Abstract:Rice husks, which can be considered as an agricultural waste, are produced every year in South Gonder, Ethiopia.Precipitated silica is commonly used as reinforcing filler in rubber industry, in the present study an effort has been attempted to replace commercial silica commonly used in natural rubber industries with rice husk ash silica (RHAS). Silica was extracted from RHA by using alkaline extraction followed by acid precipitation. The synthesized RHAS was characterized by AAS, BET, DSC, FTIR, and XRD. RHAS was then used as reinforcing filler in natural rubber. The curing characteristics of natural rubber products filled with RHAS resulted a smaller scorch time which caused a premature vulcanization than the commercial silica filled rubber composite. Overall mechanical properties like hardness, young's modulus, abrasion resistance of rubber products reinforced with RHAS was better than commercial silica filled rubber composite.
Amongst the surface treatment technologies to emerge in the last few decades, UV-C radiation surface treatment is widely used in food process industries for the purpose of shelf life elongation, bacterial inactivation, and stimulation. However, the short wave application is highly dose-dependent and induces different properties of the product during exposure. Mechanical properties of the agricultural products and their derivatives represent the key indicator of acceptability by the end-user. This paper surveys the recent findings of the influence of UV-C on the stress response and physiological change concerning the mechanical and textural properties of miscellaneous agricultural products with a specific focus on a potato tuber. This paper also reviewed the hormetic effect of UV-C triggered at a different classification of doses studied so far on the amount of phenolic content, antioxidants, and other chemicals responsible for the stimulation process. The combined technologies with UV-C for product quality improvement are also highlighted. The review work draws the current challenges as well as future perspectives. Moreover, a way forward in the key areas of improvement of UV-C treatment technologies is suggested that can induce a favorable stress, enabling the product to achieve self-defense mechanisms against wound, impact, and mechanical damage.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.