncured samples was analyzed by DSC. Different methods such as KAS, Friedman, Starink, and FWO were applied to measure the activation energy. The activation energy of epoxy reinforced with chitosan-functionalized alumina (epoxy/[CS-EPO-alumina]) was less than that of epoxy reinforced with alumina (epoxy/alumina), which was a confirmation of the positive effect of CS on curing reaction kinetics. Using the Malek method, the Sestak-Berggren autocatalytic equation was chosen to investigate the cure kinetics of the epoxy. It was found that the Sestak-Berggren equation is well matched with the experimental data and the model was suitable to predict the epoxy curing reaction reliably. Moreover, the glass transition temperatures of all samples were approximately the same. The effect of surface modification of alumina on the electrical insulating behavior of epoxy was also studied. It was found that CS functionalized alumina (CS-EPO-alumina) increased volume resistivity of epoxy at a temperature range of 30 to 80°C more than that of alumina. Electric stability and breakdown strength of epoxy/alumina and epoxy/(CS-EPO-alumina) also enhanced, where epoxy/(CS-EPO-alumina) experienced a further increase compared to epoxy.