Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Curcumin Release From Biomaterials For Enhanced Tissue Regeneration Following Injury Or Disease, Adelle E. Hamilton, Ryan J. Gilbert

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Curcumin, a bioactive phenol derived from turmeric, is an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial molecule. Although curcumin exhibits beneficial effects in its innate form, it is highly hydrophobic, which leads to poor water solubility and, consequently, low bioavailability. The lack of bioavailability limits curcumin's effectiveness as a treatment and restricts its use in clinical applications. Furthermore, to achieve beneficial, clinically relevant results, high doses of curcumin are required for systemic administration. Many researchers have utilized biomaterial carriers, including electrospun fibers, nanoparticles, hydrogels, and composite scaffolds, to overcome curcumin's principle therapeutic limitation of low bioavailability. By using biomaterials to deliver curcumin directly …

Steering Particles Via Micro-Actuation Of Chemical Gradients Using Model Predictive Control, Mark N. Mcdonald, Cameron K. Peterson, Douglas R. Tree

Faculty Publications

Biological systems rely on chemical gradients to direct motion through both chemotaxis and signaling, but synthetic approaches for doing the same are still relatively naïve. Consequently, we present a novel method for using chemical gradients to manipulate the position and velocity of colloidal particles in a microfluidic device. Specifically, we show that a set of spatially localized chemical reactions that are sufficiently controllable can be used to steer colloidal particles via diffusiophoresis along an arbitrary trajectory. To accomplish this, we develop a control method for steering colloidal particles with chemical gradients using nonlinear model predictive control with a model based …

Ash Aerosol Particle Size Distribution, Composition, And Deposition Behavior While Co-Firing Coal And Steam-Exploded Biomass In A 1.5 Mwth Combustor, Rajarshi Roy, Brian Schooff, Xiaolong Li, Scott Montgomery, Jacob Tuttle, Jost O.L. Wendt, Kingsley Dickson, Brian Iverson, Andrew R. Fry

Faculty Publications

Five different blends of Utah bituminous coal and steam-exploded pine (100/0, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75, 0/100 by mass) were fired in a 1.5 MWth combustor. Primary objectives were to understand mineral matter behavior by analyzing aerosol size distribution, aerosol size-segregated composition, ash deposition mass, and ash composition. For particle size < 0.1 μm, pure coal had the lowest aerosol concentration and pure biomass showed the highest (higher nucleation of potassium salts), a trend which reversed for particles >0.1 μm. During pure biomass combustion, aerosol particles >15 μm contained higher mass fractions of potassium (+126%), calcium (+132%), and iron (+115%) and lower fractions of aluminum (−49%) and silicon (−29%) than pure coal. Ash deposition mass decreased with increasing biomass blends. …

Sra Inhibition Improves Antitumor Potency Of Antigen-Targeted Chaperone Vaccine, Jie Qian, Xiaofei Yu, Zheng Liu, Jinyang Cai, Masoud H. Manjili, Hu Yang, Chunqing Guo, Xiang Yang Wang

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We Have Previously Demonstrated that Scavenger Receptor a (SRA) Acts as an Immunosuppressive Regulator of Dendritic Cell (DC) Function in Activating Antitumor T Cells. Here We Investigate the Potential of Inhibiting SRA Activity to Enhance DC-Targeted Chaperone Vaccines Including One that Was Recently Evaluated in Melanoma Patients. We Show that Short Hairpin RNA-Mediated SRA Silencing Significantly Enhances the Immunogenicity of DCs that Have Captured Chaperone Vaccines Designed to Target Melanoma (I.e., Hsp110-Gp100) and Breast Cancer (I.e., Hsp110-HER/Neu-ICD). SRA Downregulation Results in Heightened Activation of Antigen-Specific T Cells and Increased CD8+ T Cell-Dependent Tumor Inhibition. Additionally, Small Interfering RNA (SiRNA) Complexed …

Non-Equilibrium Colloidal Phenomena In Magnetic Fields And Photoillumination: From Controlling Living Microbots To Understanding Microplastics, Ahmed Al Harraq

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Colloids are a ubiquitous class of materials composed of microscopic particles suspended in a continuous phase which are found in everyday products and in nature. Colloids are also useful models for studying the spontaneous arrangement of matter from individual building blocks to mesophases. Standard treatment of colloid science is based on the assumption of equilibrium conditions, as defined in traditional thermodynamics. However, novel assembly mechanisms and motility are unlocked by pushing colloids away from equilibrium using external energy. In addition, many colloids in nature and in industrial applications exchange energy and mass with the surrounding environment thus behaving in a …

Preface To Special Issue: Electrocatalysis And Electrosynthesis, Fang-Yi Cheng, Shuang-Yin Wang, Tian-Hua Zhou

Journal of Electrochemistry

No abstract provided.

Recent Advances In Exploring Highly Active & Durable Pgm-Free Oxygen Reduction Catalysts, Yuan Li, Miao-Ying Chen, Bang-An Lu, Jia-Nan Zhang

Journal of Electrochemistry

In order to reduce the considerable usage of expensive but scarce platinum at the cathode in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), it is necessary to pursue alternatives to platinum. The most promising platinum group metal (PGM)-free catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) are atomically dispersed, and nitrogen-coordinated metal site catalysts denoted as M-N-C (M = Fe, Co, or Mn, etc.). Over the last few decades, there have been great advances in these catalysts with high ORR activity and promising initial fuel cell performance approaching traditional Pt/C catalysts. However, the stability of these highly active Fe-N-C catalysts under practical fuel …

Electrochemical Oxidation Of Ethylene On Palladium Electrode, Wei-Xing Wu, Ying Wang

Journal of Electrochemistry

The electrochemical oxidation of C₂H₄ is attracting increasing attention due to its vast potential market. The current electrochemical methods rely on the use of redox mediators, which may produce corrosive intermediates, while direct oxidation is still limited by its low activity and selectivity. Herein, we conducted electrochemical studies to obtain mechanistic insights into the benchmark Pd catalyst. The generated Pd(II) could be the active site for C₂H₄ oxidation. By designing the pulse sequence, we found the ratio of strongly and weakly adsorbed C₂H₄ on Pd to be 0.3:1. The result we …

Supperlattice-Like Structure: Ordered Mass Transfer Endowing High Quality Output Of Fuel Cell, Jian Wang, Wen-Hui Xuan, Qian He, Jing-Xia Jiang, Yuan-Yuan Zhou, Yao Nie, Qiang Liao, Min-Hua Shao, Wei Ding, Zi-Dong Wei

Journal of Electrochemistry

The current or voltage fluctuation in fuel cell operation is harmful to the fuel cell system and power application equipment. Here, we report a technique to eliminate such a fluctuation by the aid of new type of catalysts, superlattice-like mesoporous PtCo catalysts. The current fluctuation in fuel cells catalyzed by two invented catalysts are fixed at as low as 25 mA·cm⁻² with a power of 0.75 W·cm⁻² or 120 mA·cm⁻² with a power of 1.01 W·cm⁻², and no noticeable current decay was detected over 100 h. By contrast, a …

Coupling Atr-Ftir Spectroscopy With Multivariate Analysis For Polymers Manufacturing And Control Of Polymers’ Molecular Weight, Tung Nguyen, Ahmad Arabi Shamsabadi, Mona Bavarian

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

Acrylate-based polymers are commonly used in the chemical industry. Consistent manufacturing of these polymers with the help of Process Analytical Technology (PAT) is very desirable. The capability of monitoring polymers’ molecular weight in real-time reduces operation time and eliminates the frequent samplings needed for quality control. Herein, molecular weight (M_w) of glycidyl methacrylate-co-methyl methacrylate (GMA-co- MMA) copolymer was monitored in real-time using mid-infrared ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Square (PLS) models were then utilized to examine, improve the latent space, and select high-quality spectra. We show that acquiring highly correlated spectra enhances the …

Lysine Crosslinked Polyacrylamide─A Novel Green Polymer Gel For Preferential Flow Control, Tao Song, Baojun Bai, Yugandhara Eriyagama, Thomas P. Schuman

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Acrylamide-based polymer gels have been applied to control the preferential flow in the subsurface for decades. However, some commonly used crosslinkers, such as Cr (III) and phenol-formaldehyde, are highly toxic and are being phased out because of stringent environmental regulations. This work uses l-lysine as the green crosslinker to produce acrylamide-based polymer gels. This article systematically studied the effect of lysine and polymer concentration, salinity, pH, and temperature on gelation behavior and thermal stability. Besides, the gelation mechanism and crosslinking density were elucidated in this work. A high-permeability sandstone core was used to test the plugging efficiency of this novel …

Coupling Nitrate Capture With Ammonia Production Through Bifunctional Redox-Electrodes, Kwiyong Kim, Alexandra Zagalskaya, Jing Lian Ng, Jaeyoung Hong, Vitaly Alexandrov, Tuan Anh Pham, Xiao Su

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

Nitrate is a ubiquitous aqueous pollutant from agricultural and industrial activities. At the same time, conversion of nitrate to ammonia provides an attractive solution for the coupled environmental and energy challenge underlying the nitrogen cycle, by valorizing a pollutant to a carbon-free energy carrier and essential chemical feedstock. Mass transport limitations are a key obstacle to the efficient conversion of nitrate to ammonia from water streams, due to the dilute concentration of nitrate. Here, we develop bifunctional electrodes that couple a nitrate-selective redox-electrosorbent (polyaniline) with an electrocatalyst (cobalt oxide) for nitrate to ammonium conversion. We demonstrate the synergistic reactive separation …

Direct Synthesis Of Ethylene And Hydrogen From Co2 And Ethane Over A Bifunctional Structured Cao/Cr2o3-V2o5/Zsm-5 Adsorbent/Catalyst Monolith, Khaled Baamran, Ali A. Rownaghi, Fateme Rezaei

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

In this study, we synthesized bifunctional adsorbent/catalyst materials (BFMs) consisting of a C_aO adsorbent admixed with Cr₂O₃-V₂O₅/ZSM-5 catalysts. The obtained BFMs were further formulated, processed, and shaped through additive manufacturing (3D printing) method. The physical and chemical properties of structured C_aO/Cr₂O₃-V₂O₅/ZSM-5 adsorbent/catalyst monoliths were thoroughly characterized and evaluated. The effects of operating conditions including reaction temperature, ethane composition, and space velocity on single-bed CO₂ capture and selective formation of ethylene and hydrogen were systematically investigated. The adsorption-reaction experiments revealed …

Development Opportunities And Technical Challenges Of Industrialization For Hydrogen Production From Bio-Ethanol Reforming, Xue Han, Hong He, Guojun Yue, Hailong Lin, Jinsong Liu, Bin Yu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Bio-ethanol reforming for hydrogen production, using renewable raw materials and adopting mature and efficient chemical processes, is an important source of green hydrogen supply to achieve the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. Bio-ethanol is a widely used substitute for fossil fuels. With the continuous progress of cellulosic ethanol technology in recent years, bio-ethanol will gradually break through the constraints of starch-based raw material supply. Based on the industrialization achievements of hydrogen production and bio-ethanol, bio-ethanol reforming can realize a rapid linkage with the existing hydrogen energy industry. However, the existence of a carbon-carbon signal bond in ethanol poses …

Adsorptive Properties And On-Demand Magnetic Response Of Lignin@Fe3o4 Nanoparticles At Castor Oil–Water Interfaces, Mohammad J. Hasan, Emily Westphal, Peng Chen, Abishek Saini, I-Wei Chu, Sarah J. Watzman, Esteban E. Ureña-Benavides, Erick S. Vasquez

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Lignin@Fe3O4 nanoparticles adsorb at oil–water interfaces, form Pickering emulsions, induce on-demand magnetic responses to break emulsions, and can sequester oil from water. Lignin@Fe3O4 nanoparticles were prepared using a pH-induced precipitation method and were fully characterized. These were used to prepare Pickering emulsions with castor oil/Sudan red G dye and water at various oil/water volume ratios and nanoparticle concentrations. The stability and demulsification of the emulsions under different magnetic fields generated with permanent magnets (0–540 mT) were investigated using microscopy images and by visual inspection over time. The results showed that the Pickering emulsions were more stable at the castor oil/water …

Development Of Battery Materials To Function As Corrosion Protection On Car Body Plates, Tubagus Noor Rohmannudin, Sulistijono Sulistijono, Noval Adrinanda, Faridz Wira Dharma, Samuel Areliano

Journal of Materials Exploration and Findings

Most car bodies made for mass production are made from steel or aluminum. Both are strong metals, but steel is cheaper than aluminum and is more commonly used in lower-end cars for a broader consumer range. The weakness of steel compared to aluminum is that it is susceptible to corrosion under certain conditions, and thus it may deteriorate over time without proper care. To prevent corrosion, modern cars are coated with paint to prevent direct contact with the environment. As a second line of protection, a car battery can be connected to the body to create an impressed current cathodic …

Potential Of Biduri Fiber (Calotropis Gigantea) As Material For Oil Spill Absorbent, Anne Sukmawati, Wulan Septiani

Journal of Materials Exploration and Findings

Biduri fiber (Calotropis gigantea) is a natural hollow fiber with hydrophobic and oleophilic properties potentially used as oil spilled sorbent from seawater. This study aims to determine the absorption capacity and efficiency of the Biduri fiber and membrane to fuel oil. Measurement of oil absorption to seawater was carried out at various fiber weights (0.5-1.5 g), fiber composition (50-95%), contact time (10-90 minutes), temperature (30 and 50°C), and compared with commercial products. The results showed that the fiber weight variation of 0.5-1.5 g has an average absorption efficiency of 96.67%, and the highest absorption was obtained in a weight of …

Residual Trapping Of Co2 And Enhanced Oil Recovery In Oil-Wet Sandstone Core – A Three-Phase Pore-Scale Analysis Using Nmr, Auby Baban, Alireza Keshavarz, Robert Amin, Stefan Iglauer

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Hypothesis: Combining Carbon Geo-sequestration (CGS) with Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) in three-phase flow oil reservoirs is an effective and economically attractive technology to mitigate global warming caused by emission of anthropologic CO2 from fossil fuel combustion, as it offsets some of the costs of CO2 extraction. The targeted oil reservoirs display oil-wet characteristics, primarily because of the strong affinity of polar molecules present in oil; a mixture of a large number of chemical compounds to the rock's surface; and oil-wet surfaces that drastically reduce storage capacity of geological trapping mechanisms and increase the vertical migration of CO2. Thus, it is …

Liquid-Liquid Equilibria Of Water + Ethanol + Castor Oil And The Effect Of Cellulose Nanocrystal/Fe3o4 And Lignin/Fe3o4 Nanoparticles, Mohammad J. Hasan, Fariba Yehaneh, Amy Ciric, Peng Chen, Erick S. Vasquez, Esteban E. Ureña-Benavides

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

Castor oil has been proposed as a renewable solvent for the liquid extraction of ethanol from water as an alternative to more traditional energy intensive distillation-based methods. The liquid–liquid equilibrium (LLE) of the ternary system water + ethanol + castor oil was determined at 295.15 K using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Castor oil was herein treated as a pseudo-component with the molecular weight of the triglyceride of ricinoleic acid. The experimental data was fitted to the UNIQUAC and NRTL models to obtain parameters for castor oil, and binary interaction parameters for castor oil/ethanol and castor oil/water pairs. The separation …

Computational Study Of C-C Coupling Reactions On Heterogeneous Catalysts, Md Saeedur Rahman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The utilization of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in chemical production has attracted global research interest. Reacting CO₂ with methane (CH₄) removes these greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and turns both compounds into building blocks for organic compound synthesis. A commonly explored pathway involves dry reforming of methane (DRM), which reacts CH₄ and CO₂ to form syngas, a mixture of H₂ and CO. Syngas is a widely used feedstock for synthesizing chemicals ranging from methanol to fuels via the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) process. However, DRM has a large positive ΔGº, which requires the …

Influence Of Synthesis Conditions On The Physicochemical And Electrocatalytic Properties Of Non-Stoichiometric Ba2sr2la2ti4o12 Perovskites, Ofeliya Kostadinova, Iliyan Popov, Simeon M. Stankov, Hristo Kolev, Tamara Petkov

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Present work studies the influence of the pretreatment milling media (deionized water (BLTOS-H) and isopropanol (BLTOS-i)) on the surface characteristics, structure, chemical composition and catalytic activity of non-stoichiometric Ba2Sr2La2Ti4O12 perovskites. The IR spectroscopy and XRD analyses shows a difference in the structure and phase composition of the two materials. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy detects a Ba2+- and La3+-enriched and Sr2+-depleted surface. The BLTOS-i sample appears to exhibit higher specific surface area (SSA) and pore volume in comparison to BLTOS-H. The electrochemical tests showed that BLTOS-H sample have similar behavior to platinum at current densi-ties up to 10 mA cm-2, while BLTOS-i …

Enhancing Sustainable Process Designs Through Strategic Material Utilization And Waste Minimization Approaches, John David Chea

Theses and Dissertations

Sustainability is a growing concern as resources are continually depleted for various applications without adequate renewal plans. The resulting impacts on the ecosystem, health, and resource circularity are often overlooked. This research analyzes improvement opportunities at each major stage in a product's life cycle. Raw material acquisition, product synthesis, process waste management, and the fate of a material in the end-of-life phases were examined. The viability of utilizing renewable resources has been demonstrated in this work by extracting bio-based chemicals from underutilized renewable resources at a commercial scale and transforming the extracted resources into polymeric materials. The optimization of raw …

Poly(Pro-Curcumin) Materials Exhibit Dual Release Rates And Prolonged Antioxidant Activity As Thin Films And Self-Assembled Particles, Ruiwen Chen, Jessica L. Funnell, Geraldine B. Quinones, Marvin Bentley, Jeffrey R. Capadona, Ryan J. Gilbert, Edmund F. Palermo

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Curcumin is a natural polyphenol that exhibits remarkable antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities; however, its clinical application is limited in part by its physiological instability. Here, we report the synthesis of curcumin-derived polyesters that release curcumin upon hydrolytic degradation to improve curcumin stability and solubility in physiological conditions. Curcumin was incorporated in the polymer backbone by a one-pot condensation polymerization in the presence of sebacoyl chloride and polyethylene glycol (PEG, Mn = 1 kDa). The thermal and mechanical properties, surface wettability, self-assembly behavior, and drug-release kinetics all depend sensitively on the mole percentage of curcumin incorporated in these statistical copolymers. Curcumin …

Figure Data From "Electrochemical Identification Of Metal Chlorides In Eutectic Licl-Kcl Without Prior Knowledge Of Analyte Identities", Tyler Williams, Jason Torrie, Mark Schvaneveldt, Ranon Fuller, Greg Chipman, Devin Rappleye

ScholarsArchive Data

This is the data associated with figures found in a publication by the authors with the name of "Electrochemical Identification of Metal Chlorides in Eutectic LiCl-KCl Without Prior Knowledge of Analyte Identities".

Some of the data saved here is raw data collected by an Autolab potentiostat, while other data was derived from this raw data. Please reach out to the corresponding author for further questions.

Deep Transfer Learning For Approximate Model Predictive Control, Samuel Arce Munoz, Junho Park, Cristina M. Stewart, Adam M. Martin, John Hedengren

Faculty Publications

Transfer learning is a machine learning technique that takes a pre-trained model that has already been trained on a related task, and adapts it for use on a new, related task. This is particularly useful in the context of model predictive control (MPC), where deep transfer learning is used to improve the training of the MPC by leveraging the knowledge gained from related controllers. One way in which transfer learning is applied in the context of MPC is by using a pre-trained deep learning model of the MPC, and then fine-tuning the controller training for a new process automation task. …

Nafion Modified Titanium Nitride Ph Sensor For Future Biomedical Applications, Shimrith Paul Shylendra, Magdalena Wajrak, Kamal Alameh, James Jin Kang

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

pH sensors are increasingly being utilized in the biomedical field and have been implicated in health applications that aim to improve the monitoring and treatment of patients. In this work, a previously developed Titanium Nitride (TiN) solid-state pH sensor is further enhanced, with the potential to be used for pH regulation inside the human body and for other biomedical, industrial, and environmental applications. One of the main limitations of existing solid-state pH sensors is their reduced performance in high redox mediums. The potential shift E⁰ value of the previously developed TiN pH electrode in the presence of oxidizing or …

Engineering At-Home Dilution And Filtration Methods To Enable Paper-Based Colorimetric Biosensing In Human Blood With Cell-Free Protein Synthesis, Tyler J. Free, Ryan W. Tucker, Katelyn M. Simonson, Sydney A. Smith, Caleb M. Lindgren, William G. Pitt, Bradley C. Bundy

Faculty Publications

Diagnostic blood tests can guide the administration of healthcare to save and improve lives. Most clinical biosensing blood tests require a trained technician and specialized equipment to process samples and interpret results, which greatly limits test accessibility. Colorimetric paper-based diagnostics have an equipment-free readout, but raw blood obscures a colorimetric response which has motivated diverse efforts to develop blood sample processing techniques. This work uses inexpensive readily-available materials to engineer user-friendly dilution and filtration methods for blood sample collection and processing to enable a proof-of-concept colorimetric biosensor that is responsive to glutamine in 50 µL blood drop samples in less …

Using Computational Fluid Dynamics And Optical Sensor Technology To Scale Cell Culture Platforms, Mandar Makwana

KGI Theses and Dissertations

Different cell culture vessels ranging from micro scale to laboratory scale to commercial scale play critical role in upstream process development for biologics manufacturing. Based on the mode of operation, cell culture vessels have different hydrodynamic environments, making it challenging to scale. Integrated approaches using computational tools supported by experimental studies can overcome these challenges. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is one such tool that can simulate hydrodynamics within the cell culture vessels and can provide insights at macro and micro-scale. Accuracy of a CFD model significantly depends on the fluid model and assumptions. Traditionally, simple two-equation fluid models were developed …

Concentration Field Based Micropore Flow Rate Measurements, Matia P. Edwards, Samuel F. D. J. Gómez, Michael S. H. Boutilier

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Publications

Demand is growing for a larger catalogue of experimental techniques to measure flow rates through micro-/nanoscale systems for both fundamental research and device development. Flow emerging from a hole in a plane wall is a common system of interest in such work for its relevance to membrane separation. In this paper, we consider the possibility of measuring volume flow rates through small scale orifice plates from images of dye dispersions downstream. Based on approximate analytical solutions to the advection–diffusion equation, we show that, at low Reynolds numbers, the concentration in the nearly hemispherical plume that forms increases linearly with inverse …

Comparative Analysis Of Artificial Intelligence And Numerical Reservoir Simulation In Marcellus Shale Wells, Arya Maher Sattari

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation addresses the limitations of conventional numerical reservoir simulation techniques in the context of unconventional shale plays and proposes the use of data-driven artificial intelligence (AI) models as a promising alternative. Traditional methods, while providing valuable insights, often rely on simplifying assumptions and are constrained by time, resources, and data quality. The research leverages AI models to handle the complexities of shale behavior more effectively, facilitating accurate predictions and optimizations with less resource expenditure.

Two specific methodologies are investigated for this purpose: traditional numerical reservoir simulations using Computer Modelling Group's GEM reservoir simulation software, and an AI-based Shale Analytics …