Effects of Sources and Forms of Vitamin K3 on Its Storage Stability in Vitamin Premixes or Vitamin Trace Mineral Premixes

Six types of vitamin K3 (VK3); two sources (menadione sodium bisulfite, MSB; menadione nicotinamide bisulfite, MNB), and three different forms (crystal, micro-capsule, and micro-sphere) were used to determine the retention of VK3 in vitamin premixes (Experiment 1) or vitamin trace mineral (VTM) premixes (Experiment 2) after 1, 2, 3, and 6 months of storage. The retention of VK3 in vitamin premixes was evaluated at 25 °C/60% relative humidity or 40 °C/75% relative humidity in an incubator in Experiment 1 and in VTM premixes (choline chloride: 0 vs. 16,000 mg/kg) stored at room temperature in Experiment 2. The VK3 retention in vitamin premix or VTM premix decreased significantly with the extension of storage time (p < 0.05). In Experiment 1, the VK3 retention was higher in the 25 °C/60% incubator (56%) than in the 40 °C/75% incubator (28%). The MNB retention (52%) was higher than MSB retention (32%). The retention of VK3 in micro-capsules (43%) or micro-spheres (48%) was higher than the crystal form (35%) after six months of storage. In Experiment 2, there was no difference between the retention of MSB (49%) or MNB (47%). The retention of VK3 of micro-capsule (51%) or micro-sphere (54%) was higher than that of crystal form (40%). The VK3 retention was higher in the choline-free group (51%) than in the choline group (47%) after six months of storage. Finally, the predicted equations of VK3 retention with storage time in vitamin premixes or VTM premixes were established. The R2 of the prediction equations was ≥0.9005, indicating that time is an important factor in predicting VK3 retention. In conclusion, the higher temperature-relative humidity, choline had negative effects on VK3 retention during premix storage. MNB retention was higher than MSB during storage of vitamin premix. The encapsulated forms of VK3, micro-capsules and micro-spheres, could improve VK3 storage stability in vitamin premix and VTM premix.

Heating and Fusion of A Tungsten Micro Sphere using Powerful Laser Irradiation

The intense laser irradiation of a micro/nano size W sphere sample is considered in the present paper. Like numerical example, we choose a sphere with a radius of 1 µm. The present article’s point consists of approximating that the target’s temperature homogenization time is of the same order of magnitude as the first laser pulse duration. Our model is valid in the radius limits: 10 nm to 10 µm. We consider like heating source a laser beam with YAG/Nd:YAG/ Cr4+:YAG composite crystal. The nature of the interaction between a laser beam and small dimension tungsten (W) sample is of great importance for both theoretical and experimental perspectives. In principle, we have three stages: i) laser- W bulk interaction; ii) plasma formation, heating, and iii) adiabatic expansion. In the present paper, we will focus on the first two stages of laser pulse interval.

Effects of Sources or Formulations of Vitamin K3 on Its Stability during Extrusion or Pelleting in Swine Feed

Two studies were conducted to determine the stability of vitamin K3 (VK3) in swine diets during extrusion or pelleting. The two sources were menadione sodium bisulfite (MSB) and menadione nicotinamide bisulfite (MNB), and the three formulations were crystal micro-capsule formulation and micro-sphere formulation. The recovery of six types of VK3 in swine diets was investigated after extrusion at 100 °C or 135 °C in Experiment 1. The recovery of six types of VK3 was investigated when the diets were pelleted at 60 °C (low temperature; LT) or 80 °C (high temperature; HT) and the length to diameter ratios were 5.2:1 (low length to diameter ratio; LR) or 7.2:1 (high length to diameter ratio; HR) in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1, MNB recovery (72.74%) was higher than MSB recovery (64.67%) after extrusion, while recovery of VK3 of crystal (74.16%) was higher than the recovery of micro-capsule (65.25%) and micro-sphere (66.72%). The recovery of VK3 (70.88%) was higher when extruded at 100 °C than that at 135 °C (66.54%). In Experiment 2, MNB recovery (86.21%) was higher than MSB recovery (75.49%) after pelleting, while the recovery of VK3 of micro-capsule (85.06%) was higher than the recovery of crystal (81.40%) and micro-sphere (76.09%). The recovery of VK3 (75.50%) was lower after HTHR pelleting than LTLR (83.62%), LTHR (81.52%) or HTLR (82.76%) treatment. Our results show that MNB has greater stability than MSB. VK3 of crystal or VK3 of micro-capsule were recommended for extrusion or pelleting, respectively.

Recovery of K2SO4 and Separation of SiO2/Al2O3 from Brown Corundum Fly Ash

Brown corundum fly ash (BCFA), which is the collected ash in brown corundum production, has received lots of environmental concerns due to its ultra-fine particle size and complex composition. Aiming to recycle the major elements including K, Al and Si from BCFA environmentally, this work proposed a simple and non-pollution process to utilize BCFA by water leaching, size screening and solution evaporation. The influences of water leaching conditions including leaching temperature, time and liquid-to-solid ratio was considered to optimize the K2SO4 recovery efficiency. Results show that the potassium sulfate content of the product is 75.7% after water leaching at 60 °C for 15 min with the liquid–solid ratio of 20:1. The wet screening and size separation with a 1 μm sieve can separate and enrich aluminum and silicon significantly. The aluminum-rich product is composed of 54.65% of alumina and 11.04% silica, with the alumina and silica ratio (A/S) of 4.95. The silicon-rich product with a particle size of less than 1 μm has a silica content of 57.57% can be used as high-value micro-sphere silica. The research results revealed in this work offers a potential and environmentally industrial treatment technique for the BCFA.

Enhanced dielectric constant and energy density in a BaTiO3/polymer-matrix composite sponge

Polymer-matrix dielectric composites are promising for use in electrostatic energy storage devices due to the ultra-fast charge–discharge speed and the long service life. Here we report a strategy for designing BaTiO3 sponge polymer composites for energy storage. BaTiO3 sponges with tunable porosities are prepared from polymethyl methacrylate micro-sphere arrays. Liquid epoxy completely fills the pores in a BaTiO3 sponge during vacuum de-foaming, forming a solid composite. The resulting composites possess a maximum dielectric constant of εr~332 and εr/εm~85, compared to εr~38 in a sample filled with BaTiO3 NPs, at 1 kHz. The composites also possess, at 100 kV cm−1, a high discharge energy density of Ud~105 × 10−3 J cm−3 and Ud/Um~51, and electric displacement of 3.2 μC cm−2, compared with those utilizing traditional strategies at low electric fields. Finite element simulation reveals the enhanced energy density is due to a high local electric displacement in composites.