Poly(vinylidene fluoride), PVDF, membranes have attracted considerable attention as polymer electrolytes for fuel cells. This study explores the effect of solvent on spherulite size and crystallinity polymeric membranes. Based Hansen solubility parameters theory, mixture DMC DMSO was selected among a dozen solvents preparation PVDF by thermally induced phase separation. The addition two protic ...

Characterizing Protein Crystal Nucleation A dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts by Sathish V. Akella We developed an experimental microfluidic based technique to measure the nucleation rates and successfully applied the technique to measure nucleation rates of lysozyme crystals. The technique involves c...

The ability of bacteria isolated from a fixed-film bioreactor to precipitate phosphate crystals for the treatment of domestic wastewater in both artificial and natural media was studied. When this was demonstrated in artificial solid media for crystal formation, precipitation took place rapidly, and crystal formation began 3 days after inoculation. The percentage of phosphate-forming bacteria w...

This study uses the melt compounding method to produce polypropylene (PP)/short glass fibers (SGF) composites. PP serves as matrix while SGF serves as reinforcement. Two coupling agents, maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene, (PP-g-MA) and maleic anhydride grafted styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene block copolymer (SEBS-g-MA) are incorporated in the PP/SGF composites during the compounding proc...

In this work, three different spherulitic nanostructures Cu-CuOA, Cu-CuOB, and Cu-CuOC were synthesized in water-in-oil microemulsions by varying the surfactant concentration (30 mM, 40 mM, and 50 mM, respectively). The structural and morphological characteristics of the Cu-CuO nanostructures were investigated by ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron mi...

Lacustrine non-skeletal carbonates exhibit a diversity of petrographies due to interactions between physico-chemical and biologically influenced mechanisms. Despite the suggestion that evaporative concentration was involved in formation spherulite shrubby-bearing carbonate successions Pre-Salt Cretaceous alkaline lakes South Atlantic, no consensus exists about water chemistries promoting these ...

In this research, novel, organic, solid-liquid phase-change materials (PCMs) derived from methoxy polyethylene glycol (MPEG) and aromatic acyl chlorides (ACs) were prepared through a condensation reaction. The MPEGs used as functional chains with different molecular weights (350, 550, 750, 2000, 5000 g/mol). ACs, terephthaloyl chloride (TPC) isophthaloyl (IPC), employed bulky linker cores. Solu...