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This study evaluates energy-economic (2-E) efficiency by reducing the glass cover temperatures and enhancing the condensation rates in solar desalination systems. This improvement is accomplished by incorporating natural kenaf fibers. The research introduces an innovative modification to a conventional solar desalination system (CSDS) by implementing a water-dripping mechanism using kenaf fibers positioned atop the glass cover. Experimental investigations were conducted on both the unmodified CSDS and the solar desalination system with kenaf fibers (SDSK) under analogous meteorological conditions to scrutinize the impact of natural fibers on freshwater production within an environmentally sustainable solar desalination paradigm. The integration of water dripping and fibers significantly led to a substantial reduction in glass temperatures, manifesting as a 30% decrease compared to the conventional CSDS. Furthermore, the distillate productivity of SDSK exhibited a remarkable enhancement of 48% relative to CSDS. Beyond its thermal performance, the cost per liter of potable water obtained from SDSK was determined to be ₹1.35, accompanied by a swift payback period of merely 3.9 months. In contrast, the corresponding figures for CSDS were ₹2.32 and 5.7 months, respectively. These findings underscore the advantages of incorporating kenaf fibers and water-dripping technology in solar desalination. This results in enhanced performance and cost-effective and expedited access to clean drinking water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The escalating significance of 3D printing in various industries is underscored by its ability to rapidly and cost-effectively produce distinctive parts. Among the 3D printing methods, fused filament fabrication (FFF) has emerged as a highly productive and cost-effective approach. While extensive efforts have been made to enhance the qualities of FFF products, challenges persist in material availability and quality compared to traditional methods. This study provides a meticulous overview of the FFF process, delving into various 3D printing processes, polymers, and polymer composites. Despite documented efforts to augment mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties, material constraints remain a focal point. Our analysis extends to various PLA/biocomposites, shedding light on achieved improvements and potential applications. Looking forward, the future trend in FFF technology suggests a paradigm shift towards enhanced material diversity and performance. Anticipated applications span beyond traditional use cases, encompassing sustainable manufacturing, medical devices, and eco-friendly construction materials. This comprehensive review not only consolidates the current state of FFF and PLA-biocomposites but also anticipates future trends and potential applications. This research enhances the current knowledge of additive manufacturing and sets a standard for assessing developments in FFF technology by comparing them to previous works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

3D printing technology has revolutionized free-form construction and customization demand through its ease of use, fast production, accurate, regulated deposition, and flexibility with soft functional materials. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is an ideal technique for the 3D printing of plastics. The low cost, high prototyping precision, and ease of use make it a popular additive manufacturing process. The dimensional stability, quality, functionality, and properties of printed specimens are all affected by the process parameters used in the FDM technology. As such, the present work investigates the effect of the infill pattern and infill density on the PETG mechanical characteristics. The work also finds the optimum parameters to enhance the mechanical properties using the response surface methodology (RSM). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to study micro-surface defects under different processing conditions. Based on the tensile strength experiments, the concentric pattern was recorded to have the highest UTS, E, and yield values compared to the other designs, at 28.53 MPa, 0.81 GPa, and 20.00 MPa, respectively. In contrast, from compression analysis, the highest compression strength and compression modulus (24.03 MPa and 3.71 GPa, respectively) were obtained for the triangular infill pattern, which absorbs more compressive force compared with the other patterns. Meanwhile, it was also observed that increasing the density from 25 to 75% improves mechanical properties. The RSM analysis reveals the significant parameters for both testing methodologies with mathematical models to predict the properties with 95% certainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The valorization and repurposing of waste materials for sustainable outcomes and environmental mitigation are gaining prominence. This investigation explores the feasibility of repurposing discarded automotive engine oil as a viable means of energy storage in solar thermal desalination applications. A novel approach combining discarded engine oil with Paraffin wax in equal parts by volume is proposed as a composite energy storage (CES) to enhance nocturnal production and efficiency. The experimental findings show that the composite energy storage system has 26.54 % higher thermal conductivity and 44.66 % greater specific heat energy storage capacity compared to pure paraffin wax. Comparing the Desalination System with Engine Oil-based Energy Storage (DSEES) to a Traditional Solar Desalination System (TSDS) without energy storage, considering water and absorber temperatures and distillate production, reveals compelling advantages. DSEES exhibits remarkable temperature increases of 14 % in the basin and 11 % in water, alongside a significant 52.72 % rise in distillate production rates, yielding 3.36 and 3.16 l/sq.mt compared to TSDS's 2.2 and 2.1 l/sq.mt over two testing days. Cost analysis indicates DSEES's 33.7 % lower cost per liter and 33.8 % shorter payback period relative to TSDS. Furthermore, environmental assessment highlights DSEES's 60.8 % greater net carbon credit, indicating reduced ecological impact. • Composite energy storage (CES) is developed with discarded engine oil and paraffin wax. • The thermal conductivity and specific heat storage of CES are enhanced by 26.54% and 44.66% relative to pure paraffin wax. • Basin and Water temperatures of CES-based desalination systems are improved by 14% and 11% compared to conventional systems. • Compared to conventional systems, the distillate production of CES-based desalination systems is augmented by 52.72%. • CES-based desalination systems reduced production costs and environmental footprint more effectively than conventional systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, 3D printing technology has played an essential role in fabricating customized products at a low cost and faster in numerous industrial sectors. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is one of the most efficient and economical 3D printing techniques. Various materials have been developed and studied, and their properties, such as mechanical, thermal, and electrical, have been reported. Numerous attempts to improve FDM products' properties for applications in various sectors have also been reported. Still, their applications are limited due to the materials' availability and properties compared to traditional fabrication methods. In 3D printing, the process parameters are crucial factors for improving the product's properties and reducing the machining time and cost. Researchers have recently investigated many approaches for expanding the range of materials and optimizing the FDM process parameters to extend the FDM process's possibility into various industrial sectors. This paper reviews and explains various techniques used in 3D printing and the various polymers and polymer composites used in the FDM process. The list of mechanical investigations carried out for different materials, process parameters, properties, and the FDM process's potential application was discussed. This review is expected to indicate the materials and their optimized parameters to achieve enhanced properties and applications. Also, the article is highly anticipated to provide the research gaps to sustenance future research in the area of FDM technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Processing complex parts with high dimension accuracy and cost-effectiveness can be achievable using the fused deposition modeling (FDM) technique. It is one of the highly efficient methods in the additive manufacturing process. However, limitation in working temperature is the main drawback associated with the FDM technique, which has caused the applicability of low melting temperature materials in this technology, such as PLA. Lack of mechanical strength and critical parameters such as thermal/electrical conductivity in the final printed products through the FDM technique is another deficiency in this manufacturing process. The problems mentioned above have gained researchers' attention to explore new composite materials as filament for FDM technology. In this research work, copper-reinforced polylactic acid (PLA) specimens are printed with copper composition variation (25 and 80 wt.%) and various infill patterns including rectilinear, grid, concentric, octagram-spiral, and honeycomb to investigate its mechanical properties. The geometry of test specimens was fabricated according to ASTM standard using a low-cost FDM printer. The mechanical properties consist of tensile properties, flexural properties, and compression properties. The highest ultimate tensile strength (UTS) is obtained by applying 25 wt.% copper composition and concentric infill pattern recording 25.20 MPa. In contrast, the flexural strength revealed the maximum value of 38.53 MPa. The highest compressive strength is obtained by grid infill pattern with 25.94 MPa for 25 wt.% Cu compositions. Response surface methodology (RSM) has been executed to evaluate the influencing parameters, and mathematical models to predict the mechanical properties have been proposed to estimate the properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary material supply is the heart of engineering and sciences. The depletion of natural resources and an increase in the human population by a billion in 13 to 15 years pose a critical concern regarding the sustainability of these materials; therefore, functionalizing renewable materials, such as nanocellulose, by possibly exploiting their properties for various practical applications, has been undertaken worldwide. Nanocellulose has emerged as a dominant green natural material with attractive and tailorable physicochemical properties, is renewable and sustainable, and shows biocompatibility and tunable surface properties. Nanocellulose is derived from cellulose, the most abundant polymer in nature with the remarkable properties of nanomaterials. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the methods used for nanocellulose preparation, structure–property and structure–property correlations, and the application of nanocellulose and its nanocomposite materials. This article differentiates the classification of nanocellulose, provides a brief account of the production methods that have been developed for isolating nanocellulose, highlights a range of unique properties of nanocellulose that have been extracted from different kinds of experiments and studies, and elaborates on nanocellulose potential applications in various areas. The present review is anticipated to provide the readers with the progress and knowledge related to nanocellulose. Pushing the boundaries of nanocellulose further into cutting-edge applications will be of particular interest in the future, especially as cost-effective commercial sources of nanocellulose continue to emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents results and. discussion from a comprehensive morphological and crystallographic characterization of nickel nanowires synthesized by template-based electro-deposition method. In particular, the influence of magnetic and electric field (current density) conditions during the synthesis of nickel nanowires was studied. The structure and morphology of the synthesized nanowires were studied using Helium ion microscopy (HIM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) methods. The HIM provided higher quality data and resolution compared to conventional SEM imaging. The crystallographic properties of the grown nanowires were also studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results clearly indicated that the morphological and crystallographic properties of synthesized nickel nanowires were strongly influenced by the applied magnetic field and current density intensity during the synthesis process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ordered arrays of anisotropic mesostructure metal nanoparticle (diameter size in the range of 15 to 200 nm) characteristics are indeed influenced by the combined effect of packing constraints and inter-particle interactions, that is, the two morphological factors that strongly influence the creation of the particles' shape. In this work, we studied on how the degree of truncation of Ag nanoparticles authorised the mesostructured morphologies and particle orientation preferences within the mesosparticle arrays. The Ag represented the best and most versatile candidate and known for its highest electrical conductivities among other transition metals in periodic table. The interest is motivated by the need to understand the inevitable morphological transformation from mesoscopic to microscopic states evolve within the scope of progressive aggregation of atomic constituents of Ag system. The grazing information obtained from HR-TEM shows that Ag mesosparticles of highly truncated flake are assembled in fcc-type mesostructure, similar to the arrays formed by microscopic quasi-spherical structure, but with significantly reduced packing density and different growth orientations. The detailed information on the size and microstructure transformation have been gathered by fast Fourier transform (FFT) of HR-TEM images, allowing us to figure out the role of Ag defects that anchored the variation in crystallite growth of different mean diameter size particles. The influences on the details of the nanostructures have to be deeply understood to promote practical applications for such outstanding Ag material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cutting-edge technological advancements have dramatically shifted toward flexible and wearable electronic devices. Intrinsic conductive polymer Polyaniline (PANI) is acting as a protagonist in this sector because of its synergistic optical and electrical properties of both metals and semiconductors. However, PANI applications can be restricted due to their rigid-brittle form, relative conductivity, and specific choice of solvents for processing. Integrating PANI with textile material can provide interesting interactive functionality for wearable electronics applications. This paper investigates the electrochemical characterization and joule heating performance of Polyaniline (PANI) induced cotton fabric by implementing a straightforward in-situ chemical oxidative polymerization. Conductivity augmentation of PANI-induced Cotton fabric is performed using a facile pre-treatment process and by varying dopant concentrations. Optical microscopic imaging, SEM, probe conductivity test, FTIR analysis, cyclic voltammetry, and joule heating performance were performed to justify the findings. The impact of the pretreatment process using NaOH can enhance the conductivity significantly by reducing the surface resistivity to 1.39 kΩ/cm, which showed better performance than fabric coated with Poly (3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT: PSS, 10 Dipping cycles). Additionally, the PANI-treated fabric has a long-term heating capacity. A DC bias power source with a voltage range of 1–30 V was used to study the fabric Joule heating behaviour. Uniform heating and a subsequent steady temperature profile are observed. The PANI coated fabric could be used for sensing, joule-heating, and electromagnetic shielding applications in wearable electronics and advanced transport design. • Polyaniline-Cotton incorporation via in-situ oxidative polymerization. • Achieved surface resistivity of 1.39 kΩ/cm. • Fabric temperature reached 38 °C (within 30s) by applying a 15 V DC power supply. • The textile material can be used as a responsive thermoregulatory interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of insects as a biofuel feedstock has received limited research, and little is known about the fuel characteristics of insect biofuel. Fuel properties characterization can guide researchers focused on renewable fuel for the internal combustion engine. Therefore, this investigation focused on the physical-chemical properties modification of Hermetia illucens larvae oil (HILO) and diesel fuel blends, which could highly become an alternative renewable fuel. Five test fuel blends of HILO and diesel fuel were prepared at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% on a volume basis. Fuel properties such as chemical composition, density, viscosity, heating value, cetane number, and flash point of the test fuel blends were analyzed and compared to the diesel fuel. The main physical-chemical properties of HILO-diesel fuel blends were determined following the ASTM standards. Based on the results, the density, viscosity, cetane number, and flash point of the diesel fuel-HILO fuel blends were increased by 11.28%, 740.30%, 16.92%, and 86.67%, respectively, with the addition of HILO, except for the heating value reduced by 13.66%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Friction and wear are the main factors in the failure of the piston in automobile engines. The objective of this work was to improve the tribological behaviour and lubricant properties using hybrid Cellulose Nanocrystal (CNC) and Copper (II) oxide nanoparticles blended with SAE 40 as a base fluid. The two-step method was used in the hybrid nanofluid preparation. Three different concentrations were prepared in a range of 0.1% to 0.5%. Kinematic viscosity and viscosity index were also identified. The friction and wear behavior were evaluated using a tribometer based on ASTM G181. The CNC-CuO nano lubricant shows a significant improvement in term of viscosity index by 44.3–47.12% while for friction, the coefficient of friction (COF) decreases by 1.5%, respectively, during high and low-speed loads (boundary regime), and 30.95% during a high-speed, and low load (mixed regime). The wear morphologies results also show that a smoother surface was obtained after using CNC-CuO nano lubricant compared to SAE 40. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• New better nanofluids compositions were formulated using different surfactant. • The nanofluids depicted anomalous thermal conductivity augmentation. • Unprecedented dynamic viscosity reduction using surfactants was observed. • Comprehensive viscoelastic and shear flow behaviour in the presence of surfactants. • Concentration optimization with improvement in thermal conductivity and viscosity. The present study reports stability, thermal conductivity and rheological properties of reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/ethylene glycol (EG) based nanofluids at three volume concentrations (0.02%, 0.04%, 0.05%). The properties of the prepared nanofluids were comprehensively characterised and analysed by employing different techniques such as field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), particle size analyser, Zetasizer, UV–vis spectrometry, rheometer, thermal conductivity meter and a pH measurement system. The effect of various surfactants such as SDS, SDBS and CTAB at four volume concentrations (0.05%, 0.5%, 1%, 2%) on the thermo-physical properties of the nanofluid were investigated. The experimental analysis revealed that the concentration of rGO and surfactants has greatly influenced stability, particle size distribution, dynamic viscosity and the thermal conductivity of the nanofluids. In addition, the viscoelastic rheological analysis shows considerable yield stress due to the presence of the rGO which was subsequently improved by surfactant, whereas non-Newtonian flow prevails at a shear rate below 10 s−1 followed by Newtonian behaviour afterward. Besides, temperature sweep measurements within temperature range (25–70 °C) indicates that the viscosity decrease with temperature and improvement persists. Consequently, the results suggested that the surfactants improve the zeta potential but the average particle size of colloids also increases due to agglomeration. The optimum rGO/EG nanofluid (0.02% rGO with 1% SDBS) was selected based on maximum thermal conductivity enhancement (11.3%), high relative concentration (~83% after four days) and the reduction in viscosity (~14.4% less than ethylene glycol). However, anomalous reduction in dynamic viscosity up to 22% and an increase in thermal conductivity up to 11.3% propose the use of surfactant base nanofluids in potential engineering applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]