• Korean journal of food and cookery science
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.507-513
• /
• 1997

To separate and concentrate functional components contained in soybean curd whey, ultrafiltration was performed using regenerated cellulose or polysulphone membrane of spiral-wound type with MWCO 10,000, and the permeate and retentate solutions were analyzed. As the pH of soybean curd whey increased, the permeate flux decreased in both membranes. Treatment of 0.01 M EDTA rather decreased the permeate flux compared with control. The concentration of ionic calcium, which decreased with the pH increase, was thought to affect the permeate flux also. In case of polysulphone membrane, the permeate was efficiently purified and the retentate protein was concentrated significantly in which the membrane rejection value (MRV) for chemical oxygen demand (COD) was 79.25% and that of protein was 98.42% at the volume concentration ratio (VCR) of 10. MRV of the protein of regenerated cellulose membrane was lower than that of polysulphone membrane. To recover oligosaccharides to the permeate solution and increase the content of raffinose and stachyose, regenerated cellulose membrane was more suitable than polysulphone membrane and the optimum VCR was 4.

• Carbon letters
• /
• v.18
• /
• pp.43-48
• /
• 2016

Sulphonated polysulphone (SPS) has been synthesized and subsequently applied as binder for graphene oxide (GO)-based electrodes for development of electrochemical supercapacitors. Electrochemical performance of the electrode was investigated using cyclic voltammetry in 1M Na₂SO₄ and 1M KOH solution. The fabricated supercapacitors gave a specific capacitance of 161.6 and 216.8 F/g with 215.4 W/kg and 450 W/kg of power density, in 1M Na₂SO₄ and 1M KOH solutions, respectively. This suggests that KOH is a better electrolyte than Na₂SO₄ for studying the electrochemical behavior of electroactive material, and also suggests SPS is a good binder for fabrication of a GO based electrode.

• Carbon letters
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.171-179
• /
• 2014

An attempt was made to investigate the effect of the preparation temperature on the electrocapacitive performance of polypyrrole (PPY)/graphene oxide (GO) nanocomposites (PNCs). For this purpose, a series of PNCs were prepared at various temperatures by the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide-assisted dilute-solution polymerization of pyrrole in presence of GO (wt%) ranging from 1.0 to 4.0 with ferric chloride as an oxidant. The formation of the PNCs was ascertained through Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry, X-ray diffraction spectra, scanning electron microscopy and simultaneous thermogravimetric-differential scanning calorimetry. The electrocapacitive performance of the electrodes derived from sulphonated polysulphone-bound PNCs was evaluated through cyclic voltammetry with reference to Ag/AgCl at a scan rate (V/s) ranging from 0.2 and 0.001 in potassium hydroxide (1.0 M). The incorporation of GO into the PPY matrix at a reduced temperature has a pronounced effect on the electrocapacitive performance of PNCs. Under identical scan rates (0.001 V/s), PNCs prepared at $10{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ render improved specific conductivity (526.33 F/g) and power density (731.19 W/Kg) values compared to those prepared at $30{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ (217.69 F/g, 279.43 W/Kg). PNCs prepared at $10{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ rendered a capacitive retention rate of ~96% during the first 500 cycles. This indicates the excellent cyclic stability of the PNCs prepared at reduced temperatures for supercapacitor applications.

• Carbon letters
• /
• v.26
• /
• pp.88-94
• /
• 2018

This manuscript explains the effective determination of urea by redox cyclic voltammetric analysis, for which a modified polypyrrole-graphene oxide (PPY-GO, GO 20% w/w of PPY) nanocomposite electrode was developed. Cyclic voltammetry measurements revealed an effective electron transfer in 0.1 M KOH electrolytic solution in the potential window range of 0 to 0.6 V. This PPY-GO modified electrode exhibited a moderate electrocatalytic effect towards urea oxidation, thereby allowing its determination in an electrolytic solution. The linear dependence of the current vs. urea concentration was reached using square-wave voltammetry in the concentration range of urea between 0.5 to $3.0{\mu}M$ with a relatively low limit of detection of $0.27{\mu}M$. The scanning electron microscopy was used to characterize the morphologies and properties of the nanocomposite layer, along with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results indicated that the nanocomposite film modified electrode exhibited a synergistic effect, including high conductivity, a fast electron-transfer rate, and an inherent catalytic ability.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.367-375
• /
• 2016

Although the bucky paper (BP) made from carbon nanotubes (CNTs) possesses beneficial characteristics of hydrophobic nature and high porosity for membrane distillation (MD) application, weak mechanical strength of BP has often prevented the stable operation. This study aims to fabricate the BP with high mechanical strength to improve its MD performance. The strategy was to increase the purity level of CNTs with an assumption that purer CNTs would increase the Van der Waals attraction, leading to the improvement of mechanical strength of BP. According to this study results, the purification of CNT does not necessarily enhance the mechanical strength of BP. The BP made from purer CNTs demonstrated a high flux ($142kg/m^2{\cdot}h$) even at low ${\Delta}T$ ($50^{\circ}C$ and $20^{\circ}C$) during the experiments of direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD). However, the operation was not stable because a crack quickly formed. Then, a support layer of AAO (anodic aluminum oxide) filter paper was introduced to reinforce the mechanical strength of BP. The support reinforcement was able to increase the mechanical strength, but wetting occurred. Therefore, the mixed matrix membrane (PSf-CNT) using CNTs as filler to polysulphone was fabricated. The DCMD operation with the PSf-CNT membrane was stable, although the flux was low ($6.1kg/m^2{\cdot}h$). This result suggests that the mixed matrix membrane could be more beneficial for the stable DCMD operation than the BP.

• Korean Membrane Journal
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.58-66
• /
• 2006

The ${\beta}-glucosidase$ from olive fruit is of particular interest compared to the ones from other sources because it has shown to have high specifity to convert the oleuropein into dialdehydes, which have antibacterial activity and are of high interest for their application in the food and pharmaceutical fields. The enzyme is not yet commercially available and advanced clean and safe technologies for its purification able to maintain the functional stability are foreseen. The purification of this protein from fruit extracts has been already tempted by electrophoresis but either enzyme deactivation or high background with unclear profiles occurred. In this work, fruit extracts obtained from the ripening stage that showed the highest enzyme activity have been processed by diafiltration and ultrafiltration. Asymmetric membranes made of polyamide or polysulphone having 50 and 30 kDa molecular weight cut-off, respectively, were tested for the diafiltration process. Ultrafiltration membranes made of polyethersulfone with 4 kDa molecular weight cut-off were used to concentrate the dia-filtered permeate solutions. The efficiency of the separation processes was evaluated byenzyme activity tests using the hydrolysis of p-D-nitrophenyl-${\beta}$-D-glucopyranoside (pNPGlc) as reaction model. Qualitative and quantitative electrophoresis were applied to analyze the composition of protein solution before and after the membrane separation; in addition dot blot and western blot analyses were applied to verify the presence of ${\beta}-glucosidase$ in the processed fractions. The overall results showed that the ${\beta}-glucosidase$ functional stability was preserved during the membrane operations and the removal of 20 kDa proteins allowed to increase the specific activity of the enzyme of about 52% compared to the one present in the initial fruit extract.