This study empirically examined the influences of electrospinning process factors (applied voltage, feed rate of the polymer solution and tip-to-collector distance) and the polymer solution concentration on the diameters of electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers. To examine this, the polymer solution concentration, applied voltage, feed rate of the polymer solution and tip-to-collector distance were specified as parameters with four levels. In order to optimize these parameters, Taguchi's L16 orthogonal design (4 parameters, 4 levels) was applied to the experiential design. In order to describe the optimum production conditions for electrospun PAN nanofibers, the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio was used, which was calculated from the diameters of electrospun PAN nanofibers using the “smaller-the-better” approach. By using the S/N ratio response results, the most influential parameter determining the nanofiber diameter was identified as the polymer solution concentration. The nanofiber diameter at the optimum conditions was 163.6 nm. In addition, homogeneous nanofibers with no observed beads were obtained by means of the newly designed adjustable rotary plate collector. In conclusion, the Taguchi technique was seen to be an efficient technique to optimise the crucial electrospinning process factors used in nanofiber production.

A novel folic acid-imprinted quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) nanosensor in order to detect folic acid depending on the fabrication of folic acid-imprinted polymer film on a QCM electrode was developed with methacrylamidoantipyrine-gadolinium (III) [MAAP-Gd(III)] used as a monomer for metal coordination-chelation interaction to obtain a more selective molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). The developed folic acid-imprinted nanosensor on the MIP/QCM detection system showed outstanding properties such as a stronger affinity of 3.07 × 10 7 M −1 , a short response time of 10 min, wider linear range of 0-100 µM, a selectivity of k = 8.25 and lower detection limit of 0.0080 µM. After characterizing its all features, the newly designed folic acid-imprinted QCM nanosensor was utilized to detect folic acid level in commercial follow-on baby milk in order to determine its use in real samples.

In general, the outgoing exhaust gasses are released to atmosphere at over temperature of the dew point of water vapor in waste gases. It is well known that recovering a portion of the waste heat enhances the efficiency of boilers and provides fuel savings. In this study, the potential of recovering waste heat emitted by the hot water boiler chimney in a central heating plant of a selected university was investigated. Energy losses were calculated for six months that the central heating system was in full-load operation. As a result of the calculation, it was determined that recovery of the waste heat can be employed as a combustion air preheater by means of a recuperator. It was stated that 53,768 m 3 of natural gas savings per year (44.86 TOE/year) can be achieved with the suggested system.

Günümüzde artan enerji maliyetleri ve çevresel endişeler binalarda enerjinin verimli kullanımını zorunlu kılmıştır. Yapı sektöründe enerji tasarrufu sağlamak amacıyla yüksek enerji tüketimi olan üniversiteler odak haline gelmiştir. Üniversitelerde enerjinin verimli kullanılması ile hem enerji maliyetlerinin üniversite bütçesi üzerindeki yükü hafifletilebilecek, hem de sürdürülebilir üniversite kriterleri için önemli bir adım atılabilecektir. Bu yüzden, bu çalışmada Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey Üniversitesi'nin (KMÜ) enerji açısından mevcut durumu ortaya çıkarılmış ve enerji verimlilik potansiyeli incelenmiştir. Öncelikle, KMÜ yerleşkesine ait binalarda kullanılan enerji tüketim değerleri belirlenmiş, enerji tüketim noktalarında uygun cihazlar (termal kamera, baca gazı analizörü, ultrasonik debimetre vb.) kullanılarak düzenli ölçümler alınmıştır ve bu noktalarda verimlilik artırıcı projeler önerilmiştir. Elde edilen sonuçlara göre, üniversitemizin 2016 yılı enerji tüketim değerinin 1422 ton eşdeğer petrol (TEP) değerine ulaştığı ve %18'e kadar enerji tasarruf potansiyelinin olduğu tespit edilmiştir.

The acid-used sol-gel synthesis of nano-sized titania (TiO2) powders has been studied systematically to optimize the processing parameters by Taguchi method that control crystallite size. In addition, crystallite and particle size of TiO2 powders were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). For this purpose, the amount of acid, reaction temperature and reaction time were determined as control parameters. In order to achieve these objectives, Taguchi's L9 orthogonal design (3 parameter, 3 level) was used for the experiential design. In order to determine the optimal synthesis conditions for nanosized TiO2 powders, the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio was used, which was calculated from crystallite size of the nano-sized TiO2 powders using "the-smaller-the-better" appoachment. Besides, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was utilised to accomplish the statistical importance of the synthesis parameters. Experiments were fulfilled to verify the model at the chosen conditions and the particle size was determined according to XRD analysis as 46.98 nm. Moreover, the actual size of the synthesised nano-sized TiO2 powders with the average size was 51.41 nm. Therefore, the Taguchi optimization method was a main tool in the optimization of the nanosized TiO2 powders synthesis process with less experiential tests and slightly cost-efficient approachment.