When nanoparticles have a particle size less than 10 nm, they begin to exhibit behavior similar to that of relatively large molecules or oligomers in solution, transitioning from “dispersion into the solvent” to “dissolution into the solvent.” As a result, it becomes necessary to understand their properties in terms of molecular-like, rather than particle-like behavior. In this study, the authors treated decanoic acid-modified ceria nanoparticles as pseudo-molecules and measured their solubility in various organic solvents with cloud point method using laser scattering technique. In the correlation of experimental data activity coefficient equations were applied which have been widely used in the petrochemical industry for distillation, liquid-liquid extraction, crystallization, etc. It was found that the solubility of decanoic acid-modified ceria nanoparticles depends on temperature, particle size, and solvent type.

Although there are many reports on the mixing power consumption, there are very few reports that quantitatively discuss the effect of impeller surface roughness on the power consumption. In the previous paper, the effect of surface roughness on the power consumption was experimentally verified by applying a process that simulated rust and material changes to the surface of impeller blades, and it was shown that the power consumption was not affected when the ratio of the height of the impeller surface roughness element to the impeller diameter was ε/d<0.0125. In this paper, the roughness of impeller edge was further investigated. It was found that the roughness of impeller edge slightly increased the power consumption.

It is important to develop new artificial feed for bivalves to prepare for future food crises. In this study, we examined the potential of hydrogel microcapsules with glucose residues on their surface as the new feed by investigating whether the capsules were specifically taken up by bivalves through recognition of the glucose residue by bivalve. Starch with glucose residues and gelatin without glucose residues were used as capsule materials. It has been reported that particle size was also an important factor to achieve intake of the particles by bivalve. We prepared starch and gelatin hydrogel microcapsules that had suitable diameter (5–20 µm) for intake by juvenile bivalve mollusks. Feeding experiments using these microcapsules quantitatively showed that starch hydrogel microcapsules were more efficiently taken up by the bivalve gills than gelatin hydrogel microcapsules. Furthermore, we were able to visually confirmed that the starch hydrogel microcapsules were significantly more abundant in the stomach than gelatin microcapsules by the observation of stomach tissue sections. These results suggest the high potential of starch hydrogel microcapsules with glucose residues on their surface as new artificial feed for bivalve.