Influence of hydrogen-enriched atmosphere under coke oven gas injection on reduction swelling behaviors of oxidized pellet

It is of great importance to elucidate reduction swelling behaviors and reaction mechanism of oxidized pellet in hydrogen-enriched atmosphere under coke oven gas injection. In this work, the effects of hydrogen concentration in N_2-CO-H_2 atmosphere with unchanged CO content on reduction swelling behaviors of oxidized pellet at 1173 K were studied, to clarify the mechanism of hydrogen-enriched reduction and exclude the influences of CO. Then, the reduction swelling behaviors of oxidized pellet at 1173 K in actual atmosphere under coke oven gas(COG) injection, got from the simulation results of multi-fluid blast furnace model, were investigated. The results show that with the concentration of hydrogen increasing in N_2-CO-H_2 gas from 2% to 18%, the reduction swelling index of pellet decreases from 10.12% to 5.57% while the reduction ratio of pellet increases obviously from 39.85% to 69.58%. In addition, with COG injection rate increasing from 0 to 152.34 m^3/t, the reduction swelling index of pellet decreases slightly from 10.71% to 9.54% while the reduction ratio of pellet is increased from 31.57% to 36.39%. The microstructures of pellet are transformed from the platy structure to the flocculent structure.

Preparation and swelling behavior of polyvinyl alcohol physiological saline gel

Polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) physiological saline gel was prepared using physiological saline solution of the polymer by freezing and thawing method. The influences of the concentration of PVA, freezing and thawing cycle times and solvent swelling media on the swelling properties of PVA saline gel were investigated. The result show that the electrolytical ions have great effect on the swelling behavior of PVA saline gel. The equilibrium swelling ratio of PVA saline gel in aqueous swelling media is larger than that in saline swelling media. Also, the equilibrium swelling ratios of PVA saline gel in aqueous and in saline media decrease with the increase of gel concentration and the increase of freezing and thawing cycle times. The decreasing speed of equilibrium swelling ratio with the increase of freezing and thawing cycle times of PVA gel in distilled water is faster than that in physiological saline. The swelling kinetic equation can sufficiently describe the swelling behavior of PVA physiological saline gel.

TEMPERATURE AND pH RESPONSE,AND SWELLING BEHAVIOR OF POROUS ACRYLONITRILE-ACRYLIC ACID COPOLYMER HYDROGELS

Macroporous acrylonitrile-acrylic acid （AN-AA） copolymer hydrogels were synthesized by flee-radical solution polymerizations, using ammonium persulfate （APS）/N,N,N＇,N＇-tetramethylethylenediamine （TEMED） redox initiator system and alcohols porogens. The morphology, temperature and pH sensitive swelling behavior, and swelling kinetics of the resulting hydrogels were investigated. It was found that alcohol type and concentration had great influences on the pore structure and porosity of hydrogels. The pore size of hydrogel increases with the moderate increase of the length of alcohol alkyl chain. However, a further increase of alkyl length would result in the formation of cauliflower-like structure and the decrease of pore size. The porosity of hydrogels increases with the increase of porogen concentration in the polymerization medium. The hydrogels with macroporous structure swell or shrink much faster in response to the change of pH in comparison with the conventional hydrogel without macroporous structure. Furthermore, the response rate is closely related to the porosity of the hydrogels, which could be easily controlled by modulating the concentration of the porogen in the medium. The circular swelling behavior of hydrogels indicated the formation of a relaxing three-dimensional network.

Chitosan-g-PAA Hydrogels for Colon-Specific Drug Delivery: Preparation, Swelling Behavior and in vitro Degradability

A series of cross-linked hydrogels for colon-specific drug delivery were synthesized by graft copolymerization of Chitosan and acrylic acid using N, N＇-methylene-bis-（acrylamide） as a cross-linker. Their swelling behavior in different pH buffer solutions and colonic enzymatic degradability were studied. The obtained results show that these hydrogels have good pH sensitivity which can avoid drug release in stomach, and their swelling kinetics in stimulant intestinal environment follow second-order swelling kinetics equation. The factors influencing the swelling kinetics include the degree of cross-linking and the composition, which may control no release or a little amount release of drug inside the hydrogels in the small intestine by tailoring these factors. The gels are degradable by colonic enzymes and there is a correlativity between the degradation of networks and the swelling degree of the gels, which may trigger the release of drug in the colon. The hydrogels show a great potential for their application in oral colon-specific drug delivery system.

MODIFICATION OF SODIUM SALT OF PARTIALLY CARBOXYMETHYLATED TAMARIND KERNEL POWDER THROUGH GRAFTING WITH ACRYLONITRILE: SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND SWELLING BEHAVIOR

A graft copolymer of polyacrylonitrile （PAN） with sodium salt of partially carboxymethylated tamarind kernel powder （Na-PCMTKP, DS ^-= 0.15） was synthesized by using ceric ammonium nitrate （CAN） as a redox initiator in an aqueous medium. The optimum reaction conditions for affording maximum percentage of grafting were established by successively varying reaction conditions such as concentrations of nitric acid, CAN, monomer （AN） as well as reaction time, temperature and amount of substrate. The influence of these reaction conditions on the grafting yields was discussed. The kinetic scheme of free radical graft copolymerization was proposed and the experimental results were found to agree very well with the proposed kinetic scheme. The graft copolymer （Na-PCMTKP-g-PAN, percentage of grafting G = 413.76% and percentage of grafting efficiency GE = 96.48%） sample synthesized under the established optimized reaction conditions was hydrolyzed by 0.7 mol-L l NaOH solution at 90-95 ℃ to yield the superabsorbent hydrogel, H-Na-PCMTKP-g-PAN. The swelling behavior of the hydrogel was studied by carrying out its absorbency measurements in low conductivity water, 0.15 mol·L^-1 salt （NaCl, CaCl2 and AlCl3） solutions and simulated urine （SU） solution at different timings. FTIR, TGA and SEM techniques were used to characterize the products.

Controlling effects of differential swelling index on evolution of coal permeability

Coal permeability measurements are normally conducted under the assumption that gas pressure in the matrix is equalized with that in fracture and that gas sorption-induced swelling/shrinking strain is uniformly distributed within the coal.However,the validity of this assumption has long been questioned and differential strain between the fracture strain and the bulk strain has long been considered as the primary reason for the inconsistency between experimental data and poroelasticity solutions.Although efforts have been made to incorporate the impact into coal permeability models,the fundamental nature of those efforts to split the matrix strain between fracture and coal bulk remains questionable.In this study,a new concept of differential swelling index(DSI)was derived to theoretically define the relation among sorption-induced strains of the coal bulk,fracture,and coal matrix at the equilibrium state.DSI was a function of the equilibrium pressure and its magnitudes were regulated by the Langmuir constants of both the matrix and the coal bulk.Furthermore,a spectrum of DSI-based coal permeability models was developed to explicitly consider the effect of differential strains.These models were verified with the experimental data under the conditions of uniaxial strain,constant confining pressure,and constant effective stress.

Preparation and properties of physically and chemically cross-linked hybrid hydrophobic association hydrogels with good mechanical strength

To correct the defects of hydrophobic association hydrogels （HA-gels）, new physically and chemically cross-linked hybrid hy- drophobic association hydrogels （hybrid HA-gels） were prepared by radical copolymerization of acrylamide （AM）, octylphe- nol polyoxyethylene （n） acrylate （OPnAC, n stands for the number of ethoxy group, and is 10 and 21） and N,N＇-methylene- bisacrylamide （MBA）. On the basis of the statistical molecular theory of rubber elastic, the Mooney-Rivlin model and using the tensile true stress （O＇true） tested at room temperature, the number of network strands per unit volume （o~） and the num- ber-average molar mass of a network strand （Me） were evaluated for hybrid HA-gels. For the hydrogels, the effect of the con- tent of MBA and OP10AC on their tensile mechanical properties was studied by using o0 and Mc; also, the effect of the com- positions and temperature on their swelling behavior in distilled water was discussed in detail. In addition, hybrid HA-gels in- cluding a small quantity of MBA possessed the capabilities of secondary self-healing and remolding. In contrast with HA-gels prepared by the same compositions besides MBA, hybrid HA-gels showed good mechanical strength and long-term thermal stability in distilled water in the range of 25 to 80℃. Furthemore, hybrid HA-gels also avoided the self-deswelling behavior of HA-gels. The results show that the application fields of HA-gels will be greatly broadened after introducing a chemical cross-linking network.

Dynamic Properties of Polyampholyte Hydrogel Elucidated by Proton NMR Spin-spin Relaxation Time

1H spin-spin relaxation time（T2） measurement of polyampholyte hydrogel poly（methylacrylic acidacryloyloxyethyl trimethylammonium chloride）[P（MA-DAC）] in different pH, ionic strength and temperature was carried out to reveal the molecular mobility. Spontaneous volume transition of the polyampholyte hydrogel was also investigated by spin-spin relaxation time measurement. Meanwhile T2 and the proton component fraction were acquired to study the swelling behaviour of the hydrogel. Moreover the changes of T2 characterized the molecular mo- bility of polyampholyte hydrogel in various swelling states. And the results suggest that the mobility of the main chains and a few free side chains（the long T2） of P（MA-DAC） was dominated by the mesh size in the hydrogel net- work, depending on the swelling ratio（Q） and the mobility of the side chains（the short T2） was influenced by electrostatic interaction between different charges in polymer side chains. Finally the T2 measurements of P（MA-DAC） hydrogel in the spontaneous swelling-deswelling process demonstrated the electrostatic interaction of the charged side chains caused deswelling behavior. At the same time, the mobility state transition temperature of the charged side chains was also studied by the lH spin-spin relaxation time measurements, and the transition activation energy of the side chains is 2.72 kJ.