Preparation of a novel polysulfone/polyethylene oxide/silicone rubber multilayer composite membrane for hydrogen-nitrogen separation

A novel poly sulfone/polyethylene oxide/silicone rubber (PSOPEO/SR) multilayer composite membrane was fabricated by double coating polysulfone substrate membrane with polyethylene oxide and silicone rubber. Gas permeation experiments were performed at 30 degrees C for hydrogen and nitrogen. PSf(PEO/SR membrane displayed high and steady performance for H-2/N-2: permeances of H-2 and N-2 of 49.51 and 0.601 GPU, respectively, and H-2/N-2 ideal separation factor of 82.3. It was explained that layer interfaces due to the introduction of PEO layer act as the permselective media and are responsible for the higher H-2/N-2 ideal separation factor which has exceeded the intrinsic permselectivities of the three polymers used in this study. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Methanol synthesis from CO2 using a silicone rubber/ceramic composite membrane reactor

A one-dimensional isothermal pseudo-homogeneous parallel flow model was developed for the methanol synthesis from CO2 in a silicone rubber/ceramic composite membrane reactor. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta method was adopted to simulate the process behaviors in the membrane reactor. How those parameters affect the reaction behaviors in the membrane reactor, such as Damkohler number Da, pressure ratio p(r), reaction temperature T, membrane separation factor alpha, membrane permeation parameter phi , as well as the non-uniform parameter of membrane permeation L-1, were discussed in detail. Parts of the theoretical results were tested and verified; the experimental results showed that the conversion of the main reaction in the membrane reactor increased by 22% against traditional fixed bed reactor, and the optimal non-uniform parameter of membrane permeation rate, L-1.opt ,does exist. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Gas permeability of a novel cellulose membrane

A novel cellulose membrane was prepared by using amine oxides as the solvent and its mechanical performance was measured. Steady-state permeation rates of carbon dioxide, hydrogen, methane, nitrogen, oxygen, argon and helium in the homogeneous dense cellulose membrane were measured in the temperature range of 298-353 K and under gas pressures up to 1 MPa. The effect of swelling on hydrophilic membrane permeability was studied in some detail on the cellulose membrane. The difference in gas permeability between the "dry" cellulose membrane and the "water-swollen" cellulose membrane was investigated, and the gas permeability between the cellulose membrane and the Cellophane was compared. In this paper, the separation performance Of CO2 over H-2 in a "water-swollen" cellulose membrane is reported for the first time and the separation factor Of CO2/H-2 can be up to 15. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Synthesis and characteristics of the human serum albumin-triazine chiral stationary phase

Human serum albumin (HSA) was successfully bonded to silica with s-triazine as activator. The coupling reaction by this method was rapid and effective. The triazine-activated silica is relatively stable and can be installed for at least 1 month without obvious loss of reactivity when stored below 30 degreesC, pH below 7. It was observed that the amount of bound HSA reached 120 mg/g silica calculated from the UV absorbance difference of the HSA solution. d,l-tryptophan was selected as the probe solute to characterize the properties of HSA bonded s-triazine chiral stationary phase, and separation factor of 9.4 was obtained for d,l-tryptophan. Furthermore, the amount of effective HSA on silica was measured by high-performance frontal analysis, and only 16.8 mg/g silica was responsible for the resolution of d,l-tryptophan. These results indicate that the amount of both the bound and effective HSA on silica with triazine as activator was much higher than those by the Schiff base coupling method. Different kinds of enantiomers were resolved successfully on the aminopropylsilica-bonded HSA s-triazine chiral stationary phase. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Determination of ultra-trace concentrations of elements in high purity tellurium by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after Fe(OH)(3) coprecipitation

In this work, a method was established for the determination of impurities in high purity tellurium by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) after Fe(OH)(3) coprecipitation. After comparison of coprecipitation ability and separation efficiency between Fe(OH), and Al(OH)(3), Fe(OH)(3) was chosen as the precipitate. A separation factor of 160 for 200 mg tellurium was obtained under conditions of pH 9 and 2 mg of Fe3(+). The 13 elements, such as Bi, Sn, Pb, In, Tl, Cd, Cu, Co, Ni, Zn, Ti, Be and Zr, could be almost completely coprecipitated under these conditions. In addition, Te memory effect imposed on the ICP-MS instrument was assessed, as well as Te matrix effect that caused the low recovery of Ga, As, Sb and V in real sample was discussed. Finally, the method was evaluated through recovery test and was applied to practical sample analysis, with detection limits of most of the elements being below 0.15 mug g(-1) and R.S.D. below or at approximately 10%, which indicated that this method could fully satisfy the requirements for analysis of 99.999% similar to 99.9999% high purity Te.

SOLVENT-EXTRACTION OF TERBIUM(III,IV) PERIODATE COMPLEXES WITH QUATERNARY AMINE

The differences between the solvent extraction of Tb(III) and Tb(IV) periodate complexes with quaternary amine were studied carefully for the first time. The effects of extractant concentration, phase ratio, the pH value of stock solution, salting-out agent, extractant form, diluent, and extraction time were comprehensively investigated. Under optimal conditions the separation factor between Tb(IV) and Tb(III) periodate complexes is over 5.5.

Experimental velocity measurements and effect of flow maldistribution on predicted permeator performances

The shell-side flow distribution of a parallel flow hollow-fiber gas permeator was characterized using a thermo-anemograph. The permeator has an internal diameter of 103 mm and contains 21000 fibers. The overall fiber packing fraction is 40.1%. Experimental results revealed that shell-side flow maldistributions exist in the operating conditions studied. The gas-flow velocity is the highest at the permeator center, but lowest near the shell wall. The effects of shell-side flow maldistribution on predicted permeator performances are discussed with a simple model. Model calculation results show that flow maldistributions can have considerable effect on permeation systems with relatively high separation factors and stage cuts. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

Modeling and optimization for separation of ionic solutes in pressurized flow capillary electrochromatography

By manipulation of applied pressure or voltage, pressurized flow capillary electrochromatography (P-CEC) permits unique control of selectivity for ionic solutes. A simple mathematical model has been developed to describe the quantitative relationship between the electrochromatographic retention factor (k(*)) of charged solutes and the applied voltage and pressure. The validity of the model was verified experimentally with hydrophilic interaction mode CEC (HI-CEC). On the basis of the model developed, it was found that the value of k(*) could be predicted accurately using only a limited number of data points from the initial experiments at different voltages or pressures. Correlation between the experimentally measured and calculated k(*) was excellent, with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.999. Optimization for the separation of peptides by P-CEC was also performed successfully on the basis of the proposed model.

Separation of enantiomers of drugs by capillary electrophoresis with permethyl-gamma-cyclodextrin as chiral solvating agent

High-throughput screening is a promising new approach in analytical chemistry. Within the framework of an extended screening program (The German-Chinese Drug Screening Program), the enantioseparation of 86 drugs was investigated by capillary zone electrophoresis in the presence of the chiral solvating agent (CSA) octakis-(2,3,6-tri-O-methyl)-gamma-cyclodextrin (TM-gamma-CD). By this means, 15 drugs could be separated into enantiomeric pairs. Approximate measures for the degree of interaction (migration retardation factor, R-m) and for the degree of enantiomer recognition (migration separation factors, alpha(m)) revealed intriguing patterns that were compared with those found for native gamma-cyclodextrin (gamma-CD). Although there is a distinct influence of the analyte structure on the electrophoretic data, interpretation remains difficult. Most remarkably, permethylation of gamma-CD leads neither to a higher affinity nor to better chiral recognition, in contrast to the findings with alpha-CD.

FACTOR-ANALYSIS APPLIED TO X-RAY-DIFFRACTION DIAGRAMS OF POLYMER BLENDS

The feasibility of applying the method of factor analysis to X-ray diffraction diagrams of binary blends of polypropylene and ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer (PP/EPDM) was examined. The result of mathematical treatment was satisfactory. The number of scattering species and their concentrations in six kinds of PP/EPDM blends were determined. The separation of the spectral peaks of each species in the blends, contributing spectral intensities, was carried out.

Separation of neutral compounds by high speed capillary electrochromatography

With using short capillary column packed with porous and non-porous ODS stationary phases, high speed separation of 6 neutral aromatic compounds within 36 s by capillary electrochromatography (CEC) has been performed. Good reproducibility of the migration times for those solutes in high speed CEC was observed with RSD less than 1%. Both the linear velocity of EOF and the current linearly increases with the applied voltage, which means that the thermal effect by Joule heating was small. However, the capacity factor of solutes was found to decrease with the increase of the applied voltage, which was caused by the fact that about several seconds needed for the increase of voltage from 0 to applied value on a commercial CE instrument made larger contributions to the migration times of the early eluted compounds than those of lately eluted ones during high speed CEC, and voltage effect would increase with the higher applied voltage used. The linear relationship between the logarithm of capacity factor and the number of carbon for homologous compounds was observed, and positive value of slope means that the hydrophobicity of solutes is one of the main contribution factors to retention in high speed CEC packed with ODS stationary phases.

Numerical Simulation of Particle Separation in An Oil-Sand Separator

The gathering systems of crude oil are greatly endangered by the fine sand and soil in oil. Up to now , how to separate sand from the viscid oil is still a technical problem for oil production home or abroad. Recently , Institute of Mechanics in Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new type of oil-sand separator , which has been applied successfully in oil field in situ. In this paper, the numerical method of vortex-stream function is used to predict the liquid-solid separating course and the efficiency for this oil-sand separator. Results show that the viscosity and particle diameter have much influence on the particle motion. The calculating separating efficiency is compared with that of experiment and indicates that this method can be used to model the complex two-phase flow in the separator.

Dynamic stress intensity factor of a functionally graded material under antiplane shear loading

The dynamic response of a finite crack in an unbounded Functionally Graded Material (FGM) subjected to an antiplane shear loading is studied in this paper. The variation of the shear modulus of the functionally graded material is modeled by a quadratic increase along the direction perpendicular to the crack surface. The dynamic stress intensity factor is extracted from the asymptotic expansion of the stresses around the crack tip in the Laplace transform plane and obtained in the time domain by a numerical Laplace inversion technique. The influence of graded material property on the dynamic intensity factor is investigated. It is observed that the magnitude of dynamic stress intensity factor for a finite crack in such a functionally graded material is less than in the homogeneous material with a property identical to that of the FGM crack plane.

Forced Dissociation of Selectin-ligand Complexes Using Steered Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Selectin-ligand interactions are crucial to such biological processes as inflammatory cascade or tumor metastasis. How transient formation and dissociation of selectin-ligand bonds in blood flow are coupled to molecular conformation at atomic level, however, has not been well understood. In this study, steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations were used to elucidate the intramolecular and intermolecular conformational evolutions involved in forced dissociation of three selectin-ligand systems: the construct consisting of P-selectin lectin (Lec) and epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like domains (P-LE) interacting with synthesized sulfoglycopeptide or SGP-3, P-LE with sialyl Lewis X (sLeX), and E-LE with sLeX. SMD simulations were based on newly built-up force field parameters including carbohydrate units and sulfated tyrosine(s) using an analogy approach. The simulations demonstrated that the complex dissociation was coupled to the molecular extension. While the intramolecular unraveling in P-LESGP-3 system mainly resulted from the destroy of the two anti-parallel sheets of EGF domain and the breakage of hydrogen-bond cluster at the Lec-EGF interface, the intermolecular dissociation was mainly determined by separation of fucose (FUC) from Ca2+ ion in all three systems. Conformational changes during forced dissociations depended on pulling velocities and forces, as well as on how the force was applied. This work provides an insight into better understanding of conformational changes and adhesive functionality of selectin-ligand interactions under external forces.

Toughness Of Ni/Al2O3 Interfaces As Dependent On Micron-Scale Plasticity And Atomistic-Scale Separation

Ceramic/metal interfaces were studied that fail by atomistic separation accompanied by plastic dissipation in the metal. The macroscopic toughness of the specific Ni alloy/Al2O3 interface considered is typically on the order of ten times the atomistic work of separation in mode I and even higher if combinations of mode I and mode II act on the interface. Inputs to the computational model of interface toughness are: (i) strain gradient plasticity applied to the Ni alloy with a length parameter determined by an indentation test, and (ii) a potential characterizing mixed mode separation of the interface fit to atomistic results. The roles of the several length parameters in the strain gradient plasticity are determined for indentation and crack growth. One of the parameters is shown to be of dominant importance, thus establishing that indentation can be used to measure the relevant length parameter. Recent results for separation of Ni/Al2O3 interfaces computed by atomistic methods are reviewed, including a set of results computed for mixed mode separation. An approximate potential fit to these results is characterized by the work of separation, the peak separation stress for normal separation and the traction-displacement relation in pure shearing of the interface. With these inputs, the model for steady-state crack growth is used to compute the toughness of the interface under mode I and under the full range of mode mix. The effect of interface strength and the work of separation on macroscopic toughness is computed. Fundamental implications for plasticity-enhanced toughness emerge.