Leakage behavior of toxic substances of naphthalene sulfonate-formaldehyde condensation from cement based materials.

Naphthalene sulfonate-formaldehyde condensatation (NSF) is the main component of the naphthalene based water reducers for cement based materials, as well as an organic substance with potential toxicity. However it is still uncertain whether it can leak from the cement based materials. In this work, the leakage ratio and adsorption behavior of NSF from various cement based materials such as the different water/cement (w/c) ratio, NSF content, types of cementitious materials as well as at different hydration time were evaluated. The product components of the cement based materials cured for different times were also quantified to explore the mechanisms which are responsible for the leakage and adsorption behaviors. The results indicate that more NSF, lower w/c ratio and less mineral admixture decrease the NSF leakage ratio. The leakage ratio of NSF from cement paste mixed 0.3% NSF is up to 50.8% at 0.5 h, and it decreases to 31.0% at 28 d. The leakage ratio of NSF from cement paste decreases as the hydration time prolongs. The lower leakage ratio corresponds to the higher adsorption capacity. Less adsorption capacity and thinner adsorption film imply that lower temperature and mineral admixture decrease the NSF adsorption behavior. When 0.3% NSF is added into the cement paste, the adsorption amount and NSF layer thickness are 5.53 mg/g and 0.98 nm, 5.87 mg/g and 4.7  nm at 0.5 h and 28 d respectively. The result demonstrates that the adsorption behavior of NSF in cement significantly increases at the initial several hours and gradually stabilizes after the first day. The X-ray powder diffractometer (XRD) results show that the contents of tricalcium silicate (C3S) and dicalcium silicate (C2S) continuously decline and the amorphous phases and ettringite (AFt) increase rapidly in the early stage. NSF adsorption and leakage behaviors are closely related to the hydration process of cement. These results indicate that NSF can definitely leak from the cement based materials and thus the NSF potential environmental pollution cannot be ignored. At least, it should be restricted or cautious to produce the water tower and pipe concrete structure with it. These results will sever as a theoretically reference for the pollution control as well as better application of NSF in cement-based materials.

A high-efficiency corrosion inhibitor of N-doped citric acid-based carbon dots for mild steel in hydrochloric acid environment.

Novel N-doped carbon dots (CDs) were obtained through pyrolysis of ammonium citrate at 180 °C for 1, 2 and 3 h, and their corrosion inhibition effect on Q235 steel in 1 M HCl solution were evaluated through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), potentiodynamic polarization (Tafel), scanning vibrating electrode technique (SVET) analysis. The changes of corrosion current density and impedance modulus of Q235 steel in inhibitor solutions showed that the as-prepared carbon dots presented a valid protective effect on steel in 1 M HCl solution. Meanwhile, the inhibition efficiency of three carbon dots exceeded 90% at 200 mg/L and the highest inhibitive efficiency was found for the carbon dots prepared at the reaction time of 2 h. The adsorption mechanism of all as-prepared carbon dots complied with the Langmuir adsorption model, containing chemical and physical adsorptions, which was also confirmed by X-ray photoelectronic spectroscopy (XPS) analysis.

On the Morphology of the SDS Film on the Surface of Borosilicate Glass.

Surfactant films on solid surfaces have attracted much attention because of their scientific interest and applications, such as surface treatment agent, or for micro- or nano-scale templates for microfluidic devices. In this study, anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) solutions with various charged inorganic salts was spread on a glass substrate and dried to form an SDS thin film. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed to observe the micro-structure of the SDS thin film. The effects of inorganic salts on the morphology of the SDS film were observed and discussed. The results of experiments demonstrated that pure SDS film formed patterns of long, parallel, highly-ordered stripes. The existence of the inorganic salt disturbed the structure of the SDS film due to the interaction between the cationic ion and the anionic head groups of SDS. The divalent ion has greater electrostatic interaction with anionic head groups than that of the monovalent ion, and causes a gross change in the morphology of the SDS film. The height of the SDS bilayer measured was consistent with the theoretical value, and the addition of the large-sized monovalent ion would lead to lowering the height of the adsorbed structures.

The Dependency of Thermal Expansion Coefficient of DNA Adsorption Film on Environmental Conditions / 医用生物力学

Objective To investigate the dependency of thermal expansion coefficient of DNA adsorption film on environmental conditions. Methods By treating DNA adsorption film as a macroscopic continuum film with prestrain, an equivalent composite beam model of DNA film-substrate was established to calculate the deflection of DNA-microcantilever beam under temperature loading. By adopting Parsegian’s empirical potential which described the mesoscopic free energy of DNA adsorption film, the DNA liquid crystal-substrate multi-scale deflection model, the thought experiment method and the equivalent deformation method were combined to establish the trans-scale relationship between the microstructure of DNA adsorption film and its macro-scale mechanical properties. The thermal expansion coefficient of DNA adsorption film was predicted. ResultsGiven the ionic strength, the thermal expansion coefficient of double-stranded DNA adsorption film ranged from 0.3×10-4/K to 8.05×10-4/K, and that of single-stranded DNA adsorption film ranged from 1.28×10-4/K to 9.33×10-4/K. Conclusions As a leading role in the competition of micro-interactions, the change of configurational entropy determines the dependency of thermal expansion coefficient of DNA adsorption film on environmental conditions; the thermal expansion coefficient of DNA adsorption film decreases with the increase of temperature or ion concentration or DNA packing density. These results are useful for gene detection and its regulation, and provide reference for the evaluation of tissue organ performance in tissue engineering.