This review summarizes the recent literature on the synthesis, characterization, and adsorption properties of meal-organic framework MOF-177. MOF-177 is a porous crystalline material that consists of Zn4O tetrahedrons connected with benzene tribenzoate (BTB) ligands. It is an ideal adsorbent with an exceptionally high specific surface area (BET>4500 m²/g), a uniform micropore size distribution with a median pore diameter of 12.7 Å, a large pore volume (2.65 cm³/g),...

Macroporous silica materials with ordered three-dimensional pore structure can be easily prepared by the template-directed sol-gel process. However, it is still a challenge to prepare them in membrane form on a porous support, which limits their applications. In this work, we have demonstrated the feasibility of obtaining a three-dimensional ordered macroporous silica membrane on macroporous alumina support using poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA) spheres as the template. PMMA spheres were packed o...

Mechanical failure modes leading to cracks or breeches in proton exchange membrane fuel cells are driven by mechanical forces associated with swelling from water uptake and shrinkage from dehumidification. To determine the magnitude of compressive mechanical stress imposed by water swelling in a proton exchange fuel-cell membrane, the osmotic pressure of water in a perfluorosulfonic acid ionomer (Nafion® N 117) membrane was measured using a hydrostatic piston-cylinder device with an in-situ ...

The capability of Chlorella vulgaris to remove nitrogen in the form of ammonia and/or ammonium ions from wastewater effluent in a local wastewater treatment plant (i.e., the Mill Creek Plant in Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A.) was studied. The wastewater effluent leaving the plant was found to include high concentrations of nitrogen (7.7±0.19 mg/L) (ammonia (NH₃) and/or ammonium ion (NH₄⁺)) and total inorganic carbon (58.6±0.28 mg/L) at pH 7, and ...

This paper describes novel Au/NaY catalytic membranes for preferential oxidation of CO (CO-PROX) in an H₂-rich gas. NaY zeolite membranes with a high CO₂/N₂ separation factor were loaded with nanosized Au particles using an ion-exchanged method. X-ray diffraction analyses showed that the structure of the NaY zeolite was not damaged by the ion exchange process. CO-PROX experiments showed that the catalytic membranes had excellent catalytic performance for selectiv...

Many studies have shown that a very thin liquid microlayer forms under vapor bubbles during nucleate boiling. The heat transfer from the surface to the bubble is then significantly affected by this microlayer and the curved region leading into the microlayer. Various models have been developed to predict the microlayer shape and the heat transfer along the curved interfacial region, but they tend to have inconsistent boundary conditions or unrealistic results. This paper presents a theoretical m...

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of pollutants that are widespread in the environment. Their hydrophobic properties make accurate analyses very difficult. In addition, the experimental losses during extraction of PAHs are inevitable and of great concern. In this study, dichloromethane (DCM), chloroform (CF), and carbon disulfide (CDS) were used as solvents to extract phenanthrene (PHN), a typical PAH, at various temperature and pressure reduction conditions. The extraction was...

Systematic experimental research has been conducted in a fix-bed reactor system to determine the impact of coal-fired flue gas species and temperature on mercury oxidation. This work focuses on the temperatures range of 200°C to 800°C to demonstrate that temperature is a critical factor for the effect of the gas components on the mercury oxidation process. Among the investigated gases, hydrogen chloride is essential for oxidizing the elemental mercury. Nitrogen oxide was also found to ha...

In recent years, microchannel heat exchangers have begun to be used in refrigeration and air conditioning systems. This paper introduces a microchannel condenser for domestic refrigerators with a theoretical model to evaluate its performance. The model was used to obtain the optimal design parameters for different numbers of tubes and tube lengths. The results show that the needed tube height of the downward section decreases with the number of tubes and the tube diameter. Compared with the orig...

Accurate variable speed characteristics are needed for water source heat pumps (WSHP) to design variable speed controls to adjust refrigerant flow rates in heat pumps and air conditioners. The system capacity can then be regulated to match the compressor loads to the heating or cooling needs to improve the energy efficiency and lower energy costs. The motor and compression characteristics of WSHP were modeled to include the coupling between the motor speed and the torque characteristics and comp...

Experimental data and calculated results for the onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) in natural circulation systems show that for the same operating conditions, the equilibrium vapor quality for ONB in natural circulation is lower than for forced convections. The differences can be explained using second stir theory. The weak vortices and small stir energy in natural circulation systems result in nucleate boiling occurring earlier than in forced convection systems. In natural circulation systems hig...

The epitope ELDKWA, which is located in the membrane-proximal external region (MPER) of HIV-1 gp41, is an important neutralizing epitope. The human monoclonal antibody (mAb) 2F5 against this epitope shows broad neutralizing activity toward many HIV strains. However, several reports have shown that the epitope-specific mAbs induced by peptides containing MPER did not exhibit the same neutralizing activities as human mAb 2F5. In this study, four ELDKWA epitope specific mAbs (9E7, 7E10, 6B5, and 2B...

A simple, reliable, economical method was developed using HPLC with a diode-array detector for determination of total flavonoids in plasma after introvenous administration of ginkgo biloba extract. The method simultaneously detects quercetin, kaempferol, and isorhamnetin after acid hydrolysis and recalculation. The hydrolysis and extraction conditions were optimized in an orthogonal test. The specificity was tested by comparing the retention time, UV spectra, and peak purity indices wit...

A series of animal models are used to investigate the anti-depression mechanism of flavonoids in scutellariae radix (SR) in vivo. Depression-like behavior in mice was studied after intraperitoneal administration of SR. The results showed that SR administered to mice by the intraperitoneal route obviously shortened the duration in the tail suspension test and the forced swimming test, aggravated the symptoms of eyelid ptosis, akinesia, and mortality caused by reserpine, prolonged climbin...

Quay crane and yard truck scheduling are two important subproblems in container terminal operations which have been studied separately in previous research. This paper proposes a new problem for the integrated quay crane and yard truck scheduling for inbound containers. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer programming (MIP) model. Due to the intractability, a genetic algorithm (GA) and a modified Johnson's Rule-based heuristic algorithm (MJRHA) are used for the problem solution. In addit...

This paper describes a location specific cell transmission model of freeway traffic based on the observed variability of fundamental diagrams both along and across freeway segments. This model extends the original cell transmission model (CTM) mechanism by defining various shapes of fundamental diagrams to reproduce more complex traffic phenomena, including capacity drops, lane-by-lane variations, nonhomogeneous wave propagation velocities, and temporal lags. A field test on a Canadian freeway w...