Xinxin Zhang

Influence of cell properties on rheological characterization of microalgae suspensions.

The influences of algal cell size and surface charge on rheological properties of microalgae suspensions were investigated. The effective viscosity of two microalgae suspensions, i.e., the freshwater Chlorella sp. and the marine Chlorella sp., was measured as a function of their volume fractions in the range of 0.70-4.31%. The hydrodynamic diameters of the freshwater Chlorella sp. and the marine Chlorella sp. were measured to be 3.13 and 6.00 μm, respectively. The Zeta potentials of these two algal cells were measured to be -23.73 and -81.81 mV, respectively. The intrinsic viscosities of these two microalgae suspensions were further determined to be 24.7 and 16.1, respectively. Combining with theoretical models, these results indicated that the algal cell size has a predominant effect over cell surface charge in affecting rheological properties of microalgae suspensions. Smaller algal cells result in a higher effective viscosity of the microalgae suspension.

Noninvasive Method for Simultaneously Measuring the Thermophysical Properties and Blood Perfusion in Cylindrically Shaped Living Tissues

An easy-to-use noninvasive method was developed to simultaneously measure the thermophysical parameters and blood perfusion in cylindrically shaped living tissues. This method is based on a two-dimensional mathematical model which requires temperature measurements at only three separate points along the axial direction on the cylinder surface. A sensitivity analysis has shown that the key thermophysical parameters, such as the thermal conductivity, volumetric heat capacity, and blood perfusion can be estimated simultaneously with high accuracy. Genetic algorithm (GA) selection, crossover, and mutation operators were developed to solve this multi-parameter optimization problem. This three-point method was validated by measuring the properties of a dynamic tissue-equivalent phantom with known thermal parameters. The method has also been applied to measure the thermophysical parameters and blood perfusion in human forearms with measured results agreeing well with the literature values.

Quantitatively Predicting Bacterial Adhesion Using Surface Free Energy Determined with a Spectrophotometric Method

Bacterial adhesion onto solid surfaces is of importance in a wide spectrum of problems, including environmental microbiology, biomedical research, and various industrial applications. Despite many research efforts, present thermodynamic models that rely on the evaluation of the adhesion energy are often elusive in predicting the bacterial adhesion behavior. Here, we developed a new spectrophotometric method to determine the surface free energy (SFE) of bacterial cells. The adhesion behaviors of five bacterial species, Pseudomonas putida KT2440, Salmonella Typhimurium ATCC 14028, Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 12228, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212, and Escherichia coli DH5α, onto two model substratum surfaces, i.e., clean glass and silanized glass surfaces, were studied. We found that bacterial adhesion was unambiguously mediated by the SFE difference between the bacterial cells and the solid substratum. The lower the SFE difference, the higher degree of bacterial adhesion. We therefore propose the use of the SFE difference as an accurate and simple thermodynamic measure for quantitatively predicting bacterial adhesion. The methodological advance and thermodynamic simplification in the paper have implications in controlling bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation on solid surfaces.

Rapid spectrophotometric method for determining surface free energy of microalgal cells.

Microalgae are one of the most promising renewable energy sources with environmental sustainability. The surface free energy of microalgal cells determines their biofouling and bioflocculation behavior and hence plays an important role in microalgae cultivation and harvesting. To date, the surface energetic properties of microalgal cells are still rarely studied. We developed a novel spectrophotometric method for directly determining the surface free energy of microalgal cells. The principles of this method are based on analyzing colloidal stability of microalgae suspensions. We have shown that this method can effectively differentiate the surface free energy of four microalgal strains, i.e., marine Chlorella sp., marine Nannochloris oculata, freshwater autotrophic Chlorella sp., and freshwater heterotrophic Chlorella sp. With advantages of high-throughput and simplicity, this new spectrophotometric method has the potential to evolve into a standard method for measuring the surface free energy of cells and abiotic particles.

Surface Free Energy Activated High-Throughput Cell Sorting

Cell sorting is an important screening process in microbiology, biotechnology, and clinical research. Existing methods are mainly based on single-cell analysis as in flow cytometric and microfluidic cell sorters. Here we report a label-free bulk method for sorting cells by differentiating their characteristic surface free energies (SFEs). We demonstrated the feasibility of this method by sorting model binary cell mixtures of various bacterial species, including Pseudomonas putida KT2440, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212, Salmonella Typhimurium ATCC 14028, and Escherichia coli DH5α. This method can effectively separate 10(10) bacterial cells within 30 min. Individual bacterial species can be sorted with up to 96% efficiency, and the cell viability ratio can be as high as 99%. In addition to its capacity of sorting evenly mixed bacterial cells, we demonstrated the feasibility of this method in selecting and enriching cells of minor populations in the mixture (presenting at only 1% in quantity) to a purity as high as 99%. This SFE-activated method may be used as a stand-alone method for quickly sorting a large quantity of bacterial cells or as a prescreening tool for microbial discrimination. Given its advantages of label-free, high-throughput, low cost, and simplicity, this SFE-activated cell sorting method has potential in various applications of sorting cells and abiotic particles.

Specific heat capacity of nanoporous Al2O3

Based on Lindemanns criterion, a specific heat capacity model for nanoporous material was proposed by defining the surface-atom layer, to take the surface atoms and the volume atoms separately into account. The height of the surface-atom layer was determined from the experiment, and results show that only the first layer atoms on the surface should be separately considered for nanoporous Al2O3. The shape factor of the pore was also introduced in the model with values between 2 (for cylindrical pore) and 3 (for spherical pore) to characterize the morphology of the pore. It turns out experimentally that the specific heat capacity of the analyzed nanoporous Al2O3 is much larger than that of the bulk, which can be interpreted as due to the fact that the surface atom plays a more important role than the volume one. And the smaller the radius and/or the larger the porosity, which lead to a larger surface-volume ratio, the larger the specific heat capacity becomes. The nanoporous material could be a better heat storage medium than the corresponding bulk with a much lighter weight, smaller volume but higher heat storage capacity.

Hydrophobically modified nanoparticle suspensions to enhance water evaporation rate

The evaporation rates of water can be enhanced by adding the hydrophobically modified nanoparticles as a suspension. The magnitudes of enhancement are related to the diameter and mass concentration of nanoparticles. In particular, a 15% enhancement was achieved after adding the modified Al2O3 nanoparticle with a diameter of 13u2009nm and mass percentage of 0.02%. A theoretical model was established in order to estimate the evaporation rates of hydrophobic particle-based nanofluids. The obtained results indicate that the enhanced evaporation rates are attributed to the elevated saturated vapor pressures of the nanofluids. These results may have important applications for energy-efficient enhancement of water evaporation rates.

Zonal method solution of radiative heat transfer in a one-dimensional long roller-hearth furnace in CSP

Abstract A radiative heat transfer mathematical model for a one-dimensional long furnace was set up in a through-type roller-hearth furnace (TTRHF) in compact strip production (CSP). To accurately predict the heat exchange in the furnace, modeling of the complex gas energy-balance equation in volume zones was considered, and the heat transfer model of heating slabs and wall lines was coupled with the radiative heat transfer model to identify the surface zonal temperature. With numerical simulation, the temperature fields of gas, slabs, and wall lines in the furnace under one typical working condition were carefully accounted and analyzed. The fundamental theory for analyzing the thermal process in TTRHF was provided.

Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanotubes With Stone-Wales Defects

Thermal conductivity of (5,5) and (3,3) carbon nanotubes with Stone-Wales (SW) defects is investigated by molecular dynamics simulation. Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics method is employed and the reactive empirical bond order potential is chosen. In the simulation, the temperature difference is given by applying the Berendsen thermostat model to each end of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The thermal conductivity is calculated by Fourier’s equation. Different from linear temperature distribution along the tube for perfect CNTs without defects, there is temperature jump at defects for CNTs with a SW defect. The defect acts as additional phonon scattering centers and result in a local higher temperature gradient, which leads to a higher resistance to heat flow across the defect and thus a reduction in the thermal conductivity of the tube. The rotation angle of a SW defect barely influences the thermal conductivity of the tube. Probably, the thermal conductivity of CNTs with SW defects is more sensitive to the defect concentration than the defect distribution.Copyright

Thermal conductivity measurement of semitransparent media at temperatures from 300 to 800 K by hot-wire method

In this paper, a new measurement technique for determining thermal conductivity of semitransparent media in the temperature range 300–800 K is reported. The experimental setup is based on the step power forced transient hot wire technique. It is assumed that the radiative contribution to the heat transfer process arises from emission, not from absorption. In this case, application of the “thermal quadruples” method allows a very simple construction of analytical models of the experimental setup. The parameter sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the thermal conductivity of semitransparent media can be determined from the hot wire temperature response. The experimental results of a kind of glass between 300 and 800 K are presented.