Capillary condensation in mesoporous silica with surface roughness

Moisture Behavior of Pharmaceutical Powder during the Tableting Process

The moisture content of pharmaceutical powder is a key parameter contributing to tablet sticking during the tableting process. This study investigates powder moisture behavior during the compaction phase of the tableting process. Finite element analysis software COMSOL Multiphysics^® 5.6 was used to simulate the compaction microcrystalline cellulose (VIVAPUR PH101) powder and predict temperature and moisture content distributions, as well as their evolution over time, during a single compaction. To validate the simulation, a near-infrared sensor and a thermal infrared camera were used to measure tablet surface temperature and surface moisture, respectively, just after ejection. The partial least squares regression (PLS) method was used to predict the surface moisture content of the ejected tablet. Thermal infrared camera images of the ejected tablet showed powder bed temperature increasing during compaction and a gradual rise in tablet temperature along with tableting runs. Simulation results showed that moisture evaporate from the compacted powder bed to the surrounding environment. The predicted surface moisture content of ejected tablets after compaction was higher compared to that of loose powder and decreased gradually as tableting runs increased. These observations suggest that the moisture evaporating from the powder bed accumulates at the interface between the punch and tablet surface. Evaporated water molecules can be physiosorbed on the punch surface and cause a capillary condensation locally at the punch and tablet interface during dwell time. Locally formed capillary bridge may induce a capillary force between tablet surface particles and the punch surface and cause the sticking.

Exploring the Interfacial Phase and π-π Stacking in Aligned Carbon Nanotube/Polyimide Nanocomposites

To characterize the interfacial microstructure and interaction at a nanoscale has a significant meaning for the interface improvement of the nanocomposites. In this study, the interfacial microstructure and features of aligned multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) and conjugated polymer polyimide (PI) with three molecular structures were investigated using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), wide-angle x-ray diffraction (WAXD), and fluorescence emission spectroscopy. It was found that aligned MWNT/PI nanocomposites had a nonideal two-phase system with the interfaces belonging to long period stacking ordered structure. Attributed to the π-π stacking effect, MWNT/BTDA-MPD presented the most regular arrangement verified by fractal dimension. By adopting a one-dimension correlation function, each phase dimension in aligned MWNT/PI nanocomposites was calculated and verified by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The π-π stacking was demonstrated to be an important interaction between MWNT and PI via WAXD and fluorescence emission spectroscopy, and it was influenced by the linkage bond between benzene rings in PIs. This work is of significance to reveal the interfacial features between conjugated polymer and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), which is favorable for the interface design of CNT-based high performance nanocomposites.

Critical energy barrier for capillary condensation in mesopores: Hysteresis and reversibility

Capillary condensation in the regime of developing hysteresis occurs at a vapor pressure, Pcond, that is less than that of the vapor-like spinodal. This is because the energy barrier for the vapor-liquid transition from a metastable state at Pcond becomes equal to the energy fluctuation of the system; however, a detailed mechanism of the spontaneous transition has not been acquired even through extensive experimental and simulation studies. We therefore construct accurate atomistic silica mesopore models for MCM-41 and perform molecular simulations (gauge cell Monte Carlo and grand canonical Monte Carlo) for argon adsorption on the models at subcritical temperatures. A careful comparison between the simulation and experiment reveals that the energy barrier for the capillary condensation has a critical dimensionless value, Wc (*) = 0.175, which corresponds to the thermal fluctuation of the system and depends neither on the mesopore size nor on the temperature. We show that the critical energy barrier Wc (*) controls the capillary condensation pressure Pcond and also determines a boundary between the reversible condensation/evaporation regime and the developing hysteresis regime.

Pore Size Effect on Methane Adsorption in Mesoporous Silica Materials Studied by Small-Angle Neutron Scattering

Methane adsorption in model mesoporous silica materials with the size range characteristic of shale is studied by small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). Size effect on the temperature-dependent gas adsorption at methane pressure about 100 kPa is investigated by SANS using MCM-41 and SBA-15 as adsorbents. Above the gas-liquid condensation temperature, the thickness of the adsorption layer is found to be roughly constant as a function of the temperature. Moreover, the gas adsorption properties, such as the adsorbed layer thickness and the specific amount of adsorbed gas, have little dependence on the pore size being studied, i.e., pore radius of 16.5 and 34.1 Å, but are mainly affected by the roughness of the pore surfaces. Hence, the surface properties of the pore wall are more dominant than the pore size in determining the methane gas adsorption of pores at the nanometer size range. Not surprisingly, the gas-liquid condensation temperature is observed to be sensitive to pore size and shifts to higher temperature when the pore size is smaller. Below the gas-liquid condensation temperature, even though the majority of gas adsorption experiments/simulations have assumed the density of confined liquid to be the same as the bulk density, the measured methane mass density in our samples is found to be appreciably smaller than the bulk methane density regardless of the pore sizes studied here. The mass density of liquid/solid methane in pores with different sizes shows different temperature dependence below the condensation temperature. With decreasing temperature, the methane density in larger pores (SBA-15) abruptly increases at approximately 65 K and then plateaus. In contrast, the density in smaller pores (MCM-41) monotonically increases with decreasing temperature before reaching a plateau at approximately 30 K.