SILICON THERMAL WATERS AND THEIR IMPACT ON HUMAN HEALTH

The unique mineral thermal water has been researched. The composition of thermal water has been studied, its effect on human health has been described. This thermal water belongs to the hydrocarbonate-silicon type. The total silicate content is more than 120 mg/l, which is one of the highest rates for thermal springs in our country. The low solubility of silicic acid is compensated by the ability of silicon to form positively charged colloids, which neutralize microorganisms and promote the precipitation of heavy metals. Perhaps this factor is responsible for the insignificant presence of heavy metals in water. The medical indications and contraindications for this type of balneological treatment are described.

Anisotropic electrostatic screening of charged colloids in nematic solvents

The physical behavior of anisotropic charged colloids is determined by their material dielectric anisotropy, affecting colloidal self-assembly, biological function, and even out-of-equilibrium behavior. However, little is known about anisotropic electrostatic screening, which underlies all electrostatic effective interactions in such soft or biological materials. In this work, we demonstrate anisotropic electrostatic screening for charged colloidal particles in a nematic electrolyte. We show that material anisotropy behaves markedly different from particle anisotropy. The electrostatic potential and pair interactions decay with an anisotropic Debye screening length, contrasting the constant screening length for isotropic electrolytes. Charged dumpling-shaped near-spherical colloidal particles in a nematic medium are used as an experimental model system to explore the effects of anisotropic screening, demonstrating competing anisotropic elastic and electrostatic effective pair interactions for colloidal surface charges tunable from neutral to high, yielding particle-separated metastable states. Generally, our work contributes to the understanding of electrostatic screening in nematic anisotropic media.

On the Role of Competing Interactions in Charged Colloids with Short-Range Attraction

In this review, we discuss recent advances in the investigation of colloidal systems interacting via a combination of short-range attraction and long-range repulsion. The prototypical examples of this phenomenology are charged colloids with depletion interactions, but the results apply, to a large extent, also to suspensions of globular proteins, clays, and, in general, to systems with competing attractive (hydrophobic) and repulsive (polar) contributions. After a brief introduction to the problem, we focus on the three disordered states that characterize these systems: equilibrium cluster phase, equilibrium gel, and Wigner glass of clusters. We provide a comparison of their static and dynamic observables, mainly by means of numerical simulations. Next, we discuss the few available studies on their viscoelastic properties and on their response to an external shear. Finally, we provide a summary of the current findings and also raise the main open questions and challenges for the future in this topic. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics, Volume 12 is March 10, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Stiffness of the interface between a colloidal body-centered cubic crystal and its liquid

Equilibrium interfaces were established between body-centered cubic (BCC) crystals and their liquid using charged colloidal particles in an electric bottle. By measuring a time series of interfacial positions and computing the average power spectrum, their interfacial stiffness was determined according to the capillary fluctuation method. For the (100) and the (114) interfaces, the stiffnesses were 0.15 and 0.18kBT/σ2(σ: particle diameter), respectively, and were isotropic in the plane of the interface. For comparison, similar charged colloids were used to create an interface between a face-centered cubic (FCC) crystal and its liquid. Its stiffness was significantly larger: 0.26kBT/σ2. This result gives experimental support to the explanations offered for the preferential nucleation of BCC over FCC in metallic alloys.

Emergence of scale-free smectic rivers and critical depinning in emulsions driven through disorder

During the past 60 min, oil companies have extracted 6 trillion liters of oil from the ground, thereby giving a striking illustration of the impact of multiphase flows on the world economy. From a fundamental perspective, we largely understand the dynamics of interfaces separating immiscible fluids driven through heterogeneous environments. In stark contrast, the basic mechanisms ruling the transport of fragmented fluids, such as foams and emulsions, remain elusive with studies mostly limited to isolated droplets and bubbles. Here, we demonstrate that the mobilization of emulsion driven through model disordered media is a critical plastic depinning transition. To elucidate this collective dynamics, we track the trajectories of hundreds of thousands of microfluidic droplets advected through random lattices of pinning sites. Their dynamics reveals that macroscopic mobilization only requires the coordinated motion of small groups of particles and does not involve any large-scale avalanches. Criticality arises from the interplay between contact and hydrodynamic interaction, which channel seemingly erratic depinning events along smectic river networks correlated over system spanning scales. Beyond the specifics of emulsion transport, we close our article discussing the similarities and profound differences with the plastic depinning transitions of driven flux lines in high-Tcsuperconductors, charged colloids, and grain transport in eroded sand beds.

Pemanfaatan Ekstrak Protein dari Kacang-kacangan sebagai Koagulan Alami: Review

Coagulation and flocculation are commonly used in water and wastewater treatment. Inorganic coagulant such as alum (Al2(SO4)3), ferrous sulphate (FeSO4), and polyaluminium chloride (PAC) are commonly used. These coagulants are known for its effectiveness and simple operation procedure. However, there are some drawbacks such as reduction in pH, potential negative health effect when the treated water is consumed, and large sludge volume. To overcome these problems, utilization of natural coagulants has been proposed. Based on its active coagulating agent, natural coagulant could be divided as polyphenolic, polysaccharides, and protein. Protein from beans and seeds is commonly used as the source of active coagulating agent, due to its effectiveness, availability, and relatively simple pretreatment is needed. Usually the protein is extracted by using 0.5-1 M NaCl solution as globulin is the major protein fraction in beans.The extracted protein could act as cationic polymer to neutralize negatively charged colloids through adsorption-charge neutralization mechanism. Extracted protein could work effectively to treat turbid and waste water with lower cost compared to alum. However, most of existing studies are still focused on small – pilot scale utilization thus further explorations are still needed.A B S T R A KKoagulasi dan flokulasi merupakan proses yang umum digunakan dalam pengolahan air dan limbah cair. Pada umumnya digunakan koagulan seperti alum (Al2(SO4)3), ferro sulfat (FeSO4), dan polialuminium klorida (PAC). Selain efektif, koagulasi merupakan proses yang relatif sederhana dan mudah diterapkan. Akan tetapi koagulasi dengan koagulan anorganik memiliki beberapa kekurangan seperti menurunnya pH menjadi asam saat digunakan, potensi gangguan kesehatan jika air hasil pengolahan terkonsumsi, serta volume sludge yang dihasilkan relatif tinggi. Penggunaan koagulan alami menjadi alternatif dalam pengolahan air untuk mengatasi berbagai kekurangan tersebut. Berdasarkan bahan aktif koagulannya, koagulan alami dapat dibagi menjadi polifenol, polisakarida, dan protein. Protein dari kacang-kacangan merupakan salah satu sumber koagulan alami yang umum digunakan, karena selain efektif, kacang-kacangan mudah didapat, serta membutuhkan perlakuan yang relatif sederhana, meliputi pengeringan, pengecilan ukuran, ekstraksi, serta purifikasi. Proses ekstraksi kacang-kacangan pada umumnya menggunakan larutan garam NaCl dengan konsentrasi 0,5-1 M, dikarenakan fraksi protein dominan pada protein kacang-kacangan pada umumnya berupa globulin. Protein yang terekstrak berfungsi sebagai polimer kationik yang cocok digunakan untuk mengolah koloid yang bermuatan negatif melalui mekanisme adsorpsi-netralisasi muatan. Pemanfaatan ekstrak protein dapat bekerja efektif untuk mengolah kekeruhan dan air limbah, dengan biaya yang lebih rendah dibandingkan alum. Akan tetapi pemanfaatannya masih pada skala laboratorium-pilot, sehingga diperlukan pengembangan lebih lanjut untuk isolasi ekstrak serta aplikasinya pada skala industri.