A new kind of gas permeation membrane is developed to separate higher hydrocarbons (C 3+ ) from permanent gases. State of the art for such gas permeation applications are membranes based on solubility selective, rubbery polymers, which offer high permeances but relatively low selectivities. The new membrane is designed to improve selectivity, and therefore, significantly reduce energy demand and size of a gas separation plant. The membrane is based on the mixed matrix concept and consists of a rubbery polymer matrix with incorporated activated carbon particles. This two phase separation layer forms a solubility selective mixed matrix membrane by combining the advantages of both materials. The separation of n-C 4 H 10 /CH 4 mixtures is investigated. Based on experimental results a new concept for a transport model for mixed matrix membrane is introduced.
The roughness as a property of core–shell (CS) microparticles plays a key role in their functionality. Quantitative evaluation of the roughness of CS microparticles is, however, a challenging task with approaches using electron microscopy images being scarce and showing pronounced differences in terms of methodology and results. This work presents a generalized method for the reliable roughness determination of nonplanar specimens such as CS particles from electron microscopic images, the method being robust and reproducible with a high accuracy. It involves a self‐written software package (Python) that analyzes the recorded images, extracts corresponding data, and calculates the roughness based on the deviation of the identified contour. Images of single particles are taken by a dual mode scanning electron microscopy (SEM) setup which permits imaging of the same field‐of‐view of the sample with high resolution and surface sensitive in SE InLens mode as well as in transmission mode (TSEM). Herein, a new type of polystyrene core–iron oxide shell–silica shell particles is developed to serve as a set of lower micrometer‐sized study objects with different surface roughness; the analysis of their images by the semiautomatic workflow is demonstrating that the particles’ profile roughness can be quantitatively obtained.
Electrochemical methods offer great promise in meeting the demand for user-friendly on-site devices for monitoring important parameters. The food industry often runs own lab procedures, for example, for mycotoxin analysis, but it is a major goal to simplify analysis, linking analytical methods with smart technologies. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, with photometric detection of 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB), form a good basis for sensitive detection. To provide a straightforward approach for the miniaturization of the detec-tion step, we have studied the pitfalls of the electrochemical TMB detection. By cyclic voltammetry it was found that the TMB electrochemistry is strongly dependent on the pH and the electrode material. A stable electrode response to TMB could be achieved at pH 1 on gold electrodes. We created a smartphonebased, electrochemical, immunomagnetic assay for the detection of ochratoxin A in real samples, providing a solid basis for sensing of further analytes.
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