Using pottery clay, porous ceramic stones were molded and then decorated with copper sub-microparticles inside the pores. Copper added antimicrobial functionality to the clay-based ceramic and showed ability in disinfecting water. Populations of both Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae in contaminated water were reduced by >99.9% in 3 h when exposed to an antimicrobial stone. This a...

Spent bleaching earth (SBE) is a waste generated by the edible oil industry that currently has limited options for beneficial reuse. In excess of ∼2 million tonnes per year of SBE is generated world-wide with major quantities available in the middle-east where significant volumes of edible oils are produced. Low pressure compaction followed by heat treatment at 150°C causes polymerisation of th...

We present the design and verification of a desktop system for the automated production of nanostructured thin films via spin-assisted layer-by-layer (spin-LBL) assembly. The utility of this system is demonstrated by fabricating polyvinyl alcohol/clay nanocomposites. Ellipsometry measurements demonstrate that the automated spin-LBL method creates composites with bilayer thickness and growth rat...

MMT clay-based polymer nanocomposites have been widely studied because of their low cost and unique characteristics, as well as their applications in commercial sectors. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of MMT silylated by 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane and N-(2-aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane on the mechanical behaviour of MMT/epoxy nanocomposites by evaluation of dynami...

There are many kinds of deformable objects in our living life. Some of them demonstrate rheological behaviors, such as human tissues, food, and clay. Comparing with elastic or viscoelastic objects, rheological objects have not been studied intensively. Especially, effective methods for parameter identification have not been established until now. In this paper, we summarize two FE dynamic model...

The surface area of the individual phyllosilicates (clay minerals) in Athabasca oil sands determined from XRD crystallite size measurements was found to be comparable to the bulk surface area measured by ethylene glycol monoethyl ether adsorption. The primary phyllosilicates are kaolin and illite but the large surface area is imparted by varying degrees of smectitic interstratifications in the ...

8 A controlled-release formulation (CRF) has been developed for metolachlor, which reduced its 9 leaching in a sandy soil and improved weed control in comparison with the commercial formula10 tion. The current study tested the effect of soil wetting and drying cycles (WDCs) on metolachlor 11 fate (desorption, leaching, and weed control) applied as the CRF and as the commercial formula12 tion. M...

In this research, commercial nano-clay (NC) was modified with TiO2 functional groups and characterized via XRD and FTIR methods. The modified nano-clay was applied as an adsorbent for the removal of cadmium from wastewater solutions. The effects of the operating parameters including initial pH, cadmium concentration and adsorbent concentration were analyzed by the Taguchi method. The...

An equation was constructed to estimate the stem volume of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) in 145 stands growing on former farmland in Sweden (Latitude 56–63° N). The mean total age was 40 ± 13 (range 17–91) years, the mean diameter at breast height (ob) was 15 ± 4 (range 5–27) cm and the mean density was 1621 ± 902 (range 100–7600) stems ha. The equation which fits the data best used t...

Sorghum-sudangrass hybrids and pearl millet, Pennisetum americanum (L.) Leeke., are grown extensively in the southeastern United States; the former is used for forage, seed, and summer cover crop and the latter, primarily for grazing, forage, and summer cover crop. The extended period during which these crops can be planted makes them especially adapted to a doublecropping system with winter-gr...