Bipolar Membrane Electrodialysis for Sulfate Recycling in the Metallurgical Industries.

Demand for nickel and cobalt sulfate is expected to increase due to the rapidly growing Li-battery industry needed for the electrification of automobiles. This has led to an increase in the production of sodium sulfate as a waste effluent that needs to be processed to meet discharge guidelines. Using bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BPED), acids and bases can be effectively produced from corresponding salts found in these waste effluents.

Bubble Attachment to Cellulose and Silica Surfaces of Varied Surface Energies: Wetting Transition and Implications in Foam Forming.

To better understand the complex system of wet foams in the presence of cellulosic fibers, we investigate bubble-surface interactions by following the effects of surface hydrophobicity and surface tension on the contact angle of captive bubbles. Bubbles are brought into contact with model silica and cellulose surfaces immersed in solutions of a foaming surfactant (sodium dodecyl sulfate) of different concentrations. It is observed that bubble attachment is controlled by surface wetting, but a significant scatter in the behavior occurs near the transition from partial to complete wetting.

3D-Printable Bioactivated Nanocellulose-Alginate Hydrogels.

We describe herein a nanocellulose-alginate hydrogel suitable for 3D printing. The composition of the hydrogel was optimized based on material characterization methods and 3D printing experiments, and its behavior during the printing process was studied using computational fluid dynamics simulations. The hydrogel was biofunctionalized by the covalent coupling of an enhanced avidin protein to the cellulose nanofibrils.

Shear modulus of colloidal suspensions: Comparing experiments with theory.

In this work, the experimentally determined shear modulus of a colloidal suspension has been compared to a calculated shear modulus based on an ordered lattice model. The experiments were performed on a well characterized calcite suspension. The calcite suspension was confirmed to be in a flocculated state, thus exhibiting strong elastic character.