Search results for "saturation"
showing 10 items of 478 documents
Experimental analysis of the water retention behaviour of shales
2014
Shales are among the most commonly considered geomaterials in current energy-related geomechanical investigations, as they are involved in engineering applications such as the unconventional extraction of natural gas, CO2 sequestration and nuclear waste geological storage. A deep understanding of their behaviour with regard to variations in the degree of saturation is of primary significance for such applications. With the aim to establish a sound protocol for shale retention behaviour analysis, this paper presents an advanced experimental methodology that takes into account the specificities of shales such as small pore size dimensions and the large variations in water potential to be appl…
Susceptibility of contrail ice crystal numbers to aircraft soot particle emissions
2017
We develop an idealized, physically-based model describing combined effects of ice nucleation and sublimation on ice crystal number during persistent contrail formation. Our study represents the first effort to predict ice numbers at the point where contrails transition into contrail cirrus—several minutes past formation—by connecting them to aircraft soot particle emissions and atmospheric supersaturation with respect to ice. Results averaged over an observed exponential distribution of ice supersaturation (mean value 15%) indicate that large reductions in soot particle numbers are needed to lower contrail ice crystal numbers significantly for soot emission indices around 1015 (kg-fuel)−1,…
Study of nucleation and growth processes of ettringite in diluted conditions
2020
Abstract Ettringite is a key compound of cementitious materials, formed during hydration that influences the rheological behavior of the cement paste. Despite its importance, ettringite formation has been poorly studied. In this work, nucleation and growth processes of ettringite were separately investigated. Ettringite nucleation was described using the Classical Nucleation Theory and an interfacial crystal-solution energy was determined. After the initial primary homogeneous nucleation, when the surface of already formed crystals was still low, the precipitation rate was shown to depend almost exclusively on the solution supersaturation. When the surface of crystals in suspension was gett…
Incorporation of trace metals Cu, Zn, and Cd into gypsum: Implication on their mobility and fate in natural and anthropogenic environments
2020
Abstract The coexistence of calcium (Ca2+), sulfate (SO42−) with trace metal cations (M(II)) can possibly lead to M(II)-gypsum coprecipitation and solid solution formation. However, gypsum's role in the fixation of M(II) is still largely unknown. This study investigated the precipitation of Ca2+ and SO42− in the presence of M(II) (i.e., Cu2+, Zn2+, or Cd2+) and the incorporation of the metal cations into the gypsum structure at different environmental conditions. Trace metals in two natural gypsum samples (Yunnan and Neimeng, China) and one hydrometallurgical byproduct gypsum sample from a Cu refinery were also assessed. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ra…
Growth of polycrystalline nickel hydroxide films from aqueous solution. Solution chemistry, deposition methods, film morphology and texture
2014
Abstract Deposition of functional ceramic films on different substrates by using soft aqueous solution processing can represent a cheap, low- energy and environmental friendly alternative to other film technologies. In this study β-Ni(OH)2 polycrystalline films were grown on polytetrafluoroethylene, NiO, glass, copper, and Y:ZrO2 substrates from Ni2 +–NH4OH aqueous solutions. A careful control of solution supersaturation was essential to induce heterogeneous nucleation on the substrate and film growth. This was realized through the gradual decomposition of the nickel amino complexes Ni(NH3)n2 + using two different methods. Thermodynamic modeling of the Ni–NH4OH–H2O system was used to provid…
In vitro performances and cellular uptake of clarithromycin nanocrystals produced by media milling technique
2018
Abstract Nanocrystal technology is one of a promising approach used to improve the solubility of poorly soluble drugs. In this study, media milling technique was used to produce clarithromycin nanocrystals via a bead milling machine. Various sizes of clarithromycin nanocrystals (250 nm–1 μm) were prepared using different milling times. The polymorphism and crystallinity of nanocrystals were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques. The results indicated no polymorphic change after the milling process. However, the crystallinity of the obtained nanocrystals slightly decreased upon the milling time. The kinetic saturation solubili…
Ripening-dominated crystallization in polydisperse hard-sphere-like colloids
2009
We report on the crystal growth scenario in gravity-matched, polydisperse hard-sphere-like colloids at increasing particle concentration. In the fluid-crystal coexistence region, the crystal size as a function of time shows two separate regimes corresponding to crystal growth and crystal ripening. At higher supersaturation the crystal size grows according to the same power law through the whole experimental window of a few days: crystal growth and ripening merge together. We show that our observations cannot be explained by considering the slowing down of single-particle dynamics due to increasing volume fraction. We suggest that size fractionation occurring at the crystal-fluid interface i…
Morphology transitions in ZnO nanorods grown by MOCVD
2012
Morphology transitions (nanorods–nanowalls and nanorods–nanotubes-layer) were induced in the growth of ZnO nanostructures by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on c-sapphire, using helium as carrier gas, and dimethylzinc–triethylamine and nitrous oxide as zinc and oxygen sources, respectively. A systematic study of the influence of the VI/II ratio and precursor flow-rates on the morphology of ZnO nanorod arrays has been carried out, taking advantage of the ability of MOCVD to individually control the precursor partial pressures. Growth mechanisms are discussed to understand the evolution of the nanostructures morphology for different growth conditions. In particular, the influe…
Porphyroblast crystallization kinetics: the role of the nutrient production rate
2011
The mechanisms that govern porphyroblast crystallization are investigated by comparing quantitative textural data with predictions from different crystallization models. Such numerical models use kinetic formulations of the main crystallization mechanism to predict textural characteristics, such as grain size distributions. In turn, data on porphyroblast textures for natural samples are used to infer which mechanism dominated during their formation. Whereas previous models assume that the rate-limiting step for a porphyroblast producing reaction is either transport or growth, the model advanced in this study considers the production of nutrients for porphyroblasts as a potentially rate-limi…