Nitrogen loss from urea fertiliser due to its high solubility characteristics has led to the invention of controlled release urea (CRU). Majority of existing CRU coatings are produced from a non-biodegradable, toxic and expensive synthetic polymers. This study determines the feasibility of fly ash-based geopolymer as a coating material for urea fertilizer. The effects of fly ash particle size (15.2 μm, 12.0 μm, and 8.6 μm) and solid to liquid (S : L) ratio (3 : 1, 2.8 : 1, 2.6 : 1, 2.4 : 1 and 2.2 : 1) on the geopolymer coating, the characterization such as FTIR analysis, XRD analysis, surface area and pore size analysis, setting time analysis, coating thickness, and crushing strength, and the release kinetics of geopolymer coated urea in water and soil were determined. Lower S : L ratio was beneficial in terms of workability, but it had an adverse impact on geopolymer properties where it increased porosity and decreased mechanical strength to an undesirable level for the CRU application. Geopolymer coated urea prepared from the finest fly ash fraction and lowest S : L ratio demonstrated high mechanical strength and slower urea release profile. Complete urea release was obtained in 132 minutes in water and 15 days in soil from geopolymer-coated urea whereas for uncoated urea it took only 20 minutes in water and 3 days in soil. Thus, geopolymer can potentially be used as a coating material for urea fertilizer to replace commonly used expensive and biodegradable polymer-based coatings.
In this paper, a meander-lines-based epsilon negative (ENG) metamaterial (MTM) with a high effective medium ratio (EMR) and near-zero refractive index (NZI) is designed and investigated for multiband microwave applications. The metamaterial unit cell is a modification of the conventional square split-ring resonator in which the meander line concept is utilized. The meander line helps to increase the electrical length of the rings and provides strong multiple resonances within a small dimension. The unit cell of proposed MTM is initiated on a low-cost FR4 substrate of 1.5 mm thick and electrical dimension of 0.06λ × 0.06λ, where wavelength, λ is calculated at the lowest resonance frequency (2.48 GHz). The MTM provides four major resonances of transmission coefficient (S21) at 2.48, 4.28, 9.36, and 13.7 GHz covering S, C, X, and Ku bands. It shows negative permittivity, near-zero permeability, and near-zero refractive index in the vicinity of these resonances. The equivalent circuit is designed and modeled in Advanced Design System (ADS) software. The simulated S21 of the MTM unit cell is compared with the measured one and both show close similarity. The array performance of the MTM is also evaluated by using 2 × 2, 4 × 4, and 8 × 8 arrays that show close resemblance with the unit cell. The MTM offers a high effective medium ratio (EMR) of 15.1, indicating the design's compactness. The frequency hopping characteristics of the proposed MTM is investigated by open and short-circuited the three outer rings split gaps by using three switches. Eight different combinations of the switching states provide eight different sets of multiband resonances within 2-18 GHz; those give the flexibility of using the proposed MTM operating in various frequency bands. For its small dimension, NZI, high EMR, and frequency hopping characteristics through switching, this metamaterial can be utilized for multiband microwave applications, especially to enhance the gain of multiband antennas.
This paper represents a penta band square enclosed star-shaped modified split ring resonator (SRR) based single negative meta-atom absorber (MAA) for multi-band microwave regime applications. FR-4 low-cost material has been used as a substrate to make the MAA unit cell with 0.101λ0 × 0.101λ0 of electrical size, where λ0 is the wavelength calculated at the lower resonance frequency of 3.80 GHz. There are two outer square split ring and one inner star ring shape resonator of 0.035 mm thickness of copper placed on the one side, and another side of the substrate has full copper to construct the desired unit cell. The MAA unit cell provides five absorption peaks of 97.87%, 93.65%, 92.66%, 99.95%, and 99.86% at the frequencies of 3.80, 5.65, 8.45, 10.82, and 15.92 GHz, respectively, which covers S-, C-, X-, and Ku- bands. The properties of MAA have been investigated and analyzed in the E-, H-fields and surface current. The EMR and highest Q factor of the designed MAA is 9.87 and 30.41, respectively, and it shows a single negative (SNG) property. Different types of parametric analysis have been done to show the better performance of absorption. Advanced Designed System (ADS) software has been used for equivalent circuit to verify the simulated S11 result obtained from the CST-2019 software. Experimental outcomes of the MAA unit cell have a good deal with the simulated result and measured result of the 24 × 20 array of unit cells also shown. Since the unit cell provides superior EMR, excellent Q-factor, and highest absorption so the recommended MAA can be effectively used as a penta band absorber in microwave applications, like notch filtering, sensing, reducing the unintended noise generated with the copper component of the satellite and radar antennas.
An inductively tuned modified split-ring resonator-based metamaterial (MTM) is presented in this article that provides multiple resonances covering S, C, X, and Ku-bands. The MTM is designed on an FR-4 substrate with a thickness of 1.5 mm and an electrical dimension of 0.063λ × 0.063λ where wavelength, λ is calculated at 2.38 GHz. The resonator part is a combination of three squared copper rings and one circular ring in which all the square rings are modified shaped, and the inner two rings are interconnected. The resonance frequency is tuned by adding inductive metal strips in parallel two vertical splits of the outer ring that causes a significant shift of resonances towards the lower frequencies and a highly effective medium ratio (EMR) of 15.75. Numerical simulation software CST microwave studio is used for the simulation and performance analysis of the proposed unit cell. The MTM unit cell exhibits six resonances of transmission coefficient (S21) at 2.38, 4.24, 5.98, 9.55, 12.1, and 14.34 GHz covering S, C, X, and Ku-bands with epsilon negative (ENG), near-zero permeability, and near-zero refractive index (NZI). The simulated result is validated by experiment with good agreement between them. The performance of the array of the unit cells is also investigated in both simulation and measurement. The equivalent circuit modeling has been accomplished using Advanced Design Software (ADS) that shows a similar S21 response compared to CST simulation. Noteworthy to mention that with the copper backplane, the same unit cell provides multiband absorption properties with four major absorption peaks of 99.6%, 95.7%, 99.9%, 92.7% with quality factors(Q-factor) of 28.4, 34.4, 23, and 32 at 3.98, 5.5, 11.73 and 13.47 GHz, respectively which can be applied for sensing and detecting purposes. The application of an array of the unit cells is investigated using it as a superstrate of an antenna that provides a 73% (average) increase of antenna gain. Due to its simple design, compact dimension with high EMR, ENG property with near-zero permeability, this multiband NZI metamaterial can be used for microwave applications, especially for multiband antenna gain enhancement.
In this paper, a tuned metamaterial (MTM) consisting of a symmetric split ring resonator is presented that exhibits epsilon negative (ENG), near zero permeability and refractive index properties for multiband microwave applications. The proposed metamaterial is constituted on a Rogers (RT-5880) substrate with 1.57 mm thickness and the electrical dimension of 0.14λ × 0.14λ, where wavelength, λ is calculated at 4.2 GHz. The symmetric resonating patch is subdivided into four equal and similar quartiles with two interconnecting split rings in each quartile. The quartiles are connected at the center of the substrate with a square metal strip with which four tuning metal strips are attached. These tuning metal strips are acted as spacers between four quartiles of the resonator patch. Numerical simulation of the proposed design is executed in CST microwave studio. The proposed MTM provides four resonances of transmission coefficient (S21) at 4.20 GHz, 10.14 GHz, 13.15 GHz, and 17.1 GHz covering C, X and Ku bands with negative permittivity, near zero permeability and refractive index. The calculated effective medium ratio (EMR) is 7.14 at 4.2 GHz indicates its compactness. The resonance frequencies are selective in nature which can be easily tuned by varying the length of the tuning metal stubs. The equivalent circuit of the proposed MTM is modelled in Advanced Design Software (ADS) that exhibits a similar S21 compared with CST simulation. Surface current, electric and magnetic fields are analyzed to explain the frequency tuning property and other performances of the MTM. Compact size, ENG with near zero permeability and refractive index along with frequency selectivity through tuning provides flexibility for frequency selective applications of this MTM in wireless communications.
In this article, a unique metamaterial (MTM) structure is presented that exhibits four resonances of transmission coefficient (S21) that fall into S, X, and Ku bands. The MTM design is initiated on a Rogers (RT5880) substrate with an electrical dimension of 0.088 λ × 0.088 λ (λ is calculated at 3.424 GHz). The resonating patch contains four quartiles connected by a central metallic strip. The placement of each quartile is such that the whole resonator is mirror symmetric about the vertical axis. Two H-shaped modifiers connect two quartiles of each vertical half of the resonator. These H-shaped modifiers form the resonance cavity in its vicinity, and thus help significantly to orient the overall resonances of the proposed MTM at 3.424 GHz, 10 GHz, 14.816 GHz, and 16.848 GHz. The resonance phenomena are examined through equivalent circuit modeling and verified in Advanced Design Software (ADS). Metamaterial properties of the proposed MTM are extracted and it exhibits negative permittivity, permeability, and refractive index. The prototype of the MTM is fabricated and measurement is taken. The measured S21 shows a close similarity with the simulated result. Moreover, effective medium ratio (EMR) is calculated for the proposed MTM and a high EMR of 10.95 is obtained that expresses its compactness. This compact MTM with negative permittivity, permittivity, and refractive index can be important component for improving the performance of the miniaturized devices for multi-band wireless communication systems.
The performance of gas chromatography (GC) combined with a hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) mass spectrometry (MS) system for the determination of volatile and semi-volatile compounds in honey samples is evaluated. After headspace (HS) solid-phase microextraction (SPME) of samples, the accurate mass capabilities of the above system were evaluated for compounds identification. Accurate scan electron impact (EI) MS spectra allowed discriminating compounds displaying the same nominal masses, but having different empirical formulae. Moreover, the use of a mass window with a width of 0.005 Da provided highly specific chromatograms for selected ions, avoiding the contribution of interferences to their peak areas. Additional information derived from positive chemical ionization (PCI) MS spectra and ion product scan MS/MS spectra permitted confirming the identity of novel compounds. The above possibilities are illustrated with examples of honey aroma compounds, belonging to different chemical classes and containing different elements in their molecules. Examples of compounds whose structures could not be described are also provided. Overall, 84 compounds, from a total of 89 species, could be identified in 19 honey samples from 3 different geographic areas in the world. The suitability of responses measured for selected ions, corresponding to above species, for authentication purposes is assessed through principal components analysis.