At the 10th Keio Techno-Mall, in December 2009 at Tokyo International Forum, results of microbubble research were exhibited in the Terasaka Laboratory booth.
Microbubbles are just a few microns in diameter. Because microbubbles behave differently from ordinary bubbles in liquids, theyre expected to have many applications.
Q. As an application of microbubbles, theyve been used quite often in practice for water purification in agriculture or lakes. But so far, there havent been many advances in applying them to materials with new functions, for example chemical functions. But if the special properties of microbubbles are added to various chemical products, its possible to obtain materials with very high added value or with great significance for the environment. So were pursuing these possibilities aggressively.
At Kei Techno-Mall, two research results were presented, based on Professor Terasakas ideas. One was functional materials using microbubbles.
Q. Among the various properties of microbubbles is that, because theyre very small, its hard for them to escape from the liquid phase. So where theres a microbubble, the liquid is excluded from that space, and consequently, the overall specific gravity becomes very low. Weve used this property by encapsulating microbubbles in gel beads. As you can see, the red gel beads dont contain microbubbles, but the blue gel beads do. When we agitate the beads like this, those with the microbubbles and those without mix in the same way. But when we press this switch and stop the convection, the beads with microbubbles, which are more buoyant, naturally rise. The beads without microbubbles quickly sink. In this way, one function of microbubbles is that they can be used to adjust specific gravity.
The booth also featured an exhibit on mass production of microbubbles. Until now, its been very difficult to develop technology for making microbubbles where the liquid isnt moving. But the Terasaka Lab has developed technology for generating small hydrogen bubbles through electrolysis, by placing electrodes in a weak gel-water solution. The Lab is also researching many other topics, with a view to practical applications in reaction engineering. These include developing a process for removing iron oxide particles using microbubbles and a new crystal precipitation process, as well as forming and breaking up microbubble clusters using ultrasound.
Q. Microbubble technology is very friendly to the environment. The microbubble materials are very safe gases such as air, and the technology can be freely applied to various liquids. Its very attractive to be able to create highly functional materials at low cost using microbubbles. And its possible that these materials could play a very big role in cleaning up the environment. Also, as this technology originated in Japan, we hope that by pioneering it worldwide, we can help to vitalize the Japanese economy as well.
Негізгі бет Ғылым және технология Toward an eco-friendly future with microbubble technology : Terasaka's Group
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