Influence of microwave heating on liquid-liquid phase inversion and temperature rates for immiscible mixtures.

Time dependencies of component temperatures for mixtures of immiscible liquids during microwave heating were studied for acetonitrile-cyclohexane and water-toluene. For the first time, we report microwave induced liquid-liquid phase inversion for acetonitrile-cyclohexane mixture: acetonitrile layer was initially at the bottom of the mixture, after 10 sec of microwave heating its density decreased and it inverted to the top of the mixture for the remainder of the microwave heating. This phase inversion could not be achieved by conventional radiant heating.

Mathematical models for Enterococcus faecalis recovery after microwave water disinfection.

Microwave water disinfection is a rapid purification technique which can give billions of people access to clean drinking water. However, better understanding of bacterial recovery after microwave heating over time is necessary to determine parameters such as delayed bacterial growth rates and maximum bacterial yields. Mathematical models for Enterococcus faecalis recovery after microwave treatment in optimum growth conditions were developed for times up to 5 minutes using an optical absorbance method.

Time dependence of component temperatures in microwave heated immiscible liquid mixture.

Measured influence of microwave heating on time dependencies of component temperatures for two immiscible liquids in a mixture shows differences for polar (water) and non-polar (cyclohexane or carbon tetrachloride) liquids. The rate of increase for the temperature of water with time of microwave heating is larger than other liquids in the mixture (maximum rate of temperature growth for water is 8 times larger than corresponding rate for carbon tetrachloride and 2 times larger than cyclohexane). This leads to creating, for a considerable time period, a unique environment where there is a significant temperature difference between two liquids in a mixture.

Mathematical models of cobalt and iron ions catalyzed microwave bacterial deactivation.

Time differences for Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli survival during microwave irradiation (power 130 W) in the presence of aqueous cobalt and iron ions were investigated. Measured dependencies had "bell" shape forms with maximum bacterial viability between 1 - 2 min becoming insignificant at 3 minutes. The deactivation time for E.