Photo-polymerization technology, which exhibits high efficiency and low energy consumption has been widely studied and applied in many areas such as coatings, adhesives, printing inks and so on. This technology is based on high-performance photo-initiators e.g. high quantum yield for radical formation, high reactivity and compatibility toward the monomer, low odor and toxicity, low mobility and good stability. However, the monomers that are used to form photo-cured materials are mainly derived from petroleum products. The petroleum in the Earth will last for fewer than 100 years, hence, in the past few decades, much attention has been paid to feedstocks for polymers based on renewable resources. One of the most stable and renewable resources is vegetable oils. Vegetable oils have already been utilized extensively in coatings, inks, lubricants, resins, agrochemicals and plasticizers. Because of the presences of CC bonds in vegetable oils, they can be easily functionalized with reactive groups such as epoxy, hydroxyl, carboxyl and acrylate. These functionalized vegetable oils have been used to prepare polyurethane, elastomers, plastics and pressure-sensitive adhesives. In contrast to feedstocks extracted from petroleum, vegetable oil feedstocks are non-toxic and friendly to the environment. Therefore, in view of the attractive advantages of both photo-curing technologies and vegetable oils, it is worth the energy and money required to research and develop photo-cured materials based on vegetable oils.

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Abstract:In this paper, an improved bounce-back boundary treatment for fluid systems in the lattice Boltzmann method [Yin, X.; Zhang J. J. Comput. Phys. 2012, 231, 4295-4303] is extended to handle the electrokinetic flows with complex boundary shapes and conditions. Several numerical simulations are performed to validate the electric boundary treatment.Simulations are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and capability of this method in dealing with complex surface potential situations, and simulated results are compared with analytical predictions with excellent agreement. This method could be useful for electrokinetic simulations with complex boundaries, and can also be readily extended to other phenomena and processes.

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A three-dimensional (3D) lattice Boltzmann model and boundary method is developed to simulate electro-osmotic flow (EOF) with a charged spherical particle immersed in an electrolyte solution. The general governing equations for electro-osmotic transport are Navier–Stokes equations for fluid flow and the Poisson–Boltzmann equation for electric potential distribution around the particle. Two sets of D3Q19 lattice structure with curved boundary conditions are implemented. The simulation results are compared with analytical predictions and are found to be in excellent agreement. The potential distribution appears circularly symmetric and the flow velocity decreases with the cross-sectional area for flow passage increasing due to the mass conservation. The effects of the ionic concentration, the sphere radius, electric potential and external electric field on the velocity profiles are investigated. The flow velocity increases with both the electric potential and the external electric field. However, the variation in flow velocity with the ionic concentration and the sphere radius is complex due to the change in electrical double layer (EDL) thickness.