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Search results for: BIOSORBENTS, CHLORINATED SOLVENTS, LOW-COST ADSORBENT, SORPTION
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Optoelectronic device for hematocrit measurements
PublicationAn optoelectronic system for measurements of hematocrit level (HCT) in the whole human blood is presented. Proposed system integrates a dedicated optoelectronic sensor, a microcontroller and a small LCD display in a low cost, battery-powered, handheld device. Chosen method for determining blood hematocrit level is based on optical properties of whole blood in visible and NIR wavelength range. Measurements with the use of proposed...
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A commercial of the shelf components for a unmanned air vehicle photogrammetry
PublicationA photogrammetry from a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can be understood as a new measurement tool. Is introduces a low-cost alternatives for a traditional aerial photogrammetry. A commercial off-the-shelf products (COTS), that are commercially available for a costumers, are the standard manufactures products, not custom. COTS products are available in the commercial market and can be bought and used under government contract. That...
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Comparison of High Performance Liquid Chromatography Methods with Different Detectors for Determination of Steroid Hormones in Aqueous Matrices
PublicationThis paper presents the development and comparison of procedures for the qualitative and quantitative determination of five estrogenic compounds (17-a-ethynylestradiol, estrone, estradiol, estriol, and progesterone) in drinking water and wastewater samples. Five extraction columns and two disks were tested for their efficiency. The C18 columns were superior on the basis of cost for solid phase extraction of drinking water or sewage....
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Electronic noses: Powerful tools in meat quality assessment
PublicationMain factors that are considered by consumers when choosing meat products are colour and aroma, of which the latter is a more reliable indicator of quality. However, a simple sensory evaluation of hedonistic qualities is often not sufficient to determine whether protein is past its shelf life, and consumption of spoiled meat can lead to serious health hazards. Some volatile compounds can be used as spoilage indicators, and so a...
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Mechatronics design, modelling and controlling of the Stewart-Gough platform
PublicationThis paper presents a mechatronics design of a low cost Stewart-Gough platform (SGP) with rotary actuators. The designed SGP is supposed to be applied in a ball & plate control system. The synthesis of the ball & plate control system is also within the subject of the paper. A mechatronics design process of the SGP was conducted with computer-aided design (CAD) software. Unique analytical solutions of an inverse kinematics problem...
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High temperature oxidation behavior of SUS430 SOFC interconnects with Mn-Co spinel coating in air
PublicationIn this study, SUS430 alloy is evaluated for its high temperature corrosion properties as a possible material for interconnects of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Samples are coated with Mn-Co by commercial physical vapor deposition (PVD) process and oxidized in air for 1250 h at 800 °C. A dense cubic Mn-Co-Fe spinel layer is formed on the surface, showing great effect on corrosion reduction compared with the samples without coating....
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A bisection‐based heuristic for rapid EM‐driven multiobjective design of compact impedance transformers
PublicationDesign of microwave structures is a multiobjective task where several conflicting requirements have to be considered at the same time. For contemporary circuits characterized by complex geometries, multiobjective optimization cannot be performed using standard population‐based algorithms due to high cost of electromagnetic (EM) evaluations. In this work, we propose a deterministic approach for fast EM‐driven multiobjective design...
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A state of the art review on the use of fungi in biofiltration to remove volatile hydrophobic pollutants
PublicationThe physical/chemical abatement of gas pollutants creates many technical problems, is costly and entails significant environmental impacts. Biological purification of off-gases is a cheap and ecologically safe way of neutralization of gas pollutants. Despite the recent advances, the main technological challenge nowadays is the purification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of hydrophobic character due to their low solubility...
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Microporous N-Doped Carbon Obtained from Salt Melt Pyrolysis of Chitosan toward Supercapacitor and Oxygen Reduction Catalysts
PublicationThe direct carbonization of low-cost and abundant chitosan biopolymer in the presencesalt eutectics leads to highly microporous, N-doped nanostructures. The microporous structureeasily manufactured using eutectic mixture (ZnCl2 -KCl) and chitosan. Potassium ions here can act as an intercalating agent, leading to the formation of lamellar carbon sheets, whereas zinc chloride generates significant porosity. Here, we present an efficient...
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Metamaterial-Based Sub-Microwave Electromagnetic Field Energy Harvesting System
PublicationThis paper presents the comprehensive analysis of the sub-microwave, radio frequency band resonant metastructures’ electromagnetic properties with a particular emphasis on the possibility of their application in energy harvesting systems. Selected structures based on representative topologies of metamaterials have been implemented in the simulation environment. The models have been analyzed and their substitute average electromagnetic...
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Challenges in determination of pesticides from various chemical groups in fruits and vegetables applying QuEChERS method
PublicationPesticides are a large group of compounds with different physical and chemical properties, which place some of them among the most toxic, environmentally stable, and mobile substances. Nevertheless, their number, use, and application are continuously expanding. A consequence of their use is the possible presence of residues in treated food products. To protect consumers from exposure to unacceptable levels of pesticides Maximum...
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Thermal Instability of Choline Chloride-Based Deep Eutectic Solvents and Its Influence on Their Toxicity─Important Limitations of DESs as Sustainable Materials
PublicationDeep eutectic solvents (DESs) have become a hot topic in many branches of science due to their remarkable properties. They have been studied in a wide variety of applications. In particular, choline chloride (ChCl)-based DESs are one of the most commonly used representatives of these fluids. Nevertheless, in order to apply DESs in some fields, it is essential to guarantee their stability, reusability, and biocompatibility. In this...
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A Multi Rig Screening Test for Thin Ceramic Coatings in Bio - Tribological Applications
PublicationA method is presented for the comparative testing of wear resistance of ceramic coatings made from materials potentially feasible in tribo - medical applications, mainly orthopaedic implants made from ceramics coated metals for low cost, long life and low wear particle emission into the body. The method was devised as the main tool for use in research and is comprised of flat on flat and ball on flat surface (sliding) tests. Seven...
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Comparative study of bisphenols in e-cigarette liquids: evaluating fabric phase sorptive extraction, ultrasound-assisted membrane extraction, and solid phase extraction techniques
PublicationTo address the under-researched risk of bisphenols (BPs) in e-cigarette liquids, comprehensive studies have been conducted to propose optimum sample preparation and analysis methods. To determine twelve BPs in refill liquids for e-cigarettes, three sample preparation methods based on distinct operational and working principles were employed. These included fabric phase sorptive extraction (FPSE), ultrasound-assisted solvent extraction...
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‘Green’ multi - residue methods for the determination of high importance currently used pesticides in environmental samples
PublicationThe purpose of the research has been to develop and apply ‘green’ analytical methodologies to control and monitor the level of currently used pesticides from different chemical groups in aqueous samples. For extraction of analytes solid - phase microextraction (SPME) and dispersive liquid - liquid microextraction (DLLME) have been applied and compared. For SPME, commonly used materials for coating fibers include: polydimethylsiloxane...
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A Review of Recent Advances in Human-Motion Energy Harvesting Nanogenerators, Self-Powering Smart Sensors and Self-Charging Electronics
PublicationIn recent years, portable and wearable personal electronic devices have rapidly developed with increasing mass production and rising energy consumption, creating an energy crisis. Using batteries and supercapacitors with limited lifespans and environmental hazards drives the need to find new, environmentally friendly, and renewable sources. One idea is to harness the energy of human motion and convert it into electrical energy...
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Framework for Structural Health Monitoring of Steel Bridges by Computer Vision
PublicationThe monitoring of a structural condition of steel bridges is an important issue. Good condition of infrastructure facilities ensures the safety and economic well-being of society. At the same time, due to the continuous development, rising wealth of the society and socio-economic integration of countries, the number of infrastructural objects is growing. Therefore, there is a need to introduce an easy-to-use and relatively low-cost...
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Chitosan pyrolysis in the presence of a ZnCl2/NaCl salts for carbons with electrocatalytic activity in oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline solutions
PublicationThe one-step carbonization of low cost and abundant chitosan biopolymer in the presence of salt eutectics ZnCl2/NaCl results in nitrogen-doped carbon nanostructures (8.5 wt.% total nitrogen content). NaCl yields the spacious 3D structure, which allows external oxygen to easily reach the active sites for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) distinguished by their high onset potential and the maximum turnover frequency of 0.132 e...
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Evaluation of the Commercial Electrochemical Gas Sensors for the Monitoring of CO in Ambient Air
PublicationAir pollution is a growing concern of civilized world, which has a significant impact on human health and the environment. Recent studies highlight that the exposure to polluted air can increase the incidence of diseases and deteriorate the quality of life. Hence, it is necessary to develop tools for real-time air quality monitoring. For air pollution monitoring a wide range of stationary gas and particulate analysers can be used....
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Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Materials as Substrates for Fermentation Processes
PublicationLignocellulosic biomass is an abundant and renewable resource that potentially contains large amounts of energy. It is an interesting alternative for fossil fuels, allowing the production of biofuels and other organic compounds. In this paper, a review devoted to the processing of lignocellulosic materials as substrates for fermentation processes is presented. The review focuses on physical, chemical, physicochemical, enzymatic,...
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Reduced-cost surrogate modeling of input characteristics and design optimization of dual-band antennas using response features
PublicationIn this article, a procedure for low-cost surrogate modeling of input characteristics of dual-band antennas has been discussed. The number of training data required for construction of an accurate model has been reduced by representing the antenna reflection response to the level of suitably defined feature points. The points are allocated to capture the critical features of the reflection characteristic, such as the frequencies...
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Pose-Invariant Face Detection by Replacing Deep Neurons with Capsules for Thermal Imagery in Telemedicine
PublicationAbstract— The aim of this work was to examine the potential of thermal imaging as a cost-effective tool for convenient, non- intrusive remote monitoring of elderly people in different possible head orientations, without imposing specific behavior on users, e.g. looking toward the camera. Illumination and pose invariant head tracking is important for many medical applications as it can provide information, e.g. about vital signs, sensory...
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Arterial cannula shape optimization by means of the rotational firefly algorithm
PublicationThe article presents global optimization results of arterial cannula shapes by means of the newly modified firefly algorithm. The search for the optimal arterial cannula shape is necessary in order to minimize losses and prepare the flow that leaves the circulatory support system of a ventricle (i.e. blood pump) before it reaches the heart. A modification of the standard firefly algorithm, the so-called rotational firefly algorithm,...
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Modification of thermal and rheological characteristics of bitumen by waste PET/GTR blends
PublicationWaste poly(ethylene terephthalate) (wPET)/ground tire rubber (GTR) blends with variable compositions were applied as low-cost modifiers into bitumen and their performance has been evaluated via morphological, thermal and rheological analyses. Depending on the weight ratio of wPET/GTR, dispersion of single/composite domains of waste polymers in the bitumen has promoted the interaction between bitumen and blend components. Fourier...
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MobileNet family tailored for Raspberry Pi
PublicationWith the advances in systems-on-a-chip technologies, there is a growing demand to deploy intelligent vision systems on low-cost microcomputers. To address this challenge, much of the recent research has focused on reducing the model size and computational complexity of contemporary convolutional neural networks (CNNs). The state-of-the-art lightweight CNN is MobileNetV3. However, it was designed to achieve a good trade-off between...
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Photonic sensor to detect rapid changes in CRP levels
PublicationOne of the most important biomarkers used to determine inflammation is C-reactive protein (CRP). Its level, when it is within the range that does not define inflammation, informs about the risk of cardiovascular events. If the norm is exceeded and inflammation is detected in the body, CRP level can increase 1000 times within a few hours. The type of infection can also be determined based on the level of elevated CRP. All this makes...
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Application of Web-GIS for Dissemination and 3D Visualization of Large-Volume LiDAR Data
PublicationThe increasing number of digital data sources, which allow for semi-automatic collection and storage of information regarding various aspects of life has recently granted a considerable rise in popularity to the term “Big data”. As far as geospatial data is concerned, one of the major sources of Big data are Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) scanners, which produce high resolution three-dimensional data on a local scale. The...
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Development of nanoscale morphology and role of viscoelastic phase separation on the properties of epoxy/recycled polyurethane blends
PublicationA novel and cost-effective approach towards the modification of epoxy matrix has been developed using recycled polyurethane for the first time without sacrificing any of the intrinsic properties of the resin. Polyurethane, recycled from waste foam by glycolysis process (RPU), was found to be very effective in improving the properties of the thermosetting resin based on Diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA). The effect of the...
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Processing, mechanical and thermal behavior assessments of polycaprolactone/agricultural wastes biocomposites
PublicationIn this paper, brewer’s spent grain (BSG) was applied as potential lignocellulose biofiller in biocompos-ites based on polycaprolactone (PCL). The PCL/BSG biocomposites filled with varying content of biofillerswere prepared via low-temperature melt-compounding. These conditions allow limiting thermal degra-dation of used biofillers during processing. The influence of biofiller content (ranging from 25 to 200parts by weight on 100...
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Influence of the Tool Rotational Speed on Physical and Chemical Properties of Dissimilar Friction-Stir-Welded AA5083/AA6060 Joints
PublicationAluminum alloys have been successfully used in the railroad and automotive industries because of their potential to significantly reduce component weights, and their good mechanical and anti-corrosion properties. Problems with joining aluminum alloys are characterized by low weldability, which influences the need for studies focused on unconventional methods. The environmentally friendly and low-cost friction-stir-welding method...
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Active Kriging-based conjugate first-order reliability method for highly efficient structural reliability analysis using resample strategy
PublicationEfficient structural reliability analysis method is crucial to solving reliability analysis of complex structural problems. High-computational cost and low-failure probability problems greatly limit the efficiency in structural reliability analysis problems, causing the safety and reliability of the structure to be questioned. In this work, a highly efficient structural reliability analysis method coupling active Kriging algorithm...
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Voltage Control of a Stand-Alone Multiphase Doubly Fed Induction Generator
PublicationThis article presents a multiphase doubly fed induction generator (MDFIG) with a dedicated and unique control algorithm in a stand-alone wind energy conversion system. The algorithm has been developed and elaborated in the case of different emergency modes. Compared with the traditional double-fed induction generator, the MDFIG has increased reliability, reduced current level per phase, and low rotor harmonic currents. The control...
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Cascaded Buck Hybrid Interlink Converter for Multiple-Input / Multiple-Output Operation
PublicationThe provision of isolated- and non-isolated DC output voltages by Power electronics power-conditioning devices in the recent ‘green-energy-revolution’ era is on course. In this paper, a structure for multi-input multi-output(MIMO) DC–DC buck converter is proposed to generate output voltages of varying levels with fewer component-count. The DC output voltage of each of the constituting buck converters can be used independently or...
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The effect of hybridization of fire retarded epoxy/flax-cotton fiber laminates by expanded vermiculite: Structure-property relationship study
PublicationThe study describes the hybridization of epoxy/flax-cotton (EP/FF) composites containing ammonium polyphosphate (APP) with micrometric expanded vermiculite (VMT) (1–10 wt%). The efficiency of hybridization of flame retarded epoxy/flax-cotton composites was assessed by performing static tensile and flexural strength evaluation, supplemented by impact strength measurements of the composites. Moreover, thermal and thermomechanical...
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Gelatin and gelatin/starch-based films modified with sorbitol for wound healing
PublicationGelatin-based films modified with sorbitol were produced from gelatin solution or gelatin/starch blends using a simple and low-cost solvent casting method, and subsequently, their physicochemical, mechanical, and biocompatibility properties were characterized. This work focused on developing and optimizing a biopolymeric blend to improve the pure biopolymers’ properties for potential biomedical applications such as wound dressing....
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Quasi-Global Optimization of Antenna Structures Using Principal Components and Affine Subspace-Spanned Surrogates
PublicationParametric optimization is a mandatory step in the design of contemporary antenna structures. Conceptual development can only provide rough initial designs that have to be further tuned, often extensively. Given the topological complexity of modern antennas, the design closure necessarily involves full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulations and—in many cases—global search procedures. Both factors make antenna optimization a computationally...
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Cavitation and Solid-State Post-Condensation of Polyethylene Terephthalate: Literature Review
PublicationPolyethylene terephthalate (PET) is widely used in bottle production by stretch blow molding processes (SBM processes) due to its cost-effectiveness and low environmental impact. The presented literature review focuses on microcavitation and solid-state post-condensation effects that occur during the deformation of PET in the SBM process. The literature review describes cavitation and microcavitation effects in PET material and...
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Methods for physical impairment constrained routing with selected protection in all-optical networks
PublicationIn this paper, we investigate the problem of survivable all-optical routing in WDM networks with physical impairments. One of the recent key issues in survivable optical network design refers to maximization of the ratio of routeable demands while keeping the overall network cost low. In WDM networks, this goal can be achieved by routing as many demands in all-optical way as possible. Based on the latest technical trends driven...
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Maximum Power Point Technique (MPPT) for PV System Based on Improved Pert and Observe (P&O) Method with PI Controller
PublicationPhotovoltaic power generation system has key rule in electricity production. Although, it is clean renewable energy with unlimited resources but it has some drawbacks in efficiency. In order to maximize the efficiency, PV array must drive at maximum power point. For the reason so, several algorithms are used in PV system to track MPP and reduce the...
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an intelligent image processing sensor - the algorithm and the hardware implementation
PublicationW artykule przedstawiono algorytm przeznaczony do rozpoznawania obiektów ruchomych w obrazie do celu analizy ruchu pojazdów. Algorytm został zrealizowany w układzie FPGA.Ang.: This paper describes the idea and theimplementation of the robust algorithm dedicated toextraction of moving vehicles from real-time cameraimages for the evaluation of traffic parameters, suchas the number of vehicles, their direction of movementand their...
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N-doped mesoporous carbon nanosheets obtained by pyrolysis of a chitosan–melamine mixture for the oxygen reduction reaction in alkaline media.
PublicationBy simple thermal decomposition of low-cost precursors (chitosan, melamine) in an inert atmosphere, nitrogen-doped porous carbonaceous materials were prepared. The samples pyrolyzed at 700 C are composed of mainly mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbon nanosheets and partially graphitized carbon. The nanosheets contain a disordered area due to the strain imposed by the presence of nitrogen and/or oxygen groups in their structure. Some...
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Microgrid Energy Management System
PublicationIn the era of rapid development of "green energy” and storage devices, microgrids implemented in line with the concept of distributed generation can be an effective form of power management. There is a need for an efficient, optimal and reliable control of the combined infrastructure. The article presents a flexible, configurable microgrid's resources control system, which executes the task of meeting the electricity demand of...
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Design Space Reduction for Expedited Multi-Objective Design Optimization of Antennas in Highly-Dimensional Spaces
PublicationA surrogate-based technique for efficient multi-objective antenna optimization is discussed. Our approach exploits response surface approximation (RSA) model constructed from low-fidelity antenna model data (here, obtained through coarse-discretization electromagnetic simulations). The RSA model enables fast determination of the best available trade-offs between conflicting design goals. The cost of RSA model construction for multi-parameter...
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Local-Global Space Mapping for Rapid EM-Driven Design of Compact RF Structures
PublicationIn this work, we introduce a robust and efficient technique for rapid design of compact RF circuits. Our approach exploits two-level space mapping (SM) correction of an equivalent circuit model of the structure under design. The first SM layer (local correction) is utilized to ensure good matching between the equivalent circuit and the electromagnetic model at the component level. On the other hand, the global correction allows...
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Advanced operating methods
PublicationSelected operating methods of resistive gas sensors were presented. The methods utilize flicker noise (1/f noise), which gives additional information about ambient gas when compared with the recorded changes of DC resistance only. Methods of flicker noise measurements were outlined. Recently developed prototype gas sensors comprising golden nanoparticle functionalized with organic ligands can generate intense flicker noise induced...
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Low-Power Receivers for Wireless Capacitive Coupling Transmission in 3-D-Integrated Massively Parallel CMOS Imager
PublicationThe paper presents pixel receivers for massively parallel transmission of video signal between capacitive coupled integrated circuits (ICs). The receivers meet the key requirements for massively parallel transmission, namely low-power consumption below a single μW, small area of less than 205 μm2, high sensitivity better than 160 mV, and good immunity to crosstalk. The receivers were implemented and measured in a 3-D IC (two face-to-face...
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Preparation and Properties of Thermoplastic Polyurethane Composites Filled with Powdered Buckwheat Husks
PublicationBio-based fillers for the polymer composites are still interesting from the scientific and industrial point of view, due to their low cost and renewable nature. In this work partially green composites were obtained by the mixing of thermoplastic poly(ester-urethane) with the unmodified and modified (by acetylation) grinded buckwheat husks. Obtained biocomposites were characterized in the terms of their chemical structure (FTIR),...
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Numerical analysis of CO2-water separation in a horizontal double T-junction
PublicationCarbon dioxide is considered one of the main factors leading to global warming. Considering the significant impacts of CO2 on climate change, various technologies have been developed in recent decades to control carbon emission, such as for example CO2 capture and storage. The developed cycle of a negative CO2 emission power plant includes some devices, out of which, separator plays an indispensable role. To this end, T-junction...
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Free-standing TiO2 nanotubes decorated with spherical nickel nanoparticles as a cost-efficient electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction
PublicationHere, we report significant activity towards the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) of spherical nickel nanoparticles (NPs) electrodeposited onto free-standing TiO2 nanotubes (TNT) via cyclic voltammetry. It has been shown that simple manipulation of processing parameters, including scan rate and number of cycles, allows for formation of the NPs in various diameters and amounts. The polarization data with respect to transmission electron...
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Chemical surface etching methods for ground tire rubber as sustainable approach for environmentally-friendly composites development– a review
PublicationGround tire rubber (GTR) has been used as a sustainable low-cost modifier in various composites. However, due to the hydrophobic nature of GTR, it is in compatible with most matrices and results in deterioration in both mechanical and physical properties of composites. This necessitates pre-modification of the powdered rubber to improve the interfacial bonding at the rubber-matric interface. The most common GTR modification research...