Nanocomposites for Additive Manufacturing
Additive Manufacturing (AM) is one of several technological breakthroughs that is expected to lead the factories of the future, where conventional equipment will be transformed into smart and flexible systems, run by computers that will allow the fabrication of customized parts. Some authors have called AM the third industrial revolution, as it enables the accurate manufacture of pieces of virtually any shape in different scales, ranging from visual prototypes to specific functional end-use products at relatively short periods of time. Medical applications of AM is one of the key industries driving the innovations in the field, especially because of the possibility to fabricate products individually tailored to the patient’s specific needs. The integration of nanomaterials in the area of AM has a lot of potential and there is a growing interest in academia and industry to explore for new developments. In this section, we examine some successful uses of nanocomposites in additive manufacturing processes.
Evaluation of cassava (Manihot Esculentum) seed waste Activated carbon for kinetic study on methylene blue dye adsorption from aqueous solution
The effect of activation temperature on activated carbon was studied at 400o C, 500oC and 600oC respectively. The characterization properties showed that increased in temperature reduces yield, moisture content, ash content and volatile content but increased fixed carbon, pore volume and porosity. Batch experiment was conducted by varying the dosage of activated carbon (0.2g – 0.6g) and contact time (40 -120 min) on adsorption of methylene blue dye from aqueous solution. The experimental data was fitted to pseudo first and second order kinetics in order to verify the rate controlling mechanism. The pseudo second order model showed a better fit with the highest correlation coefficient of 0.998. The adsorption capacity q computed was found to be 6.561 mg/g and 16.129 mg/g showed deviation from the experimental value of 11.00 mg/g for the both kinetics. The equilibrated isotherm data was also fitted to Langmuir, Freundlich and Dabinin-Radushkevich. Freundlich model has the best fit with R2 = 0.914. The energy of adsorption was calculated using the Dabinin-Radushkevich model and found to be 5.89 kJ/ mol.