Influence of chemical penetration enhancers on skin permeability of ellagic acid-loaded niosomes

This study aimed to develop niosomes of ellagic acid(EA),a potent antioxidant phytochemical substance,for dermal delivery and to investigate the influence of chemical penetration enhancers on the physicochemical properties of EA-loaded niosomes.The EA niosomes were prepared by reverse phase evaporation method using Span 60,Tween 60 and cholesterol as vesicle forming agents and Solulan C24 as a steric stabilizer.Polyethylene glycol 400(PEG)was used as a solubilizer while dimethylsulfoxide(DMSO)or Nmethyl-2-pyrrolidone(NMP)was used as a skin penetration enhancer.It was found that the mean particle sizes of EA-loaded niosomes were in the range of 312e402 nm with PI values of lower than 0.4.The niosomes were determined to be spherical multilamellar vesicles as observed by transmission electron microscope and optical microscopy.All niosomes were stable after 4 months storage at 4
C.In vitro skin permeation through human epidermis revealed that the skin enhancers affected the penetration of EA from the niosomes at 24 h.The DMSO niosomes showed the highest EA amount in epidermis;whereas the NMP niosomes had the highest EA amount in the acceptor medium.Concomitantly,the skin distribution by confocal laser scanning microscopy showed the high fluorescence intensity of the DMSO niosomes and NMP niosomes at a penetration depth of between 30e90 mm(the epidermis layer)and 90e120 mm(the dermis layer)under the skin,respectively.From the results,it can be concluded that the DMSO niosomes are suitable for epidermis delivery of EA while the NMP niosomes can be used for dermis delivery of EA.

Review of surfactant-assisted chemical enhanced oil recovery for carbonate reservoirs: challenges and future perspectives

A significant fraction of the conventional oil reserves globally is in carbonate formations which contain a substantial amount of residual oil. Since primary and secondary recovery methods fail to yield above 20%-40%of original oil in place from these reserves, the need for enhanced oil recovery（EOR） techniques for incremental oil recovery has become imperative. With the challenges presented by the highly heterogeneous carbonate rocks,evaluation of tertiary-stage recovery techniques including chemical EOR（c EOR） has been a high priority for researchers and oil producers. In this review, the latest developments in the surfactant-based c EOR techniques applied in carbonate formations are discussed, contemplating the future direction of existing methodologies. In connection with this, the characteristics of heterogeneous carbonate reservoirs are outlined. Detailed discussion on surfactant-led oil recovery mechanisms and related processes, such as wettability alteration, interfacial tension reduction, microemulsion phase behavior, surfactant adsorption and mitigation, and foams and their applications is presented. Laboratory experiments, as well as field study data obtained using several surfactants, are also included.This extensive discussion on the subject aims to help researchers and professionals in the field to understand the current situation and plan future enterprises accordingly.

Emerging applications of nanomaterials in chemical enhanced oil recovery:Progress and perspective

In enhanced oil recovery,different chemicalmethods utilization improves hydrocarbon recovery due to their fascinating abilities to alter some critical parameters in porous media,such as mobility control,the interaction between fluid to fluid,and fluid to rock surface.For decades the use of surfactant and polymer flooding has been used as tertiary recovery methods.In the current research,the inclusion of nanomaterials in enhanced oil recovery injection fluids solely or in the presence of other chemicals has got colossal interest.The emphasis of this review is on the applicability of nanofluids in the chemical enhanced oil recovery.The responsiblemechanisms are an increment in the viscosity of injection fluid,decrement in oil viscosity,reduction in interfacial and surface tension,and alteration of wettability in the rock formation.In this review,important parameters are presented,which may affect the desired behavior of nanoparticles,and the drawbacks of nanofluid and polymer flooding and the need for a combination of nanoparticles with the polymer are discussed.Due to the lack of literature in defining the mechanism of nanofluid in a reservoir,this paper covers majorly all the previous work done on the application of nanoparticles in chemical enhanced oil recovery at home conditions.Finally,the problems associatedwith the nano-enhanced oil recovery are outlined,and the research gap is identified,which must be addressed to implement polymeric nanofluids in chemical enhanced oil recovery.

Particle size distribution and removal by a chemical-biological flocculation process

The particle characterization from the influent and effluent of a chemical-biological flocculation （CBF） process was studied with a laser diffraction device. Water samples from a chemically enhanced primary treatment （CEPT） process and a primary sediment tank process were also analyzed for comparison. The results showed that CBF process was not only effective for both the big size particles and small size particles removal, but also the best particle removal process in the three processes. The results also indicated that CBF process was superior to CEPT process in the heavy metals removal. The high and non-selective removal for heavy metals might be closely related to its strong ability to eliminate small particles. Samples from different locations in CBF reactors showed that small particles were easier to aggregate into big ones and those disrupted flocs could properly flocculate again along CBF reactor because of the biological flocculation.

Membrane Fouling Alleviation by Chemically Enhanced Backwashing in Treating Algae-Containing Surface Water: From Bench-Scale to Full-Scale Application

Ultrafiltration(UF)has been increasingly implemented in drinking water treatment plants;however,algae and their secretions can cause severe membrane fouling and pose great challenges to UF in practice.In this study,a simple and practical chemically enhanced backwashing(CEB)process was developed to address such issues using various cleaning reagents,including sodium hypochlorite(NaClO),sodium chloride(NaCl),sodium hydroxide(NaOH),sodium citrate,and their combinations.The results indicate that the type of chemical played a fundamental role in alleviating the hydraulically irreversible membrane fouling(HIMF),with NaClO as the best-performing reagent,followed by NaCl.Furthermore,a CEB process using a combination of NaClO with NaCl,NaOH,or sodium citrate delivered little improvement in the alleviation of membrane fouling compared with NaClO alone.The optimized dosage and dosing frequency of NaClO were 10 mg·L^(-1) two times per day.Long-term pilot-scale and full-scale experiments further verified the feasibility of the CEB process in relieving algae-derived membrane fouling.Compared with the conventional hydraulic backwashing without chemical involvement,the CEB process can effectively remove the organic foulants including biopolymers,humic substances,and proteinlike substances by means of oxidization,thereby weakening the cohesive forces between the organic foulants and the membrane surface.Therefore,the CEB process can efficiently alleviate the algae-related membrane fouling with lower chemical consumption,and is proposed as an alternative to control membrane fouling in treating the algae-containing surface water.

The Gas Nucleation Process Study of Anatase TiO_2 in Atmospheric Non-Thermal Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

Abstract The gas phase nucleation process of anatase TiO2 in atmospheric non-thermal plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition is studied. The particles synthesized in the plasma gas phase at different power density were collected outside of the reactor. The structure of the collected particles has been investigated by field scanning electron microscope （FESEM）, X-ray diffraction （XRD）, high resolution transmission electron microscopy （HRTEM） and selected area electron diffraction （SAED）. The analysis shows that uniform crystalline nuclei with average size of several nanometers have been formed in the scale of micro second through this reactive atmo- spheric plasma gas process. The crystallinity of the nanoparticles increases with power density. The high density of crystalline nanonuclei in the plasma gas phase and the low gas temperature are beneficial to the fast deposition of the 3D porous anatase TiO2 film.

Characteristics and Electrical Properties of SiNx:H Films Fabricated by Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

SiNx：H films with different N/Si ratios are synthesized by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition （PECVD）. Composition and structure characteristics are detected by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy （FTIR） and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS）. It indicates that Si-N bonds increase with increased NH3/SiH4 ratio. Electrical property investigations by I-V measurements show that the prepared films offer higher resistivity and less leakage current with increased N/Si ratio and exhibit entirely insulating properties when N/Si ratio reaches 0.9, which is ascribed to increased Si-N bonds achieved.

An overview of chemical enhanced oil recovery and its status in India

India is currently producing crude oil from matured fields because of insufficient discoveries of new fields.Therefore,in order to control the energy crisis in India,enhanced oil recovery(EOR)techniques are required to reduce the import of crude from the OPEC(Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries).This review mentions chemical EOR techniques(polymers,surfactants,alkali,nanoparticles,and combined alkali-surfactant-polymer flooding)and operations in India.Chemical EOR methods are one of the most efficient methods for oil displacement.The efficiency is enhanced by interfacial tension(IFT)reduction using surfactants and alkali,and mobility control of injected water is done by adding a polymer to increase the volumetric sweep efficiency.This paper also reviews the current trend of chemical EOR,prospects of chemical EOR in Indian oilfields,the development of chemical EOR in India with their challenges raising with economics,and screening criteria for chemical EOR implementation on the field scale.Furthermore,the review gives a brief idea about chemical EOR implementation in Indian oilfields in future prospects to increase the additional oil recovery from existing depleted fields to reduce the import of crude oil.The outcome of this review depicts all chemical EOR operations and recovery rates both at the laboratory scale and field scale around the country.The additional recovery rates are compared from various chemical EOR methods like conventional chemical flooding methods and conventional chemicals combined with nanoparticles on a laboratory scale.The development of chemical EOR in the past few decades and the EOR policy given by the government of India has been mentioned in this review.The analysis provides an idea about enhanced recovery screening and implementation of chemical EOR methods in existing fields will significantly reduce the energy crisis in India.

Influence of ignition condition on the growth of silicon thin films using plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition

The influences of the plasma ignition condition in plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition （PECVD） on the interfaces and the microstructures of hydrogenated microcrystalline Si （μc-Si：H） thin films are investigated. The plasma ignition condition is modified by varying the ratio of Sill4 to H2 （RH）. For plasma ignited with a constant gas ratio, the time-resolved optical emission spectroscopy presents a low value of the emission intensity ratio of Ha to Sill＊ （Iuα//SiH＊） at the initial stage, which leads to a thick amorphous incubation layer. For the ignition condition with a profiling RH, the higher IHα/ISiH＊ values are realized. By optimizing the RN modulation, a uniform crystallinity along the growth direction and a denser αc-Si：H film can be obtained. However, an excessively high IRα/ISIH＊ may damage the interface properties, which is indicated by capacitance-voltage （C-V） measurements. Well controlling the ignition condition is critically important for the applications of Si thin films.

Structural evolution and optical characterization in argon diluted Si:H thin films obtained by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

The structural evolution and optical characterization of hydrogenated silicon(Si:H) thin films obtained by conventional radio frequency(RF) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition(PECVD) through decomposition of silane diluted with argon were studied by X-ray diffractometry(XRD),Fourier transform infrared(FTIR) spectroscopy,Raman spectroscopy,transmission electron microscopy(TEM),and ultraviolet and visible(UV-vis) spectroscopy,respectively.The influence of argon dilution on the optical properties of the thin films was also studied.It is found that argon as dilution gas plays a significant role in the growth of nano-crystal grains and amorphous network in Si:H thin films.The structural evolution of the thin films with different argon dilution ratios is observed and it is suggested that argon plasma leads to the nanocrystallization in the thin films during the deposition process.The nanocrystallization initiating at a relatively low dilution ratio is also observed.With the increase of argon portion in the mixed precursor gases,nano-crystal grains in the thin films evolve regularly.The structural evolution is explained by a proposed model based on the energy exchange between the argon plasma constituted with Ar* and Ar+ radicals and the growth regions of the thin films.It is observed that both the absorption of UV-vis light and the optical gap decrease with the increase of dilution ratio.

Further Enhancing the International Competitiveness of China's Chemical Industry

Foreign-oriented Economy Entering a New Stage The Eighth Five-year Plan period saw the fastest development of the foreign-oriented economy in China’s chemical industry, with an accumulated import and export value of US$100 billion, including US$38.3 billion of exports. In 1996 the total import and export value reached US$30 billion, including US$12 billion of exports. Now, more than 300 chemical enterprises and institutes have obtained foreign

Synthesis and Characteristics of Fe_3C Nanoparticles Embedded in Amorphous Carbon Matrix

We proposed a new way to synthesize a nanocomposite consisted of cementite Fe3C nanoparticles and amorphous carbon by radio frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Transmission electron microscope images show the existence of nanometric dark grains（Fe3C） embedded in a light matrix（amorphous carbon） in the samples. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy experiment exhibit that the chemical bonding state in the films corresponded to sp3/sp2 amorphous carbon, sp^3 C-N（287.3 eV） and C15 in Fe3C（283.5 eV）. With increasing deposition time, the ratio of amorphous carbon increased. The magnetic measurements show that the value of in-lane coercivity increased with increasing carbon matrix concentration（from about 6.56× 10^3 A/m for film without carbon structures to approximately 2.77× 10^4 and 5.81 × 10^4 AJm for nanocomposite films at room temperature and 10 K, respectively）. The values of saturation magnetization for the synthesized nanocomposites were lower than that of the bulk Fe3C （ 140 Am^2/kg）.

Growth characteristics of amorphous-layer-free nanocrystalline silicon films fabricated by very high frequency PECVD at 250 ℃

Amorphous-layer-free nanocrystalline silicon films were prepared by a very high frequency plasma enhanced chem-ical vapor deposition （PECVD） technique using hydrogen-diluted Sill4 at 250 ℃. The dependence of the crystallinity of the film on the hydrogen dilution ratio and the film thickness was investigated. Raman spectra show that the thickness of the initial amorphous incubation layer on silicon oxide gradually decreases with increasing hydrogen dilution ratio. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy reveals that the initial amorphous incubation layer can be completely eliminated at a hydrogen dilution ratio of 98%, which is lower than that needed for the growth of amorphous-layer-free nanocrystalline silicon using an excitation frequency of 13.56 MHz. More studies on the microstructure evolution of the initial amorphous incubation layer with hydrogen dilution ratios were performed using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. It is suggested that the high hydrogen dilution, as well as the higher plasma excitation frequency, plays an important role in the formation of amorphous-layer-free nanocrystalline silicon films.

Influence of the Plasma State on the Formation of Nano Crystalline SiC Films

The influence of the plasma state on the microstructure transformation from amorphous to nano-(crystalline) state is emphasized during the formation of the silicon carbide (SiC) films deposited by the plasma enhanced chemical vapor technique. The effect of two key parameters, the working pressure and hydrogen concentration in the gas flow, that perform the dependence by modulating the two essential factors of the plasma state-ions energy and gas composition, is in-depth investigated. The experimental results showed that nanocrystalline SiC films fit for field emitters could be achieved under an appropriate ion energy flow density and gas components in the (plasma.)

In vitro evaluation of transdermal permeation effects of Fu’s cupping therapy via six diffusion kinetics models

In this study,six kinetics models of indomethacin hydrophilic gel patch transdermal in vitro release was established,including zero-level,first-order,Higuchi-level,Ritger-Peppas,Weibull and Hixcon-Crowell dynamic equations.The chemical permeation enhancers,including 3%and 5%Azone,and iontophoresis were used as the control.Transdermal diffusion tests were performed in vitro and indomethacin was quantified by high performance liquid chromatography system.The transdermal parameter of the Higuchi and Weibull dynamic equations,indicated that Fu’s cupping therapy(FCT)could significantly improve Higuchi and Weibull kinetic parameters in vitro transdermal,increased transdermal rate and permeability coefficient,reduced lagging time.Additionally,statistical analysis speculated the skin barrier function could be restored after 46 h treatment.Hence,as a new physical transdermal drug delivery technology,transdermal permeation effects produced by FCT are obvious,which has the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine and has important clinical application value.

Mechanical properties of AISI 1045 ceramic coated materials by nano indentation and crack opening displacement method

Abstract： An effective approach was conducted for estimating fracture toughness using the crack opening displacement （COD） method for plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition （PECVD） coating materials. For this evaluation, an elastoplastic analysis was used to estimate critical COD values for single edge notched bending （SENB） specimens. The relationship between fracture toughness （Kic） and critical COD for SENB specimens was obtained. Microstructure of the interface between AleO3-TiO2 composite ceramic coatings and AISI 1045 steel substrates was studied by using scanning electron microscope （SEM）. Chemical compositions were clarified by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy （EDS）. The results show that the interface between of Al203-TiO2 and substrate has mechanical combining. The nanohardness of the coatings can reach 1 200 GPa examined by nanoindentation. The Klc was calculated according to this relationship from critical COD. The bending process produces a significant relationship of COD independent of the axial force applied. Fractographic analysis was conducted to determine the crack length. From the physical analysis of nanoindentation curves, the elastic modulus of 1045/AI2O3-TiO2 is 180 GPa for the 50 μm film. The highest value of fracture toughness for 1045/A1203-TiO2-250 μm is 348 MPa·mv2.

THEORY AND APPLICATION OF FRACTIONAL STEP CHARACTERISTIC FINITE DIFFERENCE METHOD IN NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SECOND ORDER ENHANCED OIL PRODUCTION

A kind of second-order implicit fractional step characteristic finite difference method is presented in this paper for the numerically simulation coupled system of enhanced （chemical） oil production in porous media. Some techniques, such as the calculus of variations, energy analysis method, commutativity of the products of difference operators, decomposition of high-order difference operators and the theory of a priori estimates are introduced and an optimal order error estimates in l^2 norm is derived. This method has been applied successfully to the numerical simulation of enhanced oil production in actual oilfields, and the simulation results ate quite interesting and satisfactory.

Synthesized graphene oxide and fumed aerosil 380 dispersion stability and characterization with partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide

Hydrolyzed polyacrylamide(HPAM)is a commonly used polymer for the chemicals,mining and refining processes of hydrocarbon but suffers from a persistent high-temperature instability problem.In contrast,the nanoparticle suspension remains a technical challenge because of the strong interactions of van der Waal forces within nanoparticles,which always encourage aggregation.This research sought to improve nanoparticles(NP)stability and polymer(HPAM)rheological properties to improved hydrocarbon recovery by utilizing synthesized graphene oxide(GO)nanosheets and fumed Aerosil 380 Silica oxide(SiO_(2)).The aqueous nanocomposites based on HPAM-GO and HPAM-SiO_(2) in aqueous polymeric solutions have been developed,and its viscoelastic and static behaviour is studied.The results imply that by adding fumed silica NP,the viscoelastic behaviour of HPAM is marginally improved,particularly in high temperatures and salinity,however,the inclusion of GO's significantly improves the viscosity and stability of the base polymer fluid at high temperatures.The Fourier data for the transformation of the infrared spectrum confirmed that the hydrogen bonding formed between HPAM carbonyl groups and silica NP surface silanol functionality and covalent interlinking of electrostatic h-bonding between HPAM and functional GO contributed to the improved stabilization and improved rheological performance that helps to recover high salinity and temperature hydrocarbons.

Natural Graphene Plasmonic Nano-Resonators for Highly Active Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Platforms

Highly sensitive and uniform three-dimensional(3D)hybrid heterogeneous structures for use in surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS)experiments were fabricated by sequentially decorating high-quality,ultra-clean,graphene quantum dots(GQDs)and Ag nanoparticles(Ag-NPs)onto 3D-graphene.Finite-difference time-domain calculations and scanning Kelvin probe microscopy were used to verify that the Ag-NPs/GQDs/3D-graphene system facilitates substantial electromagnetic enhancement(due to the occurrence of two kinds of"gaps"between the Ag-NPs that form 3D"hot spots")and additional chemical enhancement(in detecting someπ-conjugated molecules).The SERS mechanism was explored in further detail via experimental analysis and confirmed by performing theoretical calculations.The large surface area of the 3D substrate(due to the large specific surface areas of the GQDs and 3D-graphene)results in a better enrichment effect which helps produce lower detection limits.In particular,the detection limits obtained using the Ag-NPs/GQDs/3D-graphene platform can reach 10^(-11)M for rhodamine 6G,10^(-10)M for methylene blue and dopamine,and 10^(-7)M for tetramethylthiuram disulfide and methyl parathion in apple juice(these are superior to most of the results reported using graphene-based SERS substrates).In summary,the 3D-platform Ag-NPs/GQDs/3D-graphene/Si shows outstanding SERS performance.It therefore has excellent application prospects in biochemical molecular detection and food safety monitoring.

Effect of ammonia gas etching on growth of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes/nanofibers

The etching effect of ammonia （NH3） on the growth of vertically aligned nanotubes/nanofibers （CNTs） was investigated by direct-current plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition （DC-PECVD）. NH3 gas etches Ni catalyst layer to form nanoscale islands while NH3 plasma etches the deposited amorphous carbon. Based on the etching effect of NH3 gas on Ni catalyst, the differences of growing bundles of CNTs and single strand CNTs were discussed; specifically, the amount of optimal NH3 gas etching is different between bundles of CNTs and single strand CNTs. In contrast to the CNT carpet growth, the single strand CNT growth requires shorter etching time （5 min） than large catalytic patterns （10 rain） since nano dots already form catalyst islands for CNT growth. Through removing the plasma pretreatment process, the damage from being exposed at high temperature substrate occurring during the plasma generation time is minimized. High resolution transmission electron microscopy （HTEM） shows fishbone structure of CNTs grown by PECVD.