461 research outputs found
Film dynamics and lubricant depletion by droplets moving on lubricated surfaces
Lubricated surfaces have shown promise in numerous applications where
impinging foreign droplets must be removed easily; however, before they can be
widely adopted, the problem of lubricant depletion, which eventually leads to
decreased performance, must be solved. Despite recent progress, a quantitative
mechanistic explanation for lubricant depletion is still lacking. Here, we
first explained the shape of a droplet on a lubricated surface by balancing the
Laplace pressures across interfaces. We then showed that the lubricant film
thicknesses beneath, behind, and wrapping around a moving droplet change
dynamically with droplet's speed---analogous to the classical
Landau-Levich-Derjaguin problem. The interconnected lubricant dynamics results
in the growth of the wetting ridge around the droplet, which is the dominant
source of lubricant depletion. We then developed an analytic expression for the
maximum amount of lubricant that can be depleted by a single droplet.
Counter-intuitively, faster moving droplets subjected to higher driving forces
deplete less lubricant than their slower moving counterparts. The insights
developed in this work will inform future work and the design of longer-lasting
lubricated surfaces
Magnetic nanocomposites at microwave frequencies
Most conventional magnetic materials used in the electronic devices are
ferrites, which are composed of micrometer-size grains. But ferrites have small
saturation magnetization, therefore the performance at GHz frequencies is
rather poor. That is why functionalized nanocomposites comprising magnetic
nanoparticles (e.g. Fe, Co) with dimensions ranging from a few nm to 100 nm,
and embedded in dielectric matrices (e.g. silicon oxide, aluminium oxide) have
a significant potential for the electronics industry. When the size of the
nanoparticles is smaller than the critical size for multidomain formation,
these nanocomposites can be regarded as an ensemble of particles in
single-domain states and the losses (due for example to eddy currents) are
expected to be relatively small. Here we review the theory of magnetism in such
materials, and we present a novel measurement method used for the
characterization of the electromagnetic properties of composites with
nanomagnetic insertions. We also present a few experimental results obtained on
composites consisting of iron nanoparticles in a dielectric matrix.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figures, 5 table
Europe’s Care Regimes and the Role of Migrant Care Workers Within Them
This paper is an examination of the recent restructuring and subsequent convergence of European long-term care models. This paper also aims to highlight the increased role of migrant care workers and the need for great social and governmental recognition for all care providers. The provision of long term care is complex, divided between state, market and family providers; the state alone could not and does not act as the sole provider of care (Banks 1998). The extent to which different sectors are relied upon is largely dependent on the ideology of the country's welfare state (Timonen and Doyle 2007)
A Coarse-grained Model for Aqueous Two-phase Systems: Application to Ferrofluids
Aqueous two-phase systems (ATPSs), that is, phase-separating solutions of
water soluble but mutually immiscible molecular species, offer fascinating
prospects for selective partitioning, purification, and extraction. Here, we
formulate a general Brownian dynamics based coarse-grained simulation model for
a polymeric ATPS comprising two water soluble but mutually immiscible polymer
species. A third solute species, representing, e.g., nanoparticles (NPs),
additional macromolecular species, or impurities can readily be incorporated
into the model. We demonstrate that the model captures satisfactorily the phase
separation, partitioning, and interfacial properties of a model ATPS composed
of a polymer mixture of dextran and polyethylene glycol (PEG) in which magnetic
NPs selectively partition into one of the two polymeric phases. The NP
partitioning is characterized both via the computational model and
experimentally under different conditions. The simulation model captures the
trends observed in the experiments and quantitatively links the partitioning
behavior to the component species interactions. Finally, the response of the
simulation model to external magnetic field, with the magnetic NPs as the
additional partitioned component, shows that the ATPS interface fluctuations
can be controlled by the magnetic field at length scales much smaller than
those probed experimentally to date
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