Liquid Concentration Sensing Properties of Microfibers with a Nanoscale-Structured Film

A type of compact solution concentration sensor based on a microfiber with a nanoscale-structured film is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. Additional loss at different solution concentrations is calculated by means of the three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain （3D-FDTD） method. The microfiber is fabricated by using the flame-heated scanning technique. Nanoscale-structured film is coated on the microfiber surface, which is assembled as a sensing unit. The sensitivity of this kind of sensor increases with the decreasing diameters of the microfiber. When the diameter of the microfiber is 2 #m, a minimum concentration sensitivity of 1% （under 450s measuring time） is demonstrated in the experiment. Higher sensitivity can be attained when the solution concentration is higher. The sensing properties of this microfiber with the nanoscale-structured film may provide opportunities for new applications in optical sensing devices.

Comprehensive treatment of latex wastewater and resource utilization of concentrated liquid

Latex wastewater is a kind of refractory organic wastewater containing high concentrations of organics and ammonia nitrogen.In this work,the combined process of forward osmosis(FO)and reverse osmosis(RO)was designed to treat the latex wastewater in the whole process,achieving the water recovery rate of 99%and basically no waste discharge after the catalytic oxidation process.The turbidity of the latex wastewater was decreased to below 1 NTU by microfiltration pretreatment,and then using MgCl_2 worked as the draw solution for FO process to treat the latex wastewater.Different operation conditions including adding acid or scale inhibitor as the pretreatment methods were conducted to improve the treatment performance of the combined process.After the treatment of the whole process,the concentration of COD was less than 20 mg·L^(-1),the concentration of NH_3-N was less than 10 mg·L^(-1),and the concentration of TP was less than 0.5 mg·L^(-1)for the treated latex wastewater.The water quality met standards of industrial water reuse after the complete analysis of the treated latex wastewater,meanwhile,useful substances of L-Quebrachitol(L-Q)were successfully extracted from the concentrated solution.Therefore,the combined process of FO and RO could realize the efficient treatment and reuse of latex wastewater,which provided with some important guidance on the industrial application.

Concentration sensing system with monolithic InGaN/GaN photonic chips

Using an identical monolithic InGaN/GaN light emitting diode (LED) array as the sensing module and a well-designed data processing module, we demonstrate a small-size concentration sensing prototype. Overlap between the emission and the response spectra of the InGaN/GaN LED makes each pair of LEDs in the arrayed chip form a sensing channel. The changes in liquid concentration can be transformed into variation of photocurrent. The system's sensing properties are further optimized by varying the position, number of receivers, and packaging reflectors. With methyl orange as a tracer agent, the sensing system's resolution is 0.286 μmol/L with a linear measurement region below 40 μmol/L.

Investigation of the solubility and dispersion degree of calf skin collagen in ionic liquids

The dissolution of collagen in ionic liquids(ILs)was highly dependent on the polarity of ILs,which was influenced by their sorts and concentrations.Herein,the solubility and dispersion degree of collagen in two sorts of ILs,namely 1-ethyl-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate([EMIM][BF4])with low polarity and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate([EMIM][Ac])with high polarity in a concentration range from 10% to 70% at 10℃ were investigated.When 150 mg of collagen was added to 30 mg of ILs,the minimum soluble collagen concentration was 0.02 mg/mL in 70%[EMIM][BF4]with lowest polarity and the maximum was 3.57 mg/mL in 70%[EMIM][Ac]with highest polarity,which indicates that soluble collagen and insoluble collagen fibers were both present.For insoluble collagens,differential scanning calorimetry showed that the thermal-stability was weakened when increasing the ILs concentration and polarity,and the fiber arrangement was looser with a more uniform lyophilized structure,observed by atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.For soluble collagens,electrophoresis patterns and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy showed that no polypeptide chain degradation occurred during dissolution,but the thermal denaturation temperature decreased by 0.26℃~7.63℃ with the increase of ILs concentrations,measured by ultra-sensitive differential scanning calorimetry.Moreover,the aggregation of collagen molecules was reduced when ILs polarity was increased as determined by fluorescence measurements and dynamic light scattering,which resulted in an increased loose fiber arrangement observed by atomic force microscopy.If the structural integrity of collagen needs to be retained,then the ILs sorts and concentrations should be considered.

A Rapid Method for Isolating Single Cells from Apple Flesh

The identification,separation and analysis of individual living cells can be used to analyze the heterogeneity and operation mechanism of living systems.The study of fruit development is based on the extraction of active single cells.In this study,we investigated the effects of different enzymes and enzymatic hydrolysis times on the extraction of single cells from the‘Fuji’apple(Malus×domestica Borkh.‘Fuji’).The results showed that the extraction of single cells in apple flesh was a suitable method when 0.1%macerozyme was used and the enzymolysis time was 0.5 h.Fluorescent brightening agent VBL staining showed that the cell wall was intact,while fluorescein diacetate FDA and azo dye Evans blue staining indicated that the extracted single cells were active.The extracted single cells could be further used as materials for protoplast extraction.