Suspension Of Particles In Liquid Research Articles

Relationship between Particle Size, Anti-Microbial Activity and Leachability of Copper Particles in Liquid Suspension and Compounded in Polypropylene

Testing the antimicrobial efficiency of plastics with good precision and repeatability remains a challenge in the plastic industry, as commonly used standards can provide unreliable data. In this paper, we show that the “Bacterial Liquid Suspension Test” is a reliable method that allows for the measurement of antimicrobial activity of poor to very potent biocides. We used this technique to discriminate the performance of two Cu-based biocides, either in nanoparticle (NP) or macroparticle (MP) size, at three different loadings (0.02, 0.2 and 2 wt.%) in PP. With this technique, we also tested the antibacterial performance of PP as powders, pellets, and injection molded disks. As anticipated, the technique shows that both the increased loading and the smaller particle size showed higher antimicrobial activity than the larger particle size due to their increased surface area. Also, PP powders showed greater bacterial reduction than pellets and disks. While the PP with 2 wt.% Cu NPs showed the best antimicrobial performance, the detection of Cu at the surface (using SEM-EDX) and in the water leachate (using ICP-MS) were below the LODs, indicating their ability to kill bacteria.

Preparation of high-concentration coal-water slurry based on the bearing model method of spherical particles

ABSTRACT Coal-water slurry (CWS), a mixture of pulverized coal, water, and additives, is a clean liquid coal-based fuel for gasification. Superhydrophobic surface modification using a secondary particle-second liquid system is an effective CWS preparation method. In this study, the effect of the sphericity of the secondary particles on the rheological properties of CWS samples was investigated. Spherical secondary particles were found to roll in the film layer of the second liquid, resulting in a lower apparent viscosity of the CWS. The bearing model refers to the spherical secondary particle on the surface of the coal particle, similar to the balls in a bearing, which can transform sliding friction into rolling friction. The bearing model can effectively reduce frictional resistance. By modifying the coal particles with the suspension of secondary particles in the second liquid, a 73% CWS sample with good fluidity was prepared. The apparent viscosity of the 73% CWS prepared without any modification of the coal particles was 13,329.2 mPa·s, and the flow grade was C. The apparent viscosity of the 73% CWS prepared using coal particles modified with the spherical glass bead suspension was 2102.8 mPa·s, and its flow grade was A.

DEDALO: Device for Enhanced Dust Analyses with Light Obscuration sensors

Instruments based on light obscuration sensors are widely used for measuring the size distribution of insoluble sub-visible particles in liquid suspensions, being fast and suitable for in situ and real-time measurements. Such instruments are typically calibrated by means of reference polystyrene spherical particles with a specific refractive index, which unavoidably leads to systematic errors when determining the size of particles of different materials. In this paper, we propose a reliable and consistent method to overcome this limitation by setting the refractive index value according to the sample, thus achieving an improved particle size distribution (PSD) measurement. An ad hoc, ready-to-use, open source code with a graphical interface able to drive an in-line instrument and obtain a real-time correction to the PSD has been developed. The method has been extensively validated with several oil emulsions characterized by different refractive index values and the results have been compared with an independent optical method. As an example of application, we have adopted this approach for the analysis of dust suspended in meltwater of an ice core from a glacier in the Aosta Valley (Italy). We believe that our approach will strongly improve the accuracy in characterizing liquid suspensions and reduce discrepancies between data obtained with different methods. The code has been made publicly available at: https://instrumentaloptics.fisica.unimi.it/dedalo/ and on the GitHub page of the corresponding author (https://github.com/LucaTeruzzi/DEDALO).

Effect of Microplastic Particles on the Rheological Properties of Human Saliva and Mucus.

Pollution by plastic microparticles is rising rapidly. One avenue of human exposure to nanoparticles is through inhalation. The main source of microplastics in indoor environments, leading to unintended inhalation, is synthetic fabric used in clothing. Other sources include curtains, carpets, furniture, wall paints, and floor finishes. Occupational exposure is particularly significant in waste management and recycling operations, during exposure to high heat, during high-energy treatment of polymer composites, and during 3D printing. In outdoor environments, exposure can happen through breathing in contaminated aerosols from ocean waves or airborne particles from dried wastewater treatments. Airborne particles affect human health in various ways, including via direct interactions with the epithelium and its mucus layer after deposition in the mouth and respiratory system. Exposure due to the ingestion of microplastics present in various environmental compartments may occur either directly or indirectly via the food chain or drinking water. This study aimed to determine the effects of plastic microparticles on the rheology of mucus and saliva, and, thus, their functioning. The experiments used artificial mucus, saliva, and plastic nanoparticles (namely, PS-polystyrene and PE-polyethylene). The rheological properties of saliva and mucus were determined via the use of an oscillatory rheometer at various temperatures (namely, 36.6 °C and 40 °C, which correspond to healthy and ill humans). The results were compared with those obtained for pure saliva and mucus. An increase in apparent viscosity was observed for saliva, which is behavior typical of for solid particle suspensions in liquids. In contrast, for mucus, the effect was the opposite. The influence of the presence of the particles on the parameters of the constitutive viscosity equations was studied. Plastic micro- and nanoparticles in the saliva and mucus may interfere with their physiological functions.

Rheology of Suspensions of Solid Particles in Liquids Thickened by Starch Nanoparticles

The rheology of suspensions of solid particles in aqueous matrix liquids thickened by starch nanoparticles (SNP) was investigated. The SNP concentration varied from 9.89 to 34.60 wt% based on the aqueous matrix phase. The solids concentration of suspensions varied from 0 to 47 wt% (0 to 56 vol%). The suspensions at any given SNP concentration were generally Newtonian at low solids concentrations. At high solids concentrations, the suspensions were non-Newtonian shear-thinning. With the increase in the SNP concentration, the suspensions become non-Newtonian at a lower solids concentration. The rheological behavior of non-Newtonian suspensions could be described adequately with a power-law model. The consistency index of the suspension increased with the increase in solids concentration of the suspension at any given SNP concentration. The flow behavior index of suspensions was well below unity at high solids concentrations, indicating non-Newtonian shear-thinning behavior. The value of the flow behavior index decreased with the increase in solids concentration indicating an enhancement of shear-thinning in suspensions. The experimental viscosity and consistency data for Newtonian and non-Newtonian suspensions showed good agreement with the predictions of the Pal viscosity model for suspensions.

New Method for Measuring the Scattering Phase Function of Micron/Nano Particles

The scattering phase function is crucial to analyze the light transport in the micron/nano particle suspensions. A new method including a liquid–particle system and reference system is proposed to measure the scattering phase function of the liquid–particle suspensions. In this method, a reference system of a standard particle is used to obtain the correction factor to compensate for the influence of the cuvette. Experimental validation was conducted for monodisperse silicon dioxide microspheres and monodisperse polystyrene microspheres. By considering the influence of the cuvette, both theoretical and experimental analyses prove that the proposed method can achieve a good result in the measurement of the scattering phase function of liquid–particle suspensions for particles with unknown size parameters and optical constants, especially when the size parameter of the particle is larger than 10. The correction factors of scattering light distribution of silicon dioxide microsphere suspensions with various mean particle sizes were obtained and analyzed. This method provides an alternative and simple way of measuring the scattering phase function of micron/nano particle suspensions.

Solvation Environments in Porous Ionic Liquids Determine Selectivity in CO2 Conversion to Cyclic Carbonates.

Porous ionic liquids, which are suspensions of nanoporous particles in ionic liquids that maintain permanent porosity, are effective and selective media for the conversion of styrene oxide into styrene carbonate, absorbing CO2 [Zhou et al. Chem. Commun. 2021, 57, 7922-7925]. Here we elucidate the mechanism of selectivity using polarizable molecular dynamics simulations, which provide a detailed view on the structure of the porous ionic liquid and on the local solvation environments of the reacting species. The porous ionic liquids studied are composed of tetradecyltrihexylphosphonium chloride, or [P66614]Cl, and the ZIF-8 zinc-methylimidazolate metal-organic framework (MOF). The CL&Pol polarizable force field was extended to represent epoxide and cyclic carbonate functional groups, allowing the ionic liquid, the reactants, and the MOF to be all represented by fully flexible, polarizable force fields, providing a detailed description of interactions. The presence of reactant and product molecules leads to changes in the structure of the ionic liquid, revealed by domain analysis. The structure of local solvation environments, namely, the arrangement of charged moieties and CO2 around the epoxide ring of the reactant molecules, clearly indicate ring-opening the reaction mechanism. The MOF acts as a reservoir of CO2 through its free volume. The solute molecules are found in the accessible outer cavities of the MOF, which promotes reaction of the epoxide with CO2 excluding other epoxide molecules, thereby preventing the formation of oligomers, which explains the selectivity toward conversion to cyclic carbonates.

Rheo-Engineered Microfluidics @ UNINA

<h2>Abstract</h2> The interest in microfluidic applications based on complex fluids is a result of the unique fluid dynamics of these systems, which enable the creation of effective devices for health care or biological and chemical analysis. In this area, processing suspensions of rigid particles in viscoelastic liquids offers a variety of possible applications where the rheology plays a key role. This contribution presents our activities on viscoelasticity-driven microfluidic applications with rigid particles. The effects of the fluid rheology, particle shape, channel geometry, wall properties, and particle volume fraction are addressed.

Precision size and refractive index analysis of weakly scattering nanoparticles in polydispersions

Characterization of the size and material properties of particles in liquid suspensions is in very high demand, for example, in the analysis of colloidal samples or of bodily fluids such as urine or blood plasma. However, existing methods are limited in their ability to decipher the constituents of realistic samples. Here we introduce iNTA as a new method that combines interferometric detection of scattering with nanoparticle tracking analysis to reach unprecedented sensitivity and precision in determining the size and refractive index distributions of nanoparticles in suspensions. After benchmarking iNTA with samples of colloidal gold, we present its remarkable ability to resolve the constituents of various multicomponent and polydisperse samples of known origin. Furthermore, we showcase the method by elucidating the refractive index and size distributions of extracellular vesicles from Leishmania parasites and human urine. The current performance of iNTA already enables advances in several important applications, but we also discuss possible improvements.

Fumed Silica-Based Suspensions for Shear Thickening Applications: A Full-Scale Rheological Study.

Understanding shear thickening fluids (STFs) is critically important in a broad spectrum of fields ranging from biology to military. STFs are referred to the suspension of solid particles in an inert carrier liquid. Customizing the thickening behavior is vital for obtaining desired properties. Hence, comprehending shear thickening mechanisms is necessary to fully understand the factors affecting the shear thickening response of the STFs. Herein, we systematically investigate the effects of a wide range of parameters, from inherent properties of the constituents, including size and surface chemistry of the suspended particles, to practical conditions such as temperature and shear history, on the shear thickening behavior of fumed silica nanoparticles (NPs)-based suspensions in a polyethylene glycol (PEG) medium. Accordingly, increasing the hydrophobicity of the silica NPs or decreasing the NP size transforms the suspensions from sol to gel. The sol systems exhibit a strong shear thickening response, while shear thinning behavior is prominent in the strong gel systems. Hybridization of different silica NPs is also leveraged to tune the shear thickening behavior. In addition, we showcase the decisive role of operating temperature or shear history on the shear thickening behavior of suspensions. For instance, in terms of the shear history, above a critical value of preshear, the shear thickening behavior occurs at lower shear rates for STFs containing hydrophilic NPs. It is believed that the provided insights in this study can pave the way for developing advanced STFs with prescribed features.

Numerically investigating the effects of geometry on hydrodynamics and particle suspension performance in continuous oscillatory baffled crystallizers

An Eulerian-Eulerian two-fluid model was employed to reveal the hydrodynamics behaviors of solid–liquid flow and particle suspension performance in continuous oscillatory baffled crystallizers (COBCs). After validation with experimental data from references, the model was used to investigate the effects of geometry on particle dispersion performance in six different COBCs. The results show that chamber connection structure of COBCs has more significant effects on particle suspension performance than chamber structure itself. Moreover, the curving connection pipe with upper and lower symmetric structure (COBC #6) shows a more uniform radial velocity, realizes the transformation of upper and lower momentum, drives particles to disperse evenly in all directions of the chambers and enhances the mixing between particles and liquid during the oscillation process, accordingly resulting in a good particle suspension performance. With the increment of oscillation Reynolds number (Re0), particle suspension uniformity in COBC #6 increases at first and then decreases, together with a sharp increase of power density, indicating that COBC #6 can be operated in an optimized Re0 to achieve good performance with relatively low power consumption.

Direct velocity measurements in high-temperature non-ideal vapor flows

Direct velocity measurements in a non-ideal expanding flow of a high temperature organic vapor were performed for the first time using the laser Doppler velocimetry technique. To this purpose, a novel seeding system for insemination of high-temperature vapors was specifically conceived, designed, and implemented. Comparisons with indirectly measured velocity, namely inferred from pressure and temperature measurements, are also provided. Nozzle flows of hexamethyldisiloxane (MM, C_6H_{18}OSi_2) at temperature up to 220,^circ mathrm {C} and pressure up to 10 bar were taken as representative of non-ideal compressible-fluid flows. The relative high temperature, high pressure and the need of avoiding contamination pose strong constraints on the choice of both seeding system design and tracer particle, which is solid. A liquid suspension of tracer particles in hexamethyldisiloxane is injected through an atomizing nozzle in a high-temperature settling chamber ahead of the test section. The spray droplets evaporate, while the particles are entrained in the flow to be traced. Three different test cases are presented: a subsonic compressible nozzle flow with a large uniform region at Mach number 0.7, a high velocity gradient supersonic flow at Mach number 1.4 and a near-zero velocity gradient flow at Mach number 1.7. Temperature, pressure and direct velocity measurements are performed to characterize the flow. Measured velocity is compared with both computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations and velocity computed from pressure and temperature measurements. In both cases, the thermodynamic model applied was a state-of-the-art Helmoltz energy equation of state. A maximum velocity deviation of 6.6% was found for both CFD simulations and computed velocity.Graphical abstract

Numerical simulations of small amplitude oscillatory shear flow of suspensions of rigid particles in non-Newtonian liquids at finite inertia

We perform immersed-boundary-method numerical simulations of small amplitude oscillatory shear flow of suspensions of monodisperse noncolloidal rigid spherical particles in non-Newtonian liquids from the dilute to the concentrated regime. We study the influence of suspending liquid inertia and rheology and particle concentration on the computationally measured storage and loss moduli of the suspensions. In particular, the rheology of the suspending liquid is modeled through the inelastic shear-thinning Carreau–Yasuda constitutive equation and the viscoelastic Giesekus and Oldroyd-B constitutive equations. The role of inertia is quantified by the Stokes number, St, whereas the relevance of the non-Newtonian effects of the suspension matrix is measured through the Carreau number, Cu, for the Carreau–Yasuda liquid and the Deborah number, De, for the viscoelastic liquids. In suspensions with a Carreau–Yasuda matrix, both the storage and the loss modulus increase with St and decrease with Cu, yet the order of magnitude of Cu has to be greater than unity for these effects to be visible. In suspensions with a viscoelastic matrix, both the moduli increase with St and have a nonmonotonic trend with De, showing a maximum with no quantitative differences between the results pertaining suspensions with Giesekus and Oldroyd-B constitutive equations.

Characteristics of aerosol optical depth dynamics and their causes over typical cities along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Atmospheric aerosols, i.e., suspension of liquid and/or solid particles in air, have serious impacts on human health. Exploring the variation and patterns of regional atmospheric aerosols is of great significance to monitor and evaluate atmosphere quality, especially in urban areas with large population. Here, with nine typical pivotal cities along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road through Southeast Asia, South Asia to West Asia as case studies, based on MCD19A2 550 nm AOD products, combined meteorological factors, land use data, and nighttime light data, we analyzed the spatio-temporal distribution, variation features, influencing and/or driving factors of aerosols in developed urban areas over Asia. The results showed that the descending sequence of the annual aerosol optical depth (AOD) of the nine cities was Karachi, Doha, Chittagong, Bangkok, Colombo, Ho Chi Minh, Singapore, Gwadar, and Yangon during 2013-2018. Due to the influence of regional climate system and atmospheric aerosol types, the time series of annual, seasonal, and monthly AODs were significantly different. The high values of AODs in most cities were mainly located in the urban center or rapid socio-economic (e.g., industrial and agricultural) development regions. The effects of different meteorological factors on the AODs varied in different cities. The rainfall, relative humidity, and wind speed had great impacts on AODs in Ho Chi Minh, Bangkok, Singapore, and Yangon. Temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed had close correlations with AODs in Chittagong, Colombo, Karachi, and Gwadar of South Asia and Doha in West Asia. The urban area's AOD was influenced by the combined and synergistic effects of socio-economy, urbanization, and meteorological factors, with that in Karachi being the most significant.

Tricritical Phenomena and Cascades of Temperature Phase Transitions in a Ferromagnetic Liquid Crystal Suspension

We consider temperature-driven phase transitions occurring in a liquid crystal suspension of ferromagnetic particles within the Landau–de Gennes theory. The temperature dependences of the order parameters in the uniaxial model with a vector order parameter for the magnetic subsystem are obtained. The dimensionless expression for the free energy density of the suspension has been used for the study of the phase behavior general regularities of the system. Phase state diagrams of the suspension and temperature dependences of the order parameters of the liquid crystal and the ensemble of magnetic particles for different values of the phenomenological expansion coefficients are constructed. It is shown that the considered model admits the existence of a cascade of temperature phase transitions: isotropic phase–superparamagnetic nematic phase–ferromagnetic nematic phase. We have shown that in the mesomorphic state of the liquid crystal, the spontaneous magnetization can appear in a continuous way or by a jump with decreasing temperature, which corresponds to the tricritical behavior. The values of temperature and expansion coefficients corresponding to the tricritical and triple points are numerically found.

Features of the flow of concentrated suspensions of solid particles

Concentrated suspensions of solids, widely used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries, exhibit complex rheology. In the rheometric one-dimensional flows of concentrated suspensions, a smooth or abrupt increase in stresses with a smooth increase in the strain rate intensity can be observed. This is related to the appearance of a first-order phase transition. In our previous work, a phenomenological rheological model of a concentrated suspension of solid particles in a Newtonian dispersion liquid has been developed. This model is characterized by an S-shaped flow curve and describes both continuous and abrupt increases in the stress intensity with a uniform increase in the strain rate intensity. In this work, exact analytical formulas are obtained for the flow velocity profiles of suspensions measured using rotary viscometers. The model proposed before is modified to take into account the non-Newtonian properties of the dispersion medium, which demonstrates pseudoplastic properties at low stress intensities and dilatant properties at high stress intensities. Based on the developed numerical model, the features of the flow of highly concentrated suspensions in plane and axisymmetric channels are analyzed. It is shown that in a flat diffuser, in contrast to Newtonian and pseudoplastic fluids, the longitudinal velocity of the suspension slows down near the walls, where the stresses are maximum, and accelerates in the central part of the channel. Calculations for the submerged jet in the area bounded by the walls show that, with an increase in the average velocity of the incoming pure liquid by more than 0.01 m/s, there occurs a local velocity vortex bounded by a layer with high particle concentration and more viscous medium; particle concentration inside the vortex is minimum.

Ultrasonic propagation in concentrated colloidal dispersions: improvements in a hydrodynamic model

Recent theoretical and experimental findings demonstrate that modeling ultrasonic attenuation of a concentrated colloidal suspension requires inclusion of shear-induced contributions, an element being unaccounted for by most scattering models. Herein, we extend a hydrodynamic model from low to high particle volume fraction by effectively relating the single particle dynamic drag to particle concentration to account for hydrodynamic interparticle interactions. We calculate an expression for the complex-valued effective dynamic mass density at high concentrations, which is then combined with a viscosity-corrected effective bulk modulus to estimate ultrasonic velocity and attenuation for a monodisperse suspension of solid spherical particles in a viscous liquid. The effective velocity and attenuation are functions of particle volume fraction, frequency, and physical properties of particles and liquid. We compare our results with those from two recently developed scattering models: a multi-modal multiple scattering model and a core-shell effective medium model, each taking into account the viscosity of the host fluid through shear wave influences. Finally, we find that our extended model predicts experimental attenuation data the best for a silica in water suspension compared to the results of other models.

Bed expansion and gas holdup characteristics of bubble–assisted fluidization of liquid–particle suspensions in a HydroFloat cell

The HydroFloat cells made by Eriez are designed for floating coarse particles using fluidization involving bubble–liquid–particle suspensions. The operational optimization and control of these cells can be a challenging task and require various correlations that are difficult to establish by theory. Here, experiments were performed to study the effect of SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate) on the liquid–particle and bubble–liquid–particle fluidization processes in a laboratory-scale HydroFloat cell. Air was supplied to a perforated circular tube at the bottom to generate the bubbles while irregular coarse quartz particles were fed to the top by a vibrating plate as the solid phase. In the liquid–particle fluidization, the bed expansion (BE) increased with increasing superficial liquid velocity and agreed with the modified Richardson-Zaki equation (within 4% relative error). BE decreased to 12.5% in the presence of SDS at low concentrations. In the bubble–liquid–particle fluidization, BE was reduced by 8.46 – 2.89% and 15.1% with increasing superficial gas velocity and decreasing superficial liquid velocity in the absence of SDS, respectively. In the presence of SDS, BE increased with increasing superficial gas and liquid velocities. High SDS concentrations generated expanded beds with higher heights. Low SDS concentration (0.2 mM) increased the gas holdups by an average of 20% with increasing superficial gas velocity from 1.1 to 3.4 mm/s. Both BE and gas holdup were compared with the available empirical correlations. The estimated BE showed smaller mean absolute relative errors (MAREs) in the absence of SDS than the presence of SDS, while gas holdups yielded large MAREs. The particle sphericity and bubble Reynolds number were incorporated into the Begovich-Watson and Ramesh-Murugesan equations to estimate the BE and gas holdup, respectively. The modified equations significantly improved the predictions. The empirical correlations developed and investigated here would be useful for the operational optimization of the fluidized bed HydroFloat cells.

Nanofluid flow and heat transfer of carbon nanotube and graphene platelette nanofluids in entrance region of microchannels

Suspensions of nano-scale particles in liquids, dubbed nanofluids, are of great interest for heat transfer applications. Nanofluids potentially offer superior thermal conductivity to alternative, pure fluids and are of particular interest in applications where active cooling of power-dense systems is required. In this work, the thermophysical properties of carbon nanotube nanofluids (CNTNf) and those of graphene nanoplatelette nanofluids (GNPNf) as functions of particle volume fraction are deduced from published experiments. These properties are applied to a perturbative boundary layer model to examine how the velocity and temperature profiles (and correspondingly shear stress and surface heat transfer) vary with the nanoparticle concentration in the entrance region of microchannels. Findings of this modeling effort indicate that both shear stress and heat transfer in GNPNf increase with increasing particle concentration. The normalized increase in shear stress is approximately twice that for heat transfer as a function of the GNP particle concentration. Interestingly, CNTNf shows anti-enhancement heat transfer behaviour; an increasing concentration of CNT nanoparticles is associated with both an increase in shear stress and a decrease in the surface heat transfer rate.

Spontaneous outflow efficiency of confined liquid in hydrophobic nanopores

The suspension of nanoporous particles in a nonwetting liquid provides a unique solution to the crux of superfluid, sensing, and energy conversion, yet is challenged by the incomplete outflow of intruded liquid out of nanopores for the system reusability. We report that a continuous and spontaneous liquid outflow from hydrophobic nanopores with high and stable efficiency can be achieved by regulating the confinement of solid-liquid interactions with functionalized nanopores or/and liquids. Full-scale molecular-dynamics simulations reveal that the grafted silyl chains on nanopore wall surfaces will promote the hydrophobic confinement of liquid molecules and facilitate the molecular outflow; by contrast, the introduction of ions in the liquid weakens the hydrophobic confinement and congests the molecular outflow. Both one-step and multistep well-designed quasistatic compression experiments on a series of nanopores/nonwetting liquid material systems have been performed, and the results confirm the outflow mechanism in remarkable agreement with simulations. This study offers a fundamental understanding of the outflow of confined liquid from hydrophobic nanopores, potentially useful for devising emerging nanoporous-liquid functional systems with reliable and robust reusability.