Rice husk silica as a sustainable filler in the tire industry

In this paper, we studied commercially available precipitated rice husk silica (RHS) with conventional precipitated silica, which has nearly the same surface area, and replaced part of the carbon black with RHS and conventional silica in a basic tread formulation. All formulations were mixed with the same amount of filler during the study. Silica was used at 15, 30 and 50 phr loading, and part of the carbon black was replaced by silica. Compound curing characteristics, physical properties, rebound resilience, heat generation, abrasion loss, dynamic properties and morphology were analyzed. The results indicated that RHS demonstrated compound properties comparable to those of conventional silica. As part of the carbon black was replaced with conventional silica, a slower cure rate, higher rebound resilience, lower heat generation, lower abrasion loss, and lower tan delta were observed with no significant change in physical properties, but some changes in physical properties were observed using one way ANOVA analysis. We found the same trend when replacing part of the carbon black with RHS, such as a slower cure rate, higher rebound resilience, lower heat generation, lower abrasion loss, and lower tan delta with no significant change in physical properties, but some changes in physical properties were observed using one way ANOVA. This sustainable material could be used to replace conventional silica in tire compounding, as well as to replace a portion of carbon black with RHS for improved heat build-up, rolling resistance, and abrasion loss.     

Hydrophobic Monomers Recognize Microenvironments in Hydrogel Microspheres during Free-Radical-Seeded Emulsion Polymerization

The three-dimensional structure of nanocomposite microgels was precisely determined by cryo-electron micrography. Several nanocomposite microgels that differ with respect to their nanocomposite structure, which were obtained from seeded emulsion polymerization in the presence of microgels, were used as model nanocomposite materials for cryo-electron micrography. The obtained three-dimensional segmentation images of these nanocomposite microgels provide important insights into the interactions between the hydrophobic monomers and the microgels, that is, hydrophobic styrene monomers recognize molecular-scale differences in polarity within the microgels during the emulsion polymerization. This result led to the formation of unprecedented multi-layered nanocomposite microgels, which promise substantial potential in colloidal applications.     

Highly dispersed palladium nanoclusters incorporated in amino‐functionalized silica spheres for the selective hydrogenation of succinic acid to γ‐butyrolactone

Highly dispersed palladium nanoclusters incorporated on amino‐functionalized silica sphere surfaces (Pd/SiO₂‐NH₂) were fabricated by a simple one‐pot synthesis utilizing 3‐(2‐aminoethylamino)propyltrimethoxysilane (AAPTS) as coordinating agent. Uniform palladium nanoclusters with an average size of 1.1 nm can be obtained during the co‐condensation of tetraethyl orthosilicate and AAPTS owing to the strong interaction between palladium species and amino groups in AAPTS. The palladium particle size can be controlled by addition of AAPTS and plays a significant role in the catalytic performance. The Pd/SiO₂‐NH₂ catalyst exhibits high catalytic activity for succinic acid hydrogenation with 100% conversion and 94% selectivity towards γ‐butyrolactone using 1,4‐dioxane as solvent at 240°C and 60 bar for 4 h. Moreover, the Pd/SiO₂‐NH₂ catalyst is robust and readily reusable without loss of its catalytic activity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Scaling properties of fracture surfaces on glass strengthened by ionic exchange

In this work the results of the statistical topometric analysis of fracture surfaces of soda-lime-silica glass with and without ionic exchange treatment are reported. In this case, the mechanism of substitution is K⁺-Na⁺. atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed to record the topometric data from the fracture surface. The roughness exponent (ζ) and the correlation length (ξ) were calculated by the variable bandwidth method. The analysis for both glasses (subjected and non-subjected to ionic exchange) for ζ shows a value ∼0.8, this value agrees well with that reported in the literature for rapid crack propagation in a variety of materials. The correlation length shows different values for each condition. These results, along with those of microhardness indentations suggest that the self-affine correlation length is influenced by the complex interactions of the stress field of microcracks with that resulting from the collective behavior of the point defects introduced by the strengthening mechanism of ionic exchange.     

Fabrication of Dendrimer－like PAMAM Based on Silica Nanoparticles

A G 4.0 dendrimer-like poly (amido amine) (PAMAM) based on silica nanoparticles was fabricated via a divergent approach.It was built from γ-aminopropyi silica nanoparfides (APSN) core via repetitive addition of acrylate (MA) and hexylenediamine (HDA). FT-IR and EA were used to monitor the progress of dendrimer during each step. The amino group content of the resulting product increased from 0.49 to 3.72 mmol/g after the 4th generation. In addition, the percentage of grafting increased with increasing generation and reached to 65.9% after 4th generation. It was found that the resulting silica nanoparticles could be dispersed in methanol with a mean hydrodynamic particle diameter of 152.7 nm although the silica nanoparticles had agglomerated during the storage period.     

Composite Silica Particles Using a Mixture of Organosilane Monomers

Composite silica particles were synthesized by a two-step (acid-base) process in an aqueous solution with a mixture of organoalkoxysilane monomers. The two-step process separates the hydrolysis and condensation procedures to easily control condensation rate. In this study, the silane monomers used were phenyltrimethoxysilane (PTMS), vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS), methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS), and tetraethyl-orthosilicate (TEOS). The physical properties of the resultant composite particles were investigated with the change in the molar ratio of monomers. The size of the particles increased with increasing the molar ratio of R_aSi(OR)₃/R_bSi(OR)₃ or R_aSi(OR)₃/TEOS (R_a: phenyl; R_b: vinyl, methyl).     

NMR investigation of concentrated alumina and silica slurries

The longitudinal relaxation times (T₁) of water in concentrated silica and alumina slurries were measured as a function of solids content. It was shown that the results could be fit very well with a two-phase fast-exchange model between free and surface-bound water. As expected, values of T₁ for bound water were in the order of 20–2000 times lower than that for free water, indicating a higher effective viscosity of the surface-bound water. The strength of the interaction depended on the particular surface, and all of the aluminas examined interacted more strongly with water than the two silicas studied, which themselves differed considerably. The chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) removal rate of tantalum by silica slurries was shown to be directly correlated with the interaction parameters, derived from the NMR relation times rather than with total surface hydroxyl group concentration.     

Preparation of Functional Fluorescent Microspheres Used for HTS and Their Interaction with Biomolecules

There is considerable interest in protein adsorption onto microspheres because of its importance in a wide range of biomedical applications, such as artificial tissues and organs, drug delivery systems, biosensors, solid-phase immunoassays, immunomagnetic cell separation and immobilized enzymes or catalyst. It has been well known that the interaction between proteins and microspheres plays important roles in this process. Major interaction involved in the adsorption can be classified as electrostatic, hydrophobic and hydrogen-bonding. Indeed, adsorption of proteins onto microspheres is a complex process and often can involve many dynamic steps, from the initial attachment of the protein on the surface of microspheres to the equilibrium. Also the conformation of proteins probably occurs to a certain degree of deformation or structural change due to the large area of contact. Recently, much interest has been shown in sulfonated microspheres, since sulfonate-group itself is one of components in bio-bodies, as well as is sensitive to the change of pH or ionic strength. Indeed, so far, scanty investigations have been performed in the full range. Also few researches have involved the data on adsorption rate and the maximum amount of protein adsorbed, or the reversibility of the process and conformational change of protein adsorbed as well.In present study, BSA (bovine serum albumin) was chosen as the model protein and sulfonated PMMA [poly(methyl methacrylate)] microspheres as the matrix to investigate the adsorption process.The purpose is to show some information especially the intrinsic information involved by the adsorption process Adsorption of BSA onto sulfonated microspheres (MS) has been investigated as a function of time, protein concentration and pH. The adsorption appears to be a reversible process and the presence of sulfonate groups can play important roles in the adsorption process, so as to increase the amount of protein adsorbed and influences the interaction of BSA molecules. Fig. 1 also shows that the reciprocation between unadsorbed and adsorbed BSA or rearrangement of adsorbed BSA molecules does not produce visible change in the properties of the adsorbed protein. Close to the isoelectric point of BSA (pI 4.7), the amount of protein adsorbed exhibits a maximum. A higher or lower pH results in the significant decrease of the adsorption amount. This is related to the dependence of BSA conformations at different pH conditions.     

Phase Conjugation in Saturable Absorbing Dye Films by Degenerate Four-Wave Mixing and Holographic Processes Using Nanosecond Pulse and CW Lasers

We report on the simultaneous generation of phase-conjugate signals by degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) and holographic processes using a nanosecond pulse and a CW lasers in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) films doped with four kinds of saturable absorbing dyes. For the pulse laser, of the four kinds of dye-doped PVA films, the erythrosine B-doped PVA and uranine doped-PVA films generate PC signals only by the DFWM process, while the other dye-doped PVA films generate PC signals simultaneously by not only the DFWM process but also the holographic process. Especially, the safranin T-doped PVA film generates strong PC signals by the holographic process. In contrast, all of the dye-doped PVA films generate the two types of PC signals for the CW laser. The fading of dye molecules is found to result in the generation of the holographic component of PC signals which governs the temporal behavior of the total PC signals.     

Thermal treatment on composite γ-zirconium phosphate-silica

The prepared amorphous γ-ZrP\SiO₂ composite had a complicated composition, since a part of γ-ZrP is converted to α-form during the exfoliation of it. The γ-ZrP\SiO₂ composite have specific surface area of 421 m²g^–1. The acidic P–OH groups of the lamellae species placed on the surface (it is ≈1.0 meq g^–1), do not destroy until the temperature of 1030 K. During the thermal treatment the total mass loss of 7.79% was found. This value corresponds to 0.42 mole of H₂O per molecule unit. The water loss process was found very slow, because of the placing of bilamellar species in the composite.