Biomedical subjects

Jan Czarnecki

Publications and source records attributed to Jan Czarnecki.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Aqueous foam films stabilized by sodium naphthenates.

Stratification of a foam liquid film drawn from aqueous solutions of sodium naphthenate at relatively high concentration is likely due to a lamellar liquid crystal-like structure within the film. Film stratification, resulting in stepwise thinning, has been observed in foam films formed from systems containing either moderate to high concentrations of surfactant or in films formed from solutions containing solid particles. At moderate surfactant concentrations, film stratification is likely due to layers of ordered spherical micelles as postulated in Wasan and Nikolov's model of film stratification. At high surfactant concentrations, stepwise thinning of the films and occurrence of domains of uniform color within the film suggest a lamellar liquid crystal-like structure within the film, potentially up to hundred or more oriented layers. The LLC-like structure inside the film can occur at concentrations below the lower limit of the LLC existence as a bulk phase.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

Development and immunochemical evaluation of antibodies Y for the poorly immunogenic polypeptide prothymosin alpha.

Since conserved mammalian polypeptides are believed to exhibit enhanced immunogenicity in avian species, hens were immunized against the poorly immunogenic, highly conserved mammalian polypeptide prothymosin alpha (ProTalpha), i.e. against either non-conjugated ProTalpha (isolated from bovine thymus) or ProTalpha conjugated to keyhole limpet hemocyanin (ProTalpha/KLH). The antibodies Y were isolated from the egg yolk and evaluated through suitable dot-blot and ELISA systems in parallel with antibodies G isolated from the antiserum of rabbits immunized against the same immunogens. As revealed, antibodies Y and G of low titer and/or affinity were obtained against non-conjugated ProTalpha, while antibodies Y against ProTalpha/KLH had a better apparent titer, could better discriminate between ProTalpha and the closely related bioactive peptide thymosin alpha 1, and were obtained at much larger quantities than the corresponding antibodies G.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

PubMed2005

On the nature of Athabasca Oil Sands.

The existence of a thin aqueous film, separating bitumen (a form of heavy oil) from inorganic solids in Athabasca Oil Sands, is analysed based on "first principles". There is a general consensus in the literature on the hydrophilic character of the solids in oil sands. However, a review of the references cited in support of the solids being encapsulated in thin water envelopes produced a surprising lack of evidence. A theoretical analysis indicates that a water film separating clean, hydrophilic quartz and bitumen is stable under most conditions, and unstable for acidic oil sand ores. The existence of water-wet solids in the Athabasca Oil Sands remains a reasonable yet unproven postulate. It could therefore be dangerous to accept the water-wet solids postulate and then use it to interpret other phenomena.

Colloids↗

PubMed2005

Adsorption isotherms of associating asphaltenes at oil/water interfaces based on the dependence of interfacial tension on solvent activity.

In the Gibbs adsorption equation, the application of solvent activity for the calculation of the surface/interfacial excess is proposed for nonideal or associating or pseudocomponents such as asphaltenes. For the aforementioned systems, only the mass-based phenomenological interfacial excess can be determined based on interfacial tension versus activity data. The use of the mole fraction is compared to the use of the activity when the adsorbed amount of associating asphaltenes is calculated at a water/toluene interface. Langmuir-type isotherms describe the adsorption of asphaltenes at toluene/water interfaces. Asphaltenes were treated to remove the resins and natural surfactants using cyclic precipitation and dissolution of asphaltenes at a fixed aliphatic/aromatic ratio. Different fractions of asphaltenes were obtained by changing the aliphatic/aromatic ratio of the precipitating solvent. The limiting molar masses of asphaltenes measured by vapor pressure osmometry are different for fractions precipitated at different heptane to toluene ratios. The mass-based adsorbed amounts at the water/toluene interface, at a 0.1 asphaltene-to-toluene mass-ratio, varied in the range of 0.8-2.8 mg/m(2), depending on the molar mass of asphaltenes.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

Stepwise thickening in aqueous foam films stabilized by sodium naphthenates.

During drainage of a foam film formed from an aqueous sodium naphthenate solution, a transient, local, stepwise thickening process was observed. Film stratification is related to the stepwise thinning drainage process where individual layers of material are drained from a film. The process typically involves the appearance of a sequence of small, uniformly thick spots that eventually expand to the size of the film. The appearance and growth of each spot represents a discrete decrease in the thickness of the film. The size of each decrease or step typically corresponds to the size of one or more lamella layers of the stratified film. Stepwise thinning was observed in a foam film formed from an aqueous sodium naphthenate solution, as frequently reported for a variety of systems. However, during the drainage process, a transient stepwise thickening process was also observed. Bright spots began to appear and grow, indicate a discrete increase in the thickness of a portion of the film. This local, stepwise thickening process appeared to be an alternate and temporary drainage process directly related to the expansion of the stepwise thinning spots.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2003

Electroosmotic dispersion in microchannels with a thin double layer.

Dispersion of a nonelectrolyte solute due to the electroosmotic flow in long straight microchannels was analyzed theoretically. A version of the Aris-Taylor procedure was employed to predict the dispersion coefficient for arbitrary geometry of the microchannel cross section. The analysis was conducted using a thin double-layer approximation, which is valid when the Debye length is much smaller than the characteristic dimensions of the cross section. For thin double layers, the obtained results describe the electroosmotic dispersion for arbitrary surface potential, electrolyte type, and cross-section geometry. Dispersion for several cases of the cross-section geometries was discussed. It was shown that, for given values of the surface potential and the Debye length, both the cross-section geometry and the electrolyte content of the driven solution substantially affect the dispersion of a nonelectrolyte solute. In the relevant particular cases, the obtained results agree with predictions of the previous theories.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2003

Emulsion stability based on phase behavior in sodium naphthenates containing systems: gels with a high organic solvent content.

Addition of heptane to a sodium naphthenates/toluene/water system at 25 degrees C reduces the lamellar liquid-crystal phase range and increases the microemulsion phase range. Both of these effects result in the extension of the composition range where emulsions have low stability. This effect is even stronger at 40 degrees C. Heptane addition also results in the formation of very stable emulsions within the overlapping phase-existence ranges of aqueous (L1) and organic (L2) phases. Stable non-birefringent gel observed in equilibrium with L1 and L2 phases contains only a small percentage of water and sodium naphthenates. The swelling behavior of an unstable gel, an emulsion previously compressed by centrifugation, appears to be due to a stepwise thickening of the thin liquid films between the droplets.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

Sandwich structures at oil-water interfaces under alkaline conditions.

Equilibrium liquid crystal (LC) layer on an interface between crude oils and water was observed at high pH. This layer is composed mainly of sodium naphthenates produced in situ at the water/oil interface. Transient LC layer was also evolved at the interface of aqueous phase of sodium hydroxide solutions and oleic phase of naphthenic acid (NA) solutions as result of a chemical reaction between NaOH and NA. This chemical reaction causes transport process resulting in a disturbance of the interface. Optical observation of this interface disturbance reviled that the interface covered with LC shows considerably lower flexibility as compared to LC free interface. The LC layer eventually dissolves in the water phase at low oil-to-water ratio, while at high oil-to-water ratio it can form an equilibrium phase, which spreads spontaneously at the oil-water interface.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

Disjoining pressure isotherms of water-in-bitumen emulsion films.

In the oil sands industry, undesirable water-in-oil emulsions are often formed during the bitumen recovery process where water is used to liberate bitumen from sand grains. Nearly all of the water is removed except for a small percentage (approximately 1 to 2%), which remains in the solvent-diluted bitumen as micrometer-sized droplets. Knowledge of the colloidal forces that stabilized these water droplets would help to increase our understanding of how these emulsions are stabilized. In this study, the thin liquid film-pressure balance technique has been used to measure isotherms of disjoining pressure in water/toluene-diluted bitumen/water films at five different toluene-bitumen mass ratios. Even though a broad range of mass ratios was studied, only two isotherms are obtained, indicating a possible change in the molecular orientation of surfactant molecules at the bitumen/water interfaces. At low toluene-bitumen mass ratios, the film stability appears to be due to a strong, short-range steric repulsion created by a surfactant bilayer. Similar isotherms were obtained for water/toluene-diluted asphaltene/water films, indicating that the surface active material at the interface probably originated from the asphaltene fraction of the bitumen. However, unlike the bitumen films, films of toluene-diluted asphaltenes often formed very rigid interfaces similar to the "protective skin" described by other researcher.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2001

Liquid Crystals in Aqueous Solutions of Sodium Naphthenates.

The phase diagram of the sodium naphthenates (SN)/water system was determined between -5 and 95 degrees C. Oil, isotropic water solution, and birefringent gel phases were observed. The appearance of the oil phase was caused by the hydrolysis of SN. After the system was allowed to stand for 3 weeks, a lamellar liquid crystal (LLC) phase separated from the rest of the system at 25 degrees C. This phase was always observed together with other phases. This phase behavior is attributed to different partition coefficient values of the individual constituents of sodium naphthenates between the phases. The partition coefficient difference also caused the appearance of a clear LLC and a turbid gel phase. Under the influence of agitation, the LLC phase with isotropic water solution transformed to giant vesicles; however the equilibrium state of the LLC is of parallel stacked layer structure. Macroscopic dislocations of the liquid crystal were observed, and they were anchored to the interface of the isotropic solution and the liquid crystal phases. These dislocations are similar to screw-type dislocations. The solubilization curve of toluene by SN is analogous to that of hydrophobic materials by a hydrotrope. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2001

Electrostatic Repulsion in Concentrated Disperse Systems.

Electrostatic interactions are considered in the framework of the cell model to predict the osmotic pressure in concentrated disperse systems. A procedure was developed to represent the osmotic pressure as a function of two parameters, namely, the dispersed phase volume fraction and the electric potential attributed to the interface between the continuous and dispersed phases. The procedure is based on a general formula which was derived to express the electrostatic contribution to the osmotic pressure through the electric potential at the cell boundary. The potential of the cell boundary is predicted from the solution of the Poisson-Boltzmann problem which was specified for the cell model approach. The Poisson-Boltzmann problem is solved by a perturbation technique using a normalized interface potential as the perturbation parameter. Three leading terms were obtained in the expansion of the osmotic pressure in terms of the normalized interface potential. Two options for the formation of the interface electric potential are discussed in the analysis of the interface potential dependency on the volume fraction of the dispersed phase. The first one is associated with the difference between the individual ionic distribution coefficients characterizing the equilibrium ratio between the concentrations in the bulk of the constituent phases. The second one deals with preferential adsorption of the carriers having a given electric charge sign. The dependency of the osmotic pressure on the system parameters is discussed and interrelated with other relevant theories. Special discussion is presented concerning the theory's application for the study of hydrocarbon disperse systems, e.g., water-in-oil emulsions. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Journal Article↗