Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: Omani researcher Dr. Maitha Rabee Al Jabri, Assistant Professor of Engineering at the Chemical Engineering Unit of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences in Sohar, succeeded in devising a model to understand the interactions that take place between components of industrial products composed of chemical elements.
The model was the first-of-its-kind in the world in calculating the diffusion coefficient by discovering the concentration of the solute surfactants.
Dr. Maitha told Oman News Agency (ONA) that the research study provided a new approach that influences chemistry-based industry, namely by developing a new mechanism that facilitates the handling of chemical elements entering into the composition of products.
She pointed out that the research study came out with several results. A major finding of the study is the fact that the dissolution of surfactants by changing the attractive forces between water and surfactant elements produces long-lasting solvents, thereby slowing down the dissolution process.
Dr. Maitha explained that the results of the research study were published as part of a scientific paper titled "The Effect of Hydrophobicity on the Dissolution of Reaction Phases with Lamellar Surfaces", published in the journal of the international publishing house "Elsevier".
She pointed out that the research study is titled "Modelling Compound Products Used in Industrial Chemistry, and Chemical Engineering Applications to Understand Interactions between Components and Their Properties". The study received funding from the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.
It is noted that compound products in the form of liquid solutions have many uses in our daily life. They are available as medicines, detergent liquids, cosmetics, paints, foods, among other products. They contain different components that merge with each other at different stages during the manufacturing process.
