Application of a dispersive micro‐solid‐phase extraction method for pre‐concentration and ultra‐trace determination of cadmium ions in water and biological samples

A method for the trace determination of cadmium ions in water, human urine and human blood serum samples using ultrasonic‐assisted dispersive micro‐solid‐phase extraction (UA‐D‐μSPE) was developed. Silica‐coated magnetic nanoparticles were coated with polythiophene, and the resulting sorbent was characterized using thermogravimetry, differential thermal analysis, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry and X‐ray diffraction. Following UA‐D‐μSPE, cadmium ions were quantified using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. A Box–Behnken design was used for optimization of important sorption and desorption parameters in UA‐D‐μSPE: in the sorption step, pH of solution, sorption amount and sonication time for sorption; in the desorption step, concentration of eluent, volume of eluent and sonication time. The optimum conditions for the method were: pH of solution, 7.5; sonication time for sorption, 3 min; sorption amount, 35 mg; type and concentration of eluent, HCl and 1.1 mol l^?1; volume of eluent, 360 μl; sonication time for desorption, 110 s. Under the optimized conditions the limit of detection and relative standard deviation for the detection of cadmium ions by UA‐D‐μSPE were found to be 0.8 ng l^?1 and <6%, respectively.     

Integral treatment for forced convection heat and mass transfer of nanofluids over linear stretching sheet

An integral treatment is proposed for the analysis of the forced convection flow of a nanofluid over a stretching sheet.The obtained results agree well with the numerical results.The results of the presented solution provide an analytic solution,which can be conveniently used in engineering applications.Four types of nanoparticles,i.e.,alumina（Al₂O₃）,silicon dioxide（SiO₂）,silver（Ag）,and copper（Cu）,dispersed in the base fluid of water are examined.The analytical results show that an increase in the volume fraction of nanoparticles increases the thickness of the thermal boundary layer.The reduced Nusselt number is a decreasing function of the volume fraction of nanoparticles.     

Natural convection of nanofluid over vertical plate embedded in porous medium: prescribed surface heat flux

The aim of the present paper is to analyze the natural convection heat and mass transfer of nanofluids over a vertical plate embedded in a saturated Darcy porous medium subjected to surface heat and nanoparticle fluxes. To carry out the numerical solution, two steps are performed. The governing partial differential equations are firstly simplified into a set of highly coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations by appropriate similarity variables, and then numerically solved by the finite difference method. The obtained similarity solution depends on four non-dimensional parameters, i.e., the Brownian motion parameter (N _b), the Buoyancy ratio (N _r), the thermophoresis parameter (N _t), and the Lewis number (Le). The variations of the reduced Nusselt number and the reduced Sherwood number with N _b and N _t for various values of Le and N _r are discussed in detail. Simulation results depict that the increase in N _b, N _t, or N _r decreases the reduced Nusselt number. An increase in the Lewis number increases both of the reduced Nusselt number and the Sherwood number. The results also reveal that the nanoparticle concentration boundary layer thickness is much thinner than those of the thermal and hydrodynamic boundary layers.     

Thermal-economic multi-objective optimization of shell and tube heat exchanger using particle swarm optimization (PSO)

Many studies are performed by researchers about shell and tube heat exchanger (STHE) but the multi-objective particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique has never been used in such studies. This paper presents application of thermal-economic multi-objective optimization of STHE using PSO. For optimal design of a STHE, it was first thermally modeled using e-number of transfer units method while Bell–Delaware procedure was applied to estimate its shell side heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. Multi objective PSO (MOPSO) method was applied to obtain the maximum effectiveness (heat recovery) and the minimum total cost as two objective functions. The results of optimal designs were a set of multiple optimum solutions, called ‘Pareto optimal solutions’. In order to show the accuracy of the algorithm, a comparison is made with the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) and MOPSO which are developed for the same problem.     

Understanding of thermal/thermo-oxidative degradation kinetics of polythiophene nanoparticles

The polythiophene nanoparticles (nano-PT) were prepared with average diameter of 20–35 nm. The nanostructurals of polythiophene were confirmed by TEM and SEM analyzes. The kinetics of the thermal degradation and thermal oxidative degradation of nano-PT were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis. Kissinger method, Flynn–Wall–Ozawa method, and advanced isoconversional method have been used to determine the activation energies of nano-PT degradation. The results showed that the thermal stability of nano-PT in pure N₂ is higher than that in air atmosphere. The analyzes of the solid-state processes mechanism of nano-PT by Criado et al. method showed: the thermal degradation process of nano-PT goes to a mechanism involving second-order (F ₂ mechanism); otherwise, the thermo-oxidative degradation process of nano-PT is corresponding to a phase boundary controlled reaction mechanism (R ₂ mechanism).     

Preparation, optimization and thermal characterization of a novel conductive thermoset nanocomposite containing polythiophene nanoparticles using dynamic thermal analysis

Polythiophene nanoparticles as a conductive filler was prepared with average diameter of 20-35 nm and its molecular structure was confirmed by the FT-IR, TEM, XRD and UV-vis analysis. A new conductive epoxy nanocomposite was synthesized by curing of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A/4,4′-(4,4′ Isopropylidenediphenoxy) bis (Phthalic Anhydride) involving various percentages of polythiophene nanoparticles. DSC and DMTA studies revealed that low percentage of the polythiophene nanoparticles, i.e. 1%, results in improved crosslink density as evidenced by increasing in the glass transition temperature. The addition of polythiophene nanoparticles into the epoxy matrix resulted in a significant increment in the electrical conductivity, mechanical properties, thermal stability and activation energy of thermal degradation. The advanced isoconversional method is utilized to describe the curing behavior and thermal degradation process of the neat epoxy and epoxy nanocomposite. We have utilized the Coats-Redfern and Criado methods to find the solid state thermal degradation reaction mechanism. For the nanocomposite, the mechanism was recognized to be two-dimensional diffusion (D₂) reaction and it changes to a nucleation and growth (A₄) for pure epoxy system.     

The effect of local thermal non-equilibrium on conduction in porous channels with a uniform heat source

We examine the effect of local thermal non-equilibrium on the steady state heat conduction in a porous layer in the presence of internal heat generation. A uniform source of heat is present in either the fluid or the solid phase. A two-temperature model is assumed and analytical solutions are presented for the resulting steady-state temperature profiles in a uniform porous slab. Attention is then focussed on deriving simple conditions which guarantee local thermal equilibrium.     

Flow and heat transfer of nanofluids over stretching sheet taking into account partial slip and thermal convective boundary conditions

The effect of flow slip on the nanofluid boundary layer over a stretching surface is studied. The present results provide a basic understanding on the effects of the slip boundary condition on heat and mass transfer of nanofluids past stretching sheets subject to a convective boundary condition from below. The results show that an increase of thermophoresis parameter or slip factor would decrease the reduced Nusselt number in some cases.     

Linear Stability of a Developing Thermal Front Induced by a Constant Heat Flux

A developing thermal front is set up by suddenly imposing a constant heat flux on the lower horizontal boundary of a semi-infinite fluid-saturated porous domain. The critical time for the onset of convection is determined using two main forms of analysis. The first of these is an approximate method which is effectively a frozen-time model while the second implements a set of parabolic simulations of monochromatic disturbances placed in the boundary layer at an early time. Results from the two approaches are compared and it is found that instability only occurs when the nondimensional disturbance wavenumber, $k$ k , is less than unity. The neutral curve for the primary mode possesses a vertical asymptote at $k=1$ k = 1 in wavenumber/time parameter space which is in contrast to the more usual teardrop shape which occurs when the surface is subject to a constant temperature. Asymptotic analyses are performed for the frozen-time model which yield excellent predictions for both branches of the neutral curve and the locus of the maximum growth rate curve at late times.     

Onset of convection in a horizontal porous channel with uniform heat generation using a thermal nonequilibrium model

This paper considers the onset of free convection in a horizontal fluid-saturated porous layer with uniform heat generation. Attention is focused on cases where the fluid and solid phases are not in local thermal equilibrium, and where two energy equations describe the evolution of the temperature of each phase. Standard linearized stability theory is used to determine how the criterion for the onset of convection varies with the inter-phase heat transfer coefficient, H, and the porosity-modified thermal conductivity ratio, γ. We also present asymptotic solutions for small values of H. Excellent agreement is obtained between the asymptotic and the numerical results.