Materials Innovations and Solutions in Science and Technology

The interest in converting biomass into value-added products has increased dramatically. Oil palm industries generate approximately 75% of solid waste from palm trunks and fronds accessible on plantations. The remaining 25% are available at mills as empty fruit bunches, mesocarp fibres, and palm kernel shells. In plantations, a significant amount of biomass is typically discarded. As a result, this scenario demonstrates the substantial underutilisation of lignocellulosic feedstock. Lignocellulosic biomass is frequently used to produce biofuels, biochemicals, and other high-value products because of its low cost, abundance, and renewability. Despite the widespread usage of carbon fibre in industry, its applicability is restricted due to the expensive cost of the material. Interestingly, lignin has the potential to be utilised as a carbon fibre precursor with properties similar to those of polyacrylonitrile and pitch-based precursors. Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are eutectic combinations of hydrogen bond acceptors (HBA) and hydrogen bond donors (HBD) with much lower melting points than those of their components. DESs are versatile green solvents that can be chemically tailored to meet the requirements of various applications. The β–O–4 bond is the primary linkage in the chemical structure of lignin and is frequently targeted during lignin breakdown and pretreatment. DESs have an outstanding ability to break the β–O–4 bonds and extract lignin with high purity. Therefore, this review aims to determine the feasibility of using DESs as carbon fibre precursors to extract lignin from oil palm biomass.

Food spoilage is a major issue faced by people in various places globally regardless of the weather condition. Fruits have been the major victims of this spoilage. Sodium hypochlorite, iodine, hydrogen peroxide, and quaternary ammonium compounds are some of the commonly used chemical sanitizers. These sanitizers, however, have a range of negative side effects, including skin irritation, mucous membrane injury, and carcinogenic and mutagenic effects. Moreover, chemical-based sanitizers are also known for degrading food by causing nutritional consistency, colour, and flavour loss. This has led to the demand of natural based alternatives which brings safe and good quality foods compared to the chemically based food sanitizers. Naturally based food sanitizers can be an ideal option as they may not form any health problems that may be related to the preservation of these foods. Nanotechnology has developed tremendously in recent decades, as shown by a 25-fold rise in the number of goods that contain or include nanoparticles in their manufacturing between 2005 and 2010. Nanotechnology provides a range of options to improve the food quality. This review describes the potential use of nanotechnology to reduce postharvest spoilage of fruits and vegetables.

The current energy source for a typical transportation vehicle is mainly non-renewable energy such as fossil fuel. The combustion of fossil fuel in the engine will produce carbon emissions into the air. This is called greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. High amount of GHG in the atmosphere will result in advanced greenhouse effect that will result in higher global temperature every oncoming year. The solution to reduce GHG released into the atmosphere is by reducing the usage of combustion engine vehicles on the road. Therefore, an electric vehicle (EV) is the ideal type of transportation as it emits zero-carbon emission. However, a typical EV is too expensive, takes too long to recharge and relies on lithium ion for the battery structure where lithium is a non-renewable source and can deplete in the future. Hence, a hydrogen fuel cell is a device that exploits the energy transfused between oxygen and hydrogen molecules into water and electrochemical energy that could directly be connected to a load for power consumption. Since oxygen and hydrogen are renewable and abundant resource on earth, this project focuses on the study of utilizing a hydrogen fuel cell as an energy source for a clean and hybrid transportation vehicle. Furthermore, this project aims to develop a remote control (RC) car that uses the hydrogen fuel cell technology as a hybrid to drive the motor of the car by supplying hydrogen and oxygen to the fuel cell. By accomplishing the development of this prototype, it would simulate the possibility of using hydrogen fuel cell technology to power a real hybrid passenger vehicle achievable in real-life applications.

In this project, bio-based adhesives were produced from extracted durian seeds powder by two methods: non-heating and heating raw materials methods. Bio-based adhesives in this project were prepared by extracting the starch powder from durian seeds. The obtained durian seeds starch was to be then grinded and sieved to make it uniform in size. Subsequently, the durian seed starch powders were roasted and mixed with borax and sodium hydroxide at certain amount for cleaning and hardening. The resultant bio-adhesives were characterized its physical and mechanical testing such as FTIR analysis, tensile strength test and shear strength test. The resultant adhesives in this project were expected to be compatible with current commercial synthetic adhesives. Moreover, bio-based adhesives in this project will be benefited for alternating material replacement of synthetic adhesives, sustainability as well as availability at the lowest price. This bio-based adhesives are expected to have a high potential to be applied and marketed in various industries such as in the wood bonding technology in furniture industries and as surgical tape for medical applications.

Citizens nowadays are environmentally conscious; thus, they look for environmentally friendly things to use on a regular basis. They want items that are made in a way that is not harmful to the environment. This initiative will use oil palm fronds to manufacture biodegradable paper, which will then be used to make food packaging. Oil palm is a well-known and widely farmed plant family, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia. Oil palm is one of the most economically important plants since it is utilized in a wide range of products and foods. This has resulted in an overabundance of oil palm waste, which is causing environmental issues. This initiative will use oil palm fronds to develop biodegradable paper, which will then be used to construct food packaging. This project was undertaken because the decomposition of oil palm waste has resulted in environmental contamination such as air pollution and soil pollution. This product will avoid the accumulation of oil palm waste, reducing the environmental impact immediately. Initially, studies were conducted to investigate the environmental impact of oil palm trash. According to the reasoning, this product was created by turning oil palm brooms into paper. The brooms will be mashed into pulp after being blended with water. After that, the pulp will be placed into a mold and shaped into a paper. After that, the pulp will be dried at room temperature to form paper that will be used for food packaging. The product’s paper is used to make biodegradable and environmentally friendly food packaging. The finished result has a positive impact on the environment and the end user in a variety of ways. To summarize, the accumulation of oil palm waste can be solved via innovative food packaging, hence minimizing the environmental impact of inadequate oil palm waste treatment. This project also resulted in a product that is both environmentally friendly and safe to use.

Methicillin-resistance staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a fatal pathogen that causes infections in various parts of the body due to high resistance toward wide antibiotics alternatives. The return of chloramphenicol is believed to overcome antibiotic-resistance issues of MRSA. In this study, chloramphenicol was cooperated with cinnamon essential oil in which the combination has been reported to be synergistically effective against MRSA. The emulsion carrier was formulated using both a high-shear homogenizer and an overhead stirrer homogenizer. Three emulsions were prepared at different compositions of cinnamon essential oil, water and surfactant based on the constructed ternary phase diagram. Samples with different formulation (F₁, F₂ and F₃) were subjected to several tests including the stability, rheological, colony and invitro release analysis. F₁, F₂ and F₃ possessed good stability against phase separation for 1 month storage at temperature 4 and 25 °C. All the formulations were having pH values within the range of 3–5 as well as showing no mold and microbial growth after been incubated on nutrient agar plates at controlled conditions. From the rheological aspect, non-Newtonian and pseudoplastic flow behavior well-suited an emulsion for the topical used. A Franz diffusion cell was used in the permeation study where F₁ resulted in up to 60.83% of chloramphenicol permeation through the cellulose acetate membrane. This corresponded to controlled release mechanism and best-fitted to zero-order kinetic behavior (R² = 0.9937). Preliminary studies have proven that the formulated emulsion has a promising potential as topical medicament and could open up new possibilities for the production of pharmaceutical products. The increase in demand of topical skin treatment is predicted in this country together with other neighboring countries. The closely sharing genetic pool and environmental climate result in skyrocketing skin problems. Thus, the formulation could generate a great potential for a better future.

Nowadays, there is an increment of the contaminated rivers in Malaysia due to illegal toxic waste dumping. They increased water pollution cases from a river in Malaysia, such as Johor and Selangor. This paper aims to detect real-time pollution to make the authorities take fast action to prevent widespread pollution and contamination. This work’s significance stems from its ability to wirelessly monitor real-time data, detect early pollution sources, and detect criminal activity. The system detects illegal toxic waste dumping via a wireless sensor network in every polluted river. It consists of the Arduino UNO as the microcontroller, a 9 V lithium-ion rechargeable battery as the power supply, a pH metre sensor, a DS18B20 temperature sensor, and a turbidity sensor, a SX1278 LoRa, a GPS Neo 6 m, and a SIM800C GSM. The WSN system is used to track freshwater quality measurements and is implemented at a distributed location. Each node can communicate with a range of water quality sensors. The signals from a GPS can give accurate and concise information used to estimate the exact location of the contaminated water. The collected data from each sensor will go to the sub-base station as the device network coordinator and alert the dedicated people of the activities via the GSM network. The accuracy shows that both classifications to distinguish clear freshwater and polluted water using ten different situations prove that this project has great potential for real-time detection of illegal toxic waste dumping in the target area.

Bioactive peptides are molecules of paramount importance with significant health benefits. These bioactive peptides extracted from various food sources demonstrated significant bioactivity and potency, including antimicrobials, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, antioxidants, opioids, and antimicrobials. However, various challenges hindered the industrial-scale production of peptides, such as the sensory performance of peptides due to bitterness, low peptides bioavailability and yield, minimal human tests, unconfirmed molecular mechanisms, and the sustainability of the resources for mass production. The emerging alternative processes such as high hydrostatic pressure, microwave, ultrasound, sub- and supercritical fluids are selectively beneficial, albeit time-consuming and expensive. The diversity of the properties of bioactive peptides complicates the design of the appropriate purification steps, particularly for novel peptides. The integrative process by coupling the production and purification of bioactive peptides to a single integrative system can be a way forward for bioactive peptides production with high purity, potency, and cost-effectiveness. Thus, the review provides a comprehensive insight into the current status, trends, and challenges of bioactive peptide production through conventional and emerging processes. Meanwhile, the potential technological leap through integrative processes is also featured as the sustainability of the process must be assured.

Adhesive joints as versatile methods offer several advantages, including eliminating galvanic corrosion for metallic adherents and overall weight saving. This work's goal is to establish a systematic methodology for determining the strain rate-dependent interface properties of adhesively bonded joints loaded in mode II. Double lap joints consisting of aluminum Al 6061-T6 bonded with polymer adhesive were used to investigate the delamination failure process. The strain rate-dependent interface properties were determined based on hybrid experimental and computational approaches. Both experiments and finite element simulations were conducted at displacement rates of 5, 50, and 500 mm/min using an end-notch flexure specimen. The strain rate-dependent interface strength properties were verified based on the finite element simulation results. The experimental and simulated mode II load–displacement curves showed promising findings and correlation. Hence, establishing a validated methodology fulfills the industrial requirement of an accurate predictive model with a minimum number of testing and material property data.

All industrial applications use a heat exchanger as a device for transferring heat in both cooling and heating processes. Heat exchangers can be divided into several types but the present study focuses on shell and tube heat exchangers (STHX). Nowadays, the STHX type is preferable due to its capacity to transfer heat in a large amount. The present study aims for optimum design parameter identification for the baffles of STHX. The STHX with newly designed baffle was analyzed for its performance in terms of the rate of pressure drop and the heat transfer coefficient of STHX.

These days, trends show that people are becoming interested in using eco-friendly products. Many people start to realize and take concern about safety of families and the planet. Therefore, this project will create an environmentally friendly paper and show the performance of this paper. In Malaysia, the waste from agriculture is becoming enormous especially from oil palm plantation. The wastes have increased by more than threefold yet the remaining of this waste material can make environmental issues. Oil palm fronds, which are made up of leaflets and petioles, are one of the most common waste products in Malaysia’s oil palm plantations. Oil palm fronds are available every day of the year when the palms are trimmed during the harvesting of fresh fruit bunches for oil production. Therefore, this unuseful waste that become a major problem to handle will be transformed into a paper. At the beginning, a study about the effect of oil palm waste on the environment has been measured. Based on the confirmation, the oil palm brooms were selected in the process making of the paper. Oil palm brooms are from oil palm leaflets waste. The production of paper starts with the brooms which, will be crushed into pulp after being combined with water. After that, the pulp will be dried to make the paper. The paper will next be subjected to the Cobb test to identify the water absorbency of the material. Based on testing process, the material shows a positive reaction for water absorption. The average rate of absorption is below 2%. This data show that the material did not absorb water strongly. Furthermore, this paper with more oil palm broom compared to the starch shows the lowest rate of absorption. In conclusion, the waste of oil palm frond can be controlled yet adding its value into eco-friendly products. Besides, this material is fully renewable. Therefore, people can use this product in the future in order to preserve nature for our safety and health.

An additive manufacturing process was used to fabricate different samples using polylactic acid and iron particle filament. Different processing parameters like temperature were used to produce different samples. The samples were tested for the mechanical and thermal testing using tensile, flexural, structural and thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry, respectively. Results showed that the composites showed a lower trend of mechanical properties compared to the neat polylactic acid. It was also noticed that the parameters had minimal effects on the thermal properties of the composites. The structural changes were also noticed minimal.

Polylactic acid-based composites were prepared using carbon fibers. A 3D printer was used to fabricate different samples using three different temperatures such as 190, 200, and 210 °C. Different testings such as tensile, flexural, and thermogravimetric analysis and Fourier transform of infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the samples. Result analysis showed that the composite exhibited lower properties than the neat PLA samples. The results for the parameter variation have minimum effects on the properties of the composites.

In this research, a pre-crack device was successfully fabricated and improved in terms of the design concept, technology, and safety features. These improvements transform this manually operated device into a semi-autonomous one. A pre-crack device is developed to maintain the uniformity of the natural crack depth. The device consists of two vertical aluminium profiles, stepper motor, lead screw, Arduino microcontroller, limit switch, display panel, and joystick switch lever. The height of the loaded container can be controlled by an Arduino microcontroller system and monitored through the display panel. The simulation analysis was performed on the fixture by analysing the maximum value of stress, strain, and displacement with the following results of 10,670 MPa, 3.630 × 10^–6, and 3.148 × 10^–5 mm, respectively. According to the ultimate principal stress and maximum distortion theories, the design is acceptable with a maximum stress of 10,670 MPa. As a result, it can be concluded that this newly constructed device can be utilised to pre-crack the sample while maintaining the natural crack depth within accepted ranges.

As cooling systems become an essential part of industrial plants, the utilization of corrosion-prone carbon steel turns extensively high as well. A cooling system is a collection of equipment responsible for cooling and releasing heat to the surroundings with regards to plant’s safety and productivity. The application of carbon steel for its economical factor has exposed the metal of low corrosion resistance to conditions that cause deterioration of materials as well as the performance of system. Therefore, realizing the action of protecting carbon steel can be impactful, the present study aims to (i) investigate the cooling water corrosion inhibition offered by hydrophobic-silver nanoparticle coating on carbon steel in cooling system setting and (ii) evaluate effects of pH on the rate of corrosion in the cooling system. The analyses comprise of Tafel analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) exhibited successful improvement of corrosion resistance on coated carbon steel exposed to environments with varied pH for 24 h, whereas acidic setting and high chloride content had rapidly increased the carbon steel’s corrosion rate after 7 days. Nonetheless, the integration of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) with silver nanoparticles is a promising future to the retardation of cooling water corrosion.

The study of salient image is related to the method for detecting the most prominent area within the image. There were numbers of methods applied in describing the image saliency, and the models’ integration with the learning techniques has been able to provide tremendous achievement on the results of salient object detection. However, the approach that is able to describe the saliency existence has never been seriously discussed, and therefore, many models are still unable to produce correct detection for the non-salient image. The non-salient image is a type of image that does not contain any important information. This paper presents a method that can describe the saliency existence of images based on the boundary compactness hypothesis with fact that the compactness of a non-salient image is spatially distributed as being referred to its boundary compared to the salient image. The saliency features were extracted from the image background measurement that consists of boundary contrast compactness and boundary spatial distribution compactness. These compactness components were computed for all image’s superpixel patches and compared with its boundary patches. As these features were computed in the spatial domain, the fast Fourier transform is applied to obtain the saliency features in the frequency domain. Experimental results show that the proposed approach achieve the highest mean difference ratio of 21.65 compared to the state-of-the-art approaches in putting distinct value to identify the saliency existence.

Solar photovoltaics (PV) systems are widely used to generate electricity from sunrays. Concentrating solar photovoltaics has been studied as one of the best technologies introduced to improve the efficiency and output power of the solar PV system. Therefore, in this work, the application of mirror reflectors to improve the efficiency of monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar PV modules and the effect of utilizing different types of reflectors at different angles to the performance of the monocrystalline solar PV modules were studied. In this work, experimental and MATLAB simulation works have been carried out. The introduction of a reflector resulted in the increasing of solar irradiance, and also resulted in the increasing of short-circuit current, I_sc, and output power, P_max, while maintaining the value of open-circuit voltage, V_oc. Solar PV modules with reflectors were able to capture more solar irradiance compared to the solar PV modules without reflector, with the percentage of the output power increment can be varied from 5 to 37%, depending on the type of PV modules, type of reflector, and the angle of the reflector. Polycrystalline solar PV modules with a mirror-reflector at an angle of 80° had shown better performances compared to the monocrystalline solar PV modules with the same reflector set-up, where the output power for the polycrystalline module was 6.3% higher than the monocrystalline modules. The increasing of the reflector angle from 20° to 80° resulted in the increasing of the output power generation, where the output power generation for the monocrystalline solar PV module with an aluminium reflector was 37% higher than the output power generated by the monocrystalline PV module without reflector, following by the white reflector and mirror reflector with output power increment percentage of 35% and 22%, respectively.

Numerous studies have shown that advanced sulfate-based oxidation processes are one of the new methods of wastewater treatment processes. Sulfate radicals are generated during the process and are more favorable than hydroxyl radicals. The primary focus of this research is to determine the feasibility of nitrogen-doped biochar from palm oil mill effluent (POME) sludge to act as a catalyst in activating the sulfate radical. Besides, this study also focuses on determining the efficiency of nitrogen-doped POME biochar in the removal of methylene blue under various optimal conditions. POME sludge was converted into biochar, and the surface was nitrogen-doped with ammonium chloride. The biochar was then characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). This study was conducted based on 3 ratios of ammonium chloride-doped process; 25:75, 50:50, and 75:25 N-doped biochar. The pH, dosage of N-doped biochar, and concentration of peroxydisulfate (PDS) were determined. From the experimental results, the optimum conditions were pH 3, 8 mM PDS concentration, and 0.1 g 75:25 biochar: ammonium chloride ratio. The rate of removal efficiency based on optimized conditions was achieved at 81 ± 0.4%.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a common engineering thermoplastic. Thus, higher waste was generated. Recycled PET (rPET) has poorer properties as a result of degradation during recycling and/or residues contamination from the residues present on the rPET. One of the approaches to improve the mechanical properties of rPET is by incorporating a filler material. Biochar (BC) is a sustainable filler obtained from the pyrolysis of biomass. The focus of this paper is to investigate the applicability of oil palm frond-based BC (OPF-BC) in reinforcing effect of rPET at the loading range of 0–40 wt%. FTIR results showed the absence of any new chemical structure from the melt mixing of rPET with OPF-BC. Thus, DSC analysis does not show any significant difference in the glass transition temperature (T_g) and melting temperature (T_m), but a variation on melting capacity as evidenced forms the melting enthalpy (∆H_m). ∆H_m was reported to be consistent with the increment of OPF-BC loading. It is postulated that the variation on the bio-composites ∆H_m is a result of higher thermal conductivity of OPF-BC in comparison with the matrix. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis reported a significant variation in crystallization characteristics of the bio-composite with the OPF-BC loading. This suggesting that the porous OPF-BC might be acting as the nucleating agent and affects the degree of crystallinity. Based on DMA, the presence of OPF-BC affected the viscoelasticity. No obvious trend was observed on the storage modulus (E′), loss modulus (E″), and damping (tanδ). The “interpenetrating” of rPET molecular chains into to the porous filler, and the nucleating effect of OPF-BC might have taken place concurrently leading to these results. In overall, the optimum OPF-BC loading is suggested to be between 20 and 30 wt% based on the results obtained.

Nowadays, friction stir welding (FSW) has been popular in the welding industry because of its effectiveness and help to reduces time. FSW starts to grow in the welding industry to help in their services and goods. This paper is focused on mobile units or fixtures for friction stir welding of tubular products joining. Dimension and size are included in the detailed explanation in order to support the idea of design and fabrication of this fixture. This fixture is designed to support and hold the tubular sections during the friction stir welding process. This project is drafted using a computer-aided design (CAD) software to get the best result in the design for the 2D and 3D model. This fixture is focused on the mandrel-less fixture concept. A compatible and suitable bobbin tool needs to be used to enable the fixture as a mandrel-less type. Hence, it can be used in applying the FSW process to cater for tubular sections in real industrial needs and applications.

Friction stir welding (FSW) can join metals that are hard to be welded, such as aluminum alloys, cooper alloys, titanium alloys, mild steel, stainless steel, and other alloys associated to the use in any industry. FSW is widely used mainly in the ship construction. The FSW process covers mainly flat surfaces of the ship construction as shapes with simpler geometry up to complex shapes as tubular sections. For curved shapes, a suitable parameter should be met as the complexity of the FSW process needs the optimum conditions in order to have a proper weld joint.

From large-scale civil engineering megaprojects to housing developments and restoration projects, the construction industry is crucial to the urbanized growth of a country. With the recent development of green technologies, many researchers have established the application of alternative resources, such as waste and by-products, as sophisticated composite materials in construction practices. With aggregates being pivotal in construction activities, it would be extremely beneficial to find alternatives to improve their properties whilst managing lower production costs and protecting the environment. This chapter addresses the replacement techniques, findings, challenges, and research gaps associated with recycled aggregates in modified mortar mix to encourage sustainable practices and concludes that it is more environmentally friendly in the construction industry.

Post-weld impact treatment (PWIT) is one of the treatment methods commonly used on weld regions to reduce the residual stress caused by the welding process. The formation of stress around the welded joint during the spot weld process degrades the mechanical properties of the joint. The purpose of this study was to improve the mechanical properties of a spot-welding joint using the dome low blow impact process. In this experiment, a low-carbon steel was used with a welded single lap shear joint with a similar thickness of 1.2 mm. Tensile-shear testing, failure mode analysis, and area of deformation measurement were performed on all welded samples. This research study shows that by applying a dome low blow impact to the spot weld, the spot-welded joint is expected to improve the yield stress and UTS of the weld sample by 10% compared to an as-welded specimen. The impact was on reducing the formation of residual stress within the weld nuggets to improve the weldment's mechanical properties. This study found that a dome-shaped indenter design improves the yield stress, UTS, and fracture point significantly. The results showed a good agreement between the results of experimental and simulation weld properties for spot weld.