Alumina Nanoparticles and Plants: Environmental Transformation, Bioaccumulation, and Phytotoxicity

2018 ◽  
pp. 335-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Asztemborska
2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Peter Mortensen

This essay takes its cue from second-wave ecocriticism and from recent scholarly interest in the “appropriate technology” movement that evolved during the 1960s and 1970s in California and elsewhere. “Appropriate technology” (or AT) refers to a loosely-knit group of writers, engineers and designers active in the years around 1970, and more generally to the counterculture’s promotion, development and application of technologies that were small-scale, low-cost, user-friendly, human-empowering and environmentally sound. Focusing on two roughly contemporary but now largely forgotten American texts Sidney Goldfarb’s lyric poem “Solar-Heated-Rhombic-Dodecahedron” (1969) and Gurney Norman’s novel Divine Right’s Trip (1971)—I consider how “hip” literary writers contributed to eco-technological discourse and argue for the 1960s counterculture’s relevance to present-day ecological concerns. Goldfarb’s and Norman’s texts interest me because they conceptualize iconic 1960s technologies—especially the Buckminster Fuller-inspired geodesic dome and the Volkswagen van—not as inherently alienating machines but as tools of profound individual, social and environmental transformation. Synthesizing antimodernist back-to-nature desires with modernist enthusiasm for (certain kinds of) machinery, these texts adumbrate a humanity- and modernity-centered post-wilderness model of environmentalism that resonates with the dilemmas that we face in our increasingly resource-impoverished, rapidly warming and densely populated world.


2021 ◽  
Vol 271 ◽  
pp. 116335
Author(s):  
Shuang Zhang ◽  
Qiang Chu ◽  
Zhang Zhang ◽  
Yingfei Xu ◽  
Xiali Mao ◽  
...  

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3610
Author(s):  
Norhafezaidi Mat Saman ◽  
Izzah Hazirah Zakaria ◽  
Mohd Hafizi Ahmad ◽  
Zulkurnain Abdul-Malek

Mineral oil has been chosen as an insulating liquid in power transformers due to its superior characteristics, such as being an effective insulation medium and a great cooling agent. Meanwhile, the performance of mineral oil as an insulation liquid can be further enhanced by dispersing nanoparticles into the mineral oil, and this composition is called nanofluids. However, the incorporation of nanoparticles into the mineral oil conventionally causes the nanoparticles to agglomerate and settle as sediment in the base fluid, thereby limiting the improvement of the insulation properties. In addition, limited studies have been reported for the transformer oil as a base fluid using Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3) as nanoparticles. Hence, this paper reported an experimental study to investigate the significant role of cold plasma treatment in modifying and treating the surface of nano-alumina to obtain a better interaction between the nano-alumina and the base fluid, consequently improving the insulation characteristics such as breakdown voltage, partial discharge characteristics, thermal conductivity, and viscosity of the nanofluids. The plasma treatment process was conducted on the surface of nano-alumina under atmospheric pressure plasma by using the dielectric barrier discharge concept. The breakdown strength and partial discharge characteristics of the nanofluids were measured according to IEC 60156 and IEC 60270 standards, respectively. In contrast, the viscosity and thermal conductivity of the nanofluids were determined using Brookfield DV-II + Pro Automated viscometer and Decagon KD2-Pro conductivity meter, respectively. The results indicate that the 0.1 wt% of plasma-treated alumina nanofluids has shown the most comprehensive improvements in electrical properties, dispersion stability, and thermal properties. Therefore, the plasma treatment has improved the nanoparticles dispersion and stability in nanofluids by providing stronger interactions between the mineral oil and the nanoparticles.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 2147
Author(s):  
Anjali Krishnan ◽  
Xiaozhen Mou

Harmful cyanobacterial blooms pose an environmental health hazard due to the release of water-soluble cyanotoxins. One of the most prevalent cyanotoxins in nature is microcystins (MCs), a class of cyclic heptapeptide hepatotoxins, and they are produced by several common cyanobacteria in aquatic environments. Once released from cyanobacterial cells, MCs are subjected to physical chemical and biological transformations in natural environments. MCs can also be taken up and accumulated in aquatic organisms and their grazers/predators and induce toxic effects in several organisms, including humans. This brief review aimed to summarize our current understanding on the chemical structure, exposure pathway, cytotoxicity, biosynthesis, and environmental transformation of microcystins.


Langmuir ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (48) ◽  
pp. 14589-14596
Author(s):  
Haojie Zhang ◽  
Jia Wu ◽  
Jianzhong Jiang ◽  
Zhenggang Cui ◽  
Wenshui Xia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 168781402098840
Author(s):  
Mohammed S Gad ◽  
Sayed M Abdel Razek ◽  
PV Manu ◽  
Simon Jayaraj

Experimental work was done to examine the impact of diesel fuel with alumina nanoparticles on combustion characteristics, emissions and performance of diesel engine. Alumina nanoparticles were mixed with crude diesel in various weight fractions of 20, 30, and 40 mg/L. The engine tests showed that nano alumina addition of 40 ppm to pure diesel led to thermal efficiency enhancement up to 5.5% related to the pure diesel fuel. The average specific fuel consumption decrease about neat diesel fuel was found to be 3.5%, 4.5%, and 5.5% at dosing levels of 20, 30, and 40 ppm, respectively at full load. Emissions of smoke, HC, CO, and NOX were found to get diminished by about 17%, 25%, 30%, and 33%, respectively with 40 ppm nano-additive about diesel operation. The smaller size of nanoparticles produce fuel stability enhancement and prevents the fuel atomization problems and the clogging in fuel injectors. The increase of alumina nanoparticle percentage in diesel fuel produced the increases in cylinder pressure, cylinder temperature, heat release rate but the decreases in ignition delay and combustion duration were shown. The concentration of 40 ppm alumina nanoparticle is recommended for achieving the optimum improvements in the engine’s combustion, performance and emission characteristics.


Metals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonid Agureev ◽  
Valeriy Kostikov ◽  
Zhanna Eremeeva ◽  
Svetlana Savushkina ◽  
Boris Ivanov ◽  
...  

The article presents the study of alumina nanoparticles’ (nanofibers) concentration effect on the strength properties of pure nickel. The samples were obtained by spark plasma sintering of previously mechanically activated metal powders. The dependence of the grain size and the relative density of compacts on the number of nanofibers was investigated. It was found that with an increase in the concentration of nanofibers, the average size of the matrix particles decreased. The effects of the nanoparticle concentration (0.01–0.1 wt.%) on the elastic modulus and tensile strength were determined for materials at 25 °C, 400 °C, and 750 °C. It was shown that with an increase in the concentration of nanofibers, a 10–40% increase in the elastic modulus and ultimate tensile strength occurred. A comparison of the mechanical properties of nickel in a wide range of temperatures, obtained in this work with materials made by various technologies, is carried out. A description of nanofibers’ mechanisms of influence on the structure and mechanical properties of nickel is given. The possible impact of impurity phases on the properties of nickel is estimated. The tendency of changes in the mechanical properties of nickel, depending on the concentration of nanofibers, is shown.


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