Kinetics as well as the evolution of the agarose gel topology is discussed, and the agarose gelation mechanism is identified. Aqueous high melting (HM) agarose solution (0.5% w/v) is used as the model system. It is found that the gelation process can be clearly divided into three stages: induction stage, gelation stage, and pseudoequilibrium stage. The induction stage of the gelation mechanism is identified using an advanced rheological expansion system (ARES, Rheometric Scientific). When a quench rate as large as 30 deg C/min is applied, gelation seems to occur through a nucleation and growth mechanism with a well-defined induction time (time required for the formation of the critical nuclei which enable further growth). The relationship between the induction time and the driving force which is determined by the final setting temperature follows the 3D nucleation model. A schematic representation of the three stages of the gelation mechanism is given based on turbidity and rheological measurements. Aggregation of agarose chains is promoted in the polymer-rich phase and this effect is evident from the increasing mass/length ratio of the fiber bundles upon gelation. Continuously increasing pore size during gelation may be attributed to the coagulation of the local polymer-rich phase in order to achieve the global minimum of the free energy of the gelling system. The gel pore size determined using turbidity measurements has been verified by electrophoretic mobility measurements.

Zirconiumv (IV)-carboxylate metal-organic framework (MOF) UiO-66 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized and incorporated in the polyamide (PA) selective layer to fabricate novel thin-film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes. Compared to unmodified pure polyamide thin-film composite (TFC) membranes, the incorporation of UiO-66 nanoparticles significantly changes the membrane morphology and chemistry, leading to an improvement of intrinsic separation properties due to the molecular sieving and superhydrophilic nature of UiO-66 particles. The best performing TFN-U2 (0.1 wt % particle loading) membrane not only shows a 52% increase of water permeability but also maintains salt rejection levels (∼95%) similar to the benchmark. The effects of UiO-66 loading on the forward osmosis (FO) performance were also investigated. Incorporation of 0.1 wt % UiO-66 produced a maximum water flux increase of 40% and 25% over the TFC control under PRO and FO modes, when 1 M NaCl was used as the draw solution against deionized water feed. Meanwhile, solute reverse flux was maintained at a relatively low level. In addition, TFN-U2 membrane displayed a relatively linear increase in FO water flux with increasing NaCl concentration up to 2.0 M, suggesting a slightly reduced internal concentration polarization effect. To our best knowledge, the current study is the first to consider implementation of Zr-MOFs (UiO-66) onto TFN-FO membranes.

The classical homogeneous nucleation theory was employed to calculate the efflorescence relative humidity (ERH) of airborne ammonium sulfate particles with a wide size range (8 nm to 17 microm) at room temperature. The theoretical predictions are in good agreement with the experimentally measured values. When the ammonium sulfate particle is decreased in size, the ERH first decreases, reaches a minimum around 30% for particle diameter equal to about 30 nm, and then increases. It is for the first time that the Kelvin effect is theoretically verified to substantially affect the ERH of ammonium sulfate particles smaller than 30 nm, while the aerosol size is the dominant factor affecting the efflorescent behavior of ammonium sulfate particles larger than 50 nm.

No abstract