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Lopez is a janitor and a SEIU-USWW executive board member. She lives in Mountain View. This has been translated from Spanish by a member of The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board.
I was born on the Oaxacan coast in southern Mexico. Mixtec blood runs through my veins, and I feel deeply proud of my Indigenous roots, of being a migrant and of being a woman.
When I was a child, I used to listen to my parents speak to each other in Mixtec, probably so that my brothers and sisters and I would not understand what they were talking about.

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United Against Hate Week has spread to more than 200 communities, and San Diego is participating for the first time this year.

One day, my parents decided to leave La Mixteca — a region in Western Oaxaca — to move to the coastal region. They never taught us their language, our language. My father always said that we had to speak Spanish, so that we would not suffer.
It wasn’t until I was 16 that I understood my father’s painful decision to take us away from our roots. At that time, I moved to the town of Putla, Oaxaca, to study a technical career.

One afternoon, when I went to the city market with my friends from school, the market vendors shouted at me, mockingly, “María, María.” Evidently, they were comparing me to “La India María,” a comical and racist character which mocked an Indigenous Mexican woman. It made me so angry. I felt rage run through my body.
Four years later, I decided to seek better luck in the United States. At the age of 20, I arrived in San Diego as a migrant.
Finding work was not easy. Getting used to another country was even harder. Although what didn’t change was the contempt I felt coming from my own people. Without even asking my name, people in my community would say, “Esta de seguro es oaxaquita” — This one most probably is Oaxacan — while making fun of my height and the color of my skin.

Racism against Indigenous people is not unique to Mexico; in the U.S., I felt discrimination and racism for being Indigenous a thousand times worse.
As time went by, I did not allow the racism expressed by my co-workers against me to stop me from becoming a union leader.
In 2001, I was working with other Latino immigrants cleaning some luxury buildings in La Jolla. We were paid very low wages. We had no health insurance and no job protection, and we had very exhausting chores. That’s when I joined the Service Employees Union (SEIU). We formed our own union chapter, and today I am very proud that we are more than 40,000 unionized workers statewide.

But a few months later, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the federal government targeted our community. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids were everywhere, in the public transportation system, in communities, even in our workplaces. By 2006, the work we did to unionize collapsed. Many workers lost their jobs. Others were deported. Many fell into depression.
Our crime was to work, to be Brown, to be immigrants.
That’s why I decided to be a union leader, to push for the vote, to change the laws, to choose candidates, to fight for justice.

I know Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo, both still Los Angeles City Council members — along with former City Council President Nury Martinez and Ron Herrera, former president of the Los Angeles Federation of Labor — mocked, attacked and used violent and reprehensible words against the Afro-descendant, Indigenous, LGBTQ, Jewish and Armenian communities.
The conversation was revealed by an audio recording that was leaked to the media in Los Angeles. Martinez and Herrera resigned from their positions under pressure from our movement. Cedillo, whose term ends on Dec. 12, and de León, whose term runs through 2024, continue to cling to power, despite calls from President Joe Biden and from leaders of the Indigenous, Jewish, African American and LGBTQ communities to resign.
I listened to those recordings. I heard how they referred to the Oaxacan community. I felt the same rage as when I was a teenager in that market, or when I arrived at the United States, or certainly when my father left La Mixteca.

I felt shame, especially for Cedillo and de León. They came to power, in part, thanks to our movement. For many years, they walked by our side, but eventually they became the same enemy against whom we have fought so hard.
When words come from power, they are not carried away by the wind. They have consequences in working families. They cause hunger, poverty, deportations, forced migrations. I have experienced this firsthand.
Now, this Mixtec woman joins her comrades in struggle to demand that de León and Cedillo resign from public office. They let us down. They betrayed our values and our principles. They cannot remain in power.

In my union, SEIU-United Service Workers West, I have learned to fight alongside White, Black, Asian and Indigenous people. I know that our democracy must be a big space where we can all fit.
As a true leader of our people, Benito Juárez — Indigenous, short and dark-skinned like me, but a giant in Mexican history — once said: “Damn those who defend the people with their words but betray them with their actions.”
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Free speech and debate won’t solve all problems, but they are powerful tools. They can promote a better understanding of one another.

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As an outcome of this work, we aim to organize a series of community conversations beginning in 2023 to spur greater dialogue across San Diego County on the integrity of our governing systems.

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Many sincere, tearful apologies later and a promise to make it up to them and be a better friend, the call ended. You sat down and processed it all. How could you have not noticed?

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Hate crimes don’t just harm the intended victim. They instill fear every person who share’s the victim’s identity.

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The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of California, launched United Against Hate Week in San Diego to combat rising hate crimes.

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On Nov. 11, Americans celebrate the nation’s 16.5 million military veterans. The U.S. Census Bureau says 8 percent of veterans are younger than 35 and 24 percent are 75 and older. By itself, San Diego County is home to nearly 250,000 veterans. Below, four authors explore aspects of veterans’ lives. If you are a military veteran, thank you for your service.

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Jody Greene resigned on 24 October after local prosecutors filed petition to remove him
A North Carolina sheriff who resigned in late October following revelations he made racist remarks about Black employees will get his job back after voters re-elected him on Tuesday.
Jody Greene stepped down as sheriff of Columbus county on 24 October, after the local district attorney filed a petition to remove him over “highly inappropriate and racially charged statements” made about Black employees in 2019.
But Greene moved forward with his re-election campaign. After polls closed, he had more than 10,000 votes while his opponent, Jason Soles, had fewer than 8,500, according to unofficial results.
Greene is therefore gearing up to retake an office he first won in November 2018 despite a scandal other candidates may not have survived and which provided one of the more bizarre stories to come out of elections held across the US this week.
The controversy erupted in earnest when the district attorney, Jon David, filed court documents in October revealing that his office had obtained an audio recording from the state investigations bureau of a phone call involving Greene. The audio had leaked online in late September.
Published by the local NBC news affiliate, WECT, those documents said that Greene was suspended at the time of the call amid an investigation into whether he lived in his jurisdiction as required.
The sheriff was convinced he was in trouble because of “a leak in his office” and thought Black employees were plotting to undermine him.
“I’m sick of these Black bastards – I’m gonna clean house and be done with it,” Greene said, according to a call transcript cited in the documents from David’s office. “They’re gone. I’m telling you.”
Greene called those he suspected of getting him in trouble “stupid” and expressed a willingness to “fire every motherfucker out there” if necessary.
Davis’s office said in court records at least one Black employee had been fired after Greene’s remarks were recorded. On 4 October, the district attorney filed a petition seeking to remove Greene from office. An amendment attached to that petition on 20 October said Greene had engaged in sex with a detective under his command, along with other instances of alleged corruption and misconduct.
That amendment noted that Soles, the other candidate in Tuesday’s race and a captain on Greene’s staff in 2019, recorded the racist rant. He began recording the call after Greene mentioned hating “a Black Democrat”, the amendment said.
Soles said in a statement under oath that he did not edit the recording. Greene resigned, apologizing for the remarks and his actions and describing “a humbling experience”.
“I am sincerely sorry for the disrespectful and insensitive words that have offended my friends, colleagues and fellow citizens,” Greene said. “I ask for forgiveness.”
Nonetheless, Greene maintained that the allegations were false, “politically motivated” and aimed at inciting “racial division”. He asked voters to re-elect him and promised to make the county – with a population of about 50,000 – “better and safer” through his office.
Civic groups excoriated Greene. The North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association said he resigned from the organization over the remarks, which “shock the conscience”. The state chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP released a joint statement saying Columbus county deserved better, CBS News reported.
After securing another term, Greene posted on Facebook that the campaign was “extremely stressful” but thanked voters for putting him back in office.
“I am the sheriff for everyone no matter race, color, religion, sex orientation or national origin,” he said.

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“A lot’s happened, and also not a lot’s happened.”
That’s how Iowa native Elizabeth Moen began our conversation when we recently spoke for the first time in at least a couple of years.
On paper, she’s been very busy. She’s toured regularly, both in support of her own music and as a backing musician for both Squirrel Flower and Kevin Morby. She sang the National Anthem at a White Sox game, along with Julia Steiner of Ratboys. And her new album, Wherever You Aren’t, is finally making it’s release after being completed for about three years.

Wherever You Aren’t

Wherever You Aren’t, out Friday, is Moen’s fourth album. It was almost completely finished before the pandemic at Flat Black Studios in Lone Tree, Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco, California and FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The album was funded via Kickstarter, which enabled Moen to do a lot of things she’d always wanted to do. It’s easy to hear on the record: the album is a big step forward for Moen, with an overall bigger sound than she’s had on previous albums.
“The intention of doing a Kickstarter was to record in a way I’d never recorded before,” said Moen. “I wanted to be able to experience new studios, and play with all the various instrumentalists and singers I’d come across over the years, who’d played live with me. There are a lot of parts: there’s horns, pedal steel guitar, and layers of harmony. There’s so many little details I’d never tested out. It feels big, and also the songwriting is stronger too.”
Indeed, the songs on Wherever You Aren’t are classic Elizabeth Moen. But her sound is emphasized by details that make the album have more depth than previous recordings, and by her witty but also profound lyrics. On this record, you’ll hear horns, some strings and pedal steel.
“Synthetic Fabrics,” the second song on the album, opens with the line “Made plans for when I was 16/when I was about 8 or 9/making plans for my mid 30s/since I turned 25.” The line sets the tone for the album of someone who’s trying to navigate life the best they can and learning to “ride the waves.” Of course, Moen’s distinctive vocals and guitar playing take center stage here and sound as great as ever.
Despite the added production values of Wherever You Aren’t, not to mention a strong set of songs, Moen had difficulty finding someone to release the album and ended up doing it herself.
“I really wanted a team for the record,” said Moen. “I had this dream of a label, a booking agent, a manager. I kept just waiting and waiting. But then I was like, ‘Hold on!’ I have an amazing, super-supportive fan base, who have already donated to the record, who wanted to hear it. So I decided to just put it out myself! That’s what I’ve always done.”
She has no regrets about the way it all turned out.
“Once I just let go of those expectations or the record, on the business side of it, I got excited again! I listened to the record, and I was like ‘these songs still feel strong to me.’ That’s the sign of a record I’m proud of, where years later, they still feel good.”
In addition to the CV listed above, Moen also made a big move since the last time I spoke with her. She’d been “couch surfing” for a couple of years, due to her touring schedule, but the pandemic left her without a place of her own. She found it was actually cheaper to move to Chicago than get a permanent place in Iowa City.
“Chicago always felt like the next step,” said Moen. “I was like ‘all right, if I don’t do it now, I probably never will.’ I love Chicago, but I also still very much love Iowa – and feel very connected and attached to Iowa and my friends who live there.”
One of those connections that Moen made while living in Iowa was with Ella Williams, a.k.a. Squirrel Flower. Moen and Williams became friends when they both performed at a show in Grinnell, where Williams went to college. Williams asked Moen to play her guitar on Squirrel Flower’s tour last fall.
“I’d played guitar for people here and there in the studio, but that was my first hired lead guitar gig,” said Moen. “It really got me out of my shell and my comfort zone as a guitarist, and I’m forever grateful to Ella for trusting me.”
The tours with Squirrel Flower and Kevin Morby were Moen’s first experiences as a “hired gun,” working with other musicians. Aside from how much fun she had, Moen found the experience inspiring and educational.
“I’ve learned a lot from (Morby) about what it means to be a good bandleader,” said Moen. “He gives all of us moments to really shine, and you look back on the Instagram stories, and you see him pointing at the person taking the solo. It’s been really special, and it makes me appreciate my bandmates even more, as a bandleader.”
While she firmly believes that it’s important to “not be a bully to yourself if you do nothing,” she’s also learned that these “waves” are part of a career in music, pandemic or not.

“Most musicians, and artists in general, would agree that it all just comes in waves,” said Moen. “You get a wave of nothing, and then everything is happening. And then you get a wave of nothing, and then everything is happening again.”
After Moen got the message asking her to be a part of the Kevin Morby tour, she had dinner with her good friend and fellow Chicago musician Liam Kazar, a friend of Morby’s who introduced the two. “(Liam) gave me the best piece of advice, that I’ve been really taking to heart: ‘Those waves will always be there,” he said. “‘Even if your career goes as far as you want it to go, there’s still going to be these waves. The whole job is to ride the waves and not give up.’ Ever since then, I’ve really leaned into just riding the waves.”
Moen has also started getting some well-deserved recognition for her guitar skills in recent years. Squirrel Flower was specifically drawn to her “reverby, ambient” slide guitar sound, which Moen had the opportunity to demonstrate in a video for the Fender guitar company. I told Moen that it seemed like she “demystified” slide guitar, and she agreed that’s important.
“When Fender reached out, I was like ‘I’m a beginner! So if you want a beginner to talk about the beginning of slide guitar, let’s do it,’” said Moen. “I think with slide guitar, songwriting and really anything musical, demystifying it is a goal of mine. The more it’s demystified, the less intimidating it is for people to try and do it. I think sometimes, some people, unintentionally or intentionally, try to make it a cool kid’s club. Music shouldn’t be intimidating, it should be something that people feel very welcome to stepping in and trying.”

Moen has a couple of shows coming up in Iowa in support of the record: an album release show at Gabe’s in Iowa City on November 26th, and an appearance on IPR’s All Access Live! on Dec. 8, which will be broadcast live on IPR from the Raccoon Motel in Davenport. Moen will be accompanied by her old Iowa City friends and bandmates for both shows. She’s already hard at work planning tours for 2023 but is also making time to herself and plans to “enjoy being off the road.”
“I want to keep growing as a person, and as a musician. Maybe I’ll pick up a new hobby. Who’s to say?” she asked. “As long as I’m doing what I’m doing and it still feels good, that’s really all I want to do.”
Elizabeth Moen is IPR’s Artist of the Month for November. Her new album, Wherever You Aren’t, will be available Nov. 11 on Bandcamp and streaming services.

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11/10/2022 09:54:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Masters joins MU as Director of Player Development and Video
By: Communications

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Scientific Reports volume 12, Article number: 19307 (2022) Cite this article
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This study set out to determine the effectiveness of birch leaves extract (BLE) as a corrosion inhibitor against X52 pipeline steel in the pickling solution. Chemical and electrochemical techniques, as well as scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), and adsorption isotherms were used in the research. Various triterpenoids, including betulin, betulinic acid, oleanolic acid, sitosterol, and kaempferol, are unquestionably involved in the corrosion inhibition mechanism, according to the high-performance-liquid-chromatography (HPLC) analysis. The 95% efficiency of the produced BLE extract (at optimum concentration 400 mg L⁻¹) significantly reduced the corrosion rate of X52 pipeline steel in the pickling solution. The adsorption of BLE extract molecules on the X52-steel surface was demonstrated by SEM and FT-IR analysis. The adsorption activity follows the Langmuir adsorption theory.
Steel is a popular choice for oil and gas pipeline fabrication because of its excellent durability and mechanical power¹. Petroleum internal pipeline corrosion is caused by a variety of reasons including O₂ concentration, chlorine ions, sulphur dioxide ions, and hydrogen sulphide^2,3. Corrosion defects have a variety of risks, including fatal accidents, environmental negative effects, pollutants, and shutdowns. To eliminate oxides from the pipelines surface, acid solutions are utilized. Pickling chemicals like as hydrochloric acid are primarily used to clean petroleum pipelines of oxide layer⁴. When compared to sulfuric acid, the benefits of utilizing HCl include shorter pickling times, less temperatures, and improved surface smoothness with lower pickling degradation. The corrosive nature of the pickling chemicals causes the pipelines to deteriorate in general⁵. Insight into the mechanisms of corrosion and utilizing corrosion inhibitors can dramatically lessen the negative impacts of pickling chemicals^6,7,8. Organic chemicals, which contain hetero-atoms including S, N, and O, are effective inhibitors^9,10,11.
Toxic chemicals’ use as corrosion inhibitors has recently been restricted due to environmental concerns. As a result, natural inhibitors have re-emerged as significant due to their ecologically benign character, ease of production, and renewable origins^12,13,14,15. According to a review of the literature, there are several attempts at this issue. Su et al.¹⁶ extracted the active ingredients from gingko leaves using an ultrasonic device. The anti-corrosion effectiveness reached 84.7%. Sun et al.¹⁷ created corrosion inhibitors using pomelo peel. They investigated the corrosion of N80 inside a 3.5 wt% saline solution saturated with CO₂. The investigation demonstrated that physical adsorption was indeed the primary adsorption tendency, with maximum effectiveness of about 87%. Arash et al.¹⁸ investigated the corrosion protection of lemon verbena leaves in a mixed HCl and H₂S solution. There was evidence of physical adsorption. The greatest efficiency was 95.61% at the concentration reached 2.7 g L⁻¹. Hassannejad et al.¹⁹ examined the corrosion control of sunflower seed husk extracts in hydrogen chloride for carbon steel. This extract appears to contain the O, N, and aromatic ring groups. After the extract was added, the inhibition rate increased to 98.5%. As a result, the strategic goal of this study was to evaluate the birch leaves extract (BLE) to reduce the corrosion of X52 pipeline steel (X52-steel) in pickling solution (1.0 M HCl).
Birch leaves are found in northern temperate and boreal climes most of the time. They are modest in cost and contain high amounts of organic chemicals. It is also less expensive than other plants. Furthermore, no previous research has been conducted on the use of Birch leaves as a corrosion inhibitor in pickling solutions.
The chemical content of the X52 pipeline steel (X52-steel) was as follows (wt. %): C(0.24%), P(0.023%), S(0.024%); Mn(1.2%), Ni (0.240%), Cr(0.34%), Cu (0.40%), Fe(balance%). It comes from an Egyptian petroleum company. The X52-steel surface was physically scraped away with increasing grit SiC sheets before each experiment, then ultrasonically washed in ethanol, fully washed with water, and air dried. 1 M HCl (AR grade 37%) solution was used to make the pickling solution.
Birch leaves powder was delivered by an Egyptian herbal family group. For 5 h, 25 g of birch leaves powder was refluxed in 100 ml of the stock mixture (70% C₂H₅OH + 10% ethyl acetate + 20% distilled H₂O) at 358 K. Following that, the refluxed mixture was filtered using a separator funnel. The mixture was then concentrated in a rotary vacuum evaporator and dried in a pressure dry oven at 333 K for 24 h. Lastly, the precipitate was left to dry in a desiccator. Liquid chromatography (shimadzu co. japan) and FTIR (Perkinelme co.) were used to determine the major components of BLE extract. The BLE extract is completely soluble in pickling solution.
Both chemical and electrochemistry approaches were used to assess the corrosion rates of the X52-steel in testing solutions.
Weight loss assessments were taken by weighing the dry X52-steel (dimension 3.0 × 3.0 × 0.1 cm) on an electronic balance and immersing it in testing solutions for 5.0 h. The weight loss was estimated by subtracting the weight of the sample before and upon immersion in the investigated solutions.
The electrochemical investigations were conducted using a Gamry 3000 electrochemical station outfitted with a standard three-electrode setup. The working electrode was an X52-steel piece (electrode area = 0.445 cm⁻²), the counter electrode was a platinum plate, and the reference electrode was a saturated calomel electrode (SCE). The tests were conducted out in a temperature-controlled water bathtub. On the E_OCP, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was used. A 10 mV peak-to-peak sinusoidal wave in the frequency region of 100,000–0.01 Hz was used. Gamry’s software was used to fit and analyze the EIS data.
SEM (ZEISS/EVO) equipped with an EDX analyzer was used to examine the morphologies of X52-steel surfaces in pickling solutions.
The HPLC (Fig. 1) showed that the major components of BLE extract are (77.9%) triterpenoids (i.e. betulin, betulinic acid, oleanolic) and (2.3%) sitosterol, and (1.3%) kaempferol. Figure 2 depicts the chemical structures of the key components of BLE extract.
HPLC of BLE extract.
Chemical structures of the key components of BLE extract.
The FT-IR spectrum of BLE extract is presented in Fig. 3. A broad band at 3375 cm⁻¹ assigned to hydrogen-bonded O–H stretching, the bands at 1684, 1528, 1453, 1267, 1250, 1170, 730, and 686 cm⁻¹ are due to C=O, C=C, C–C, C–H in-plane bending, C–H out plane bending, C–O–C stretch, aromatic bending zone, and ring deformation out of the plane, respectively.
FT-IR spectrum of BLE extract.
Weight loss studies were done to examine the influence of BLE extract on X52-steel corrosion in pickling solution (1.0 M HCl). Different doses of the BLE extract were injected into the experimental solution for an estimation of the inhibition activity, and the test was conducted at temperatures of 298 K. Table 1 displays the results. The next formulas are used to compute the experiment variables of corrosion rate (v), inhibition efficiency (η_W%), and surface coverage (θ)^20,21,22.
where W = weight loss, S = total surface area of X52-steel, t = immersion time, v₀ and v are the corrosion rate without and with BLE extract, respectively.
According to Table 1, raising the concentration of BLE extract decreases the corrosion rate, increases the inhibitor effectiveness, and increases the coverage, indicating that an increase in the BLE extract concentration leads to a higher degree of adsorption²³. The inhibitor power of BLE extract increases to 94.4% when the concentration approaches 300 mg L⁻¹, confirming that BLE extract is an efficient inhibitor of X52-steel corrosion in the pickling solution. When the concentration of BLE extract approaches 400 mg L⁻¹, there is no appreciable decrease in corrosion rate.
In pickling solution (1.0 M HCl), X52 steel corrosion is essentially a combined electrochemical reaction between anodic (Eq. 4) and cathodic (Eq. 5) reactions.
The open circuit potential (OCP) vs. time for different BLE extract concentrations is depicted in Fig. 4. They have been compared to a blank curve produced under comparable environments. The OCP is clearly balanced after 30 min, as shown in Fig. 4, and the process also seems to have achieved steady state. The change of the curve towards the negative potential area caused by the high concentrations of BLE extract (100 mg L⁻¹) in the solution showed that BLE extract has an impact on cathodic reaction.
OCP–time curves for X52-steel corrosion in pickling solution (1.0 M HCl) with and without varying concentrations of BLE extract at 298 K.
The polarization curves for X52-steel corrosion in pickling solution (1.0 M HCl) with and without varying concentrations of BLE extract at 298 K and a scan rate of 0.125 mV s⁻¹ are seen in Fig. 5. Table 2 shows the electrochemical variables of corrosion potential (E_corr), corrosion current density (j_corr), Tafel slopes (βa, β_c), assessed using Tafel extrapolation, as well as the inhibition efficiency (η_j%) calculation by the following formula²⁴.
Polarization curves for X52-steel corrosion in pickling solution (1.0 M HCl) with and without varying concentrations of BLE extract at 298 K.
where the j_corr(0) is the corrosion current density without BLE extract.
Table 2 clearly shows that as the content of BLE extract grew, the inhibition efficiency (η_j%) improved while the value of corrosion current density (j_corr) reduced rapidly, particularly at higher concentrations. Table 2 illustrates that the change values of E_corr versus blank solution were less than 85 mV, revealing that the BLE extract becomes a mixed-type inhibitor^25,26. The fact that the injection of BLE extract has no strong influence on the Tafel slopes (a, c) implies that the BLE extract’s inhibitor has no direct impact on the corrosion mechanism^27,28.
Once the BLE extract concentration was raised to 400 mg L⁻¹, the η_j% value attained 95.1%, indicating that the BLE extract has a strong anti-corrosion ability.
To verify the polarization results, impedance tests for X52-steel corrosion in pickling solution (1.0 M HCl) with and without BLE extract were investigated (see Fig. 6). The Nyquist plot (Fig. 6a) reveals a depressing capacitive circle, and as the BLE extract concentration increases, the size of the capacitive circle expands, implying that the BLE extract significantly restricts charge transfer between the pickling solution and X52-steel²⁹. Furthermore, the fact that the pattern of the impedance spectra does not vary with the presence of BLE extract implies that the addition of the BLE extract does not affect the corrosion mechanism^30,31,32. Figure 6b depicts phase angle plots for X52-steel corrosion in pickling solution (1.0 M HCl) with various concentrations of BLE extract. The phase angle plot demonstrates a growing trend as the concentration of BLE extract increases. The results revealed that increasing the BLE extract content up to 400 mg L⁻¹ strengthened the protective barrier qualities of the BLE extract layer³³. The appearance of a high and low-frequency plateau can be seen in the Bode-modulus graphs (Fig. 6c). The radii of the capacitive semicircles and the values of the low-frequency plateau are both consistent.
Impedance spectra includes (a) Nyquist, (b) Bode-phase angle and (c) Bode-module plots for X52-steel corrosion in pickling solution (1.0 M HCl) with and without varying concentrations of BLE extract at 298 K.
The equivalent circuit type with and without BLE extract can be seen in Fig. 7 by fitting the results were significant, which includes the solution resistance (R_S), and polarization resistance (R_p). Furthermore, CPE is a constant phase that represents the double layer capacitance (C_dl) at the contact of the X52-steel and pickling solution. To produce a more precise fit of the experimental given data, CPE was incorporated³⁴. Equation (7) provided estimates for the C_dl values.
The equivalent circuit for fitting of the impedance data.
where Y0 = admittance.
Table 3 presents the EIS parameters of various concentrations of BLE for X52-steel in 1.0 M HCl at 298 K, and the inhibitory efficacy (η_R%) was computed using the Eq. (8).
where the R_p(0) is the polarization resistance without BLE extract.
Table 3 displays that as the concentration of BLE extract rose, the values of R_p increased and C_dl decreased, implying that the production of a protective film on the X52-steel surface can lead to the creation of a more uniform protective layer to delay the transmission of corrosive species. Furthermore, when compared to the blank experiment, the value of CPE with various BLE extract concentrations drops dramatically, which is believed to be due to the BLE extract molecules going to replace the water molecules adsorbed on the X52-steel surface, indicating a thicker layer between X52-steel and solution³⁵.
The equivalent circuit fitted is valid based on the obtained minimum goodness of fit (chi-square = χ²) value. Table 3 reveals that the values of n (surface heterogeneity) rise in comparison to the control solution, which can be attributed to the adsorbed BLE extract molecules’ ability to form more homogeneous surface species.
In the presence of 400 mg L⁻¹, the inhibition efficiency (η_R%) achieved a maximum of 93.7%, indicating that the BLE extract has a clear inhibitory action owing to adsorption on the X52-steel surface.
To establish relevant insights on the interaction of BLE extract and X52-steel surfaces, adsorption isotherms are used. Based on the adsorption concept, the replacement of BLE extract molecules BLE_(sol) for water molecules occurs during the adsorption of BLE extract on X52-steel surfaces³⁶:
As a result, the data collected from the weight loss approach (see Table 1) was used to simulate four isotherms: Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin, and Frumkin. The Langmuir isotherm, which may be described by Eq. (10), is the result that best fits.
where C_inh = BLE extract concentration, K_ads = constant equilibrium of adsorption.
The model using Langmuir isotherm is shown in Fig. 8. The adsorption activity follows the Langmuir adsorption theory, as indicated by the correlation coefficient (R² > 0.97), establishing a protecting mono-layer of BLE extract molecules on the X52-steel surface.
Langmuir isotherm for the studied BLE extract at 298 K.
Indeed, merely using R² values to fit experimental data to the Langmuir adsorption is insufficient. This issue could be overcome by including a “dimensionless separation constant,” (K_L) (see Eq. 11)³⁷.
The adsorption operation is regarded favourable since the values of K_L are less than one (see Table 4), and the experimental results satisfy the Langmuir adsorption isotherm.
The small K_ads value (0.0124 L/mg) validates BLE extract’s physical adsorption activity³⁸. Because the molecular mass of BLE extract molecules is uncertain, it is not feasible to assess the free standard adsorption energy, as stated by numerous other studies³⁹.
SEM was used to examine the surface morphology of X52-steel surfaces that had been immersed in the pickling solution for 5.0 h without and with (400 mg L⁻¹) BLE extract. The pickling solution significantly damages the surface of the X52-steel surface, as seen in Fig. 9a: pores form on the X52-steel surface plate, which is accompanied by surface roughness. SEM images of specimens dipped in BLE extract-treated BLE extract, on the other hand, reveal a better uniform and clean texture (Fig. 9b).
SEM images for X52-steel corrosion in pickling solution (1.0 M HCl) without (a) and with (b) 400 mg L⁻¹ of BLE extract at 298 K.
We analyzed the FT-IR spectra of the scratched layer generated on the X52-steel surface upon electrode soaking in pickling solution including 400 mg L⁻¹ of BLE extract to reveal the adsorption procedure of BLE extract molecules on the X52-steel surface (Fig. 10). The adsorption of BLE extract molecules on the X52-steel surface is recognized by matching the FT-IR spectra in Figs. 3 and 10. The majority of the typical bands in Fig. 3 are found at comparable frequencies in Fig. 10, but with different signal strengths. This variance might be caused by the interaction of certain bioactive constituents of BLE extract molecules with the X52-steel, which results in the formation of a protective layer⁴⁰.
FT-IR spectra of the film formed on the surface of X52-steel in the inhibited solution (1.0 M HCl + 400 mg L⁻¹ of BLE extract).
The various data (chemical and electrochemical techniques, SEM, FT-IR, and adsorption isotherms) demonstrate that the adsorption of bioactive chemical constituents in the BLE extract is the principal cause of corrosion protection of the X52-steel in the pickling solution. The HPLC examination identified several triterpenoids (betulin, betulinic acid, oleanolic), sitosterol, and kaempferol that are likely participating in the corrosion inhibition process. These molecules have O-bearing groups which possess a high binding affinity for Fe on the surface of X52-steel. Besides, the binding of aromatic rings, these molecules are attached through physisorption at the steel surface via partial exchange of O electrons and the creation of double bonds⁴¹. The organic compound-adsorbed layer acts as a shield between the metallic surface and the pickling solution^42,43. The majority of the chemicals contained in BLE extract in 1.0 M HCl are neutral or cationic compounds. X52-steel, on the other hand, is expected to be positively chargeable in 1.0 M HCl. As a result, at 1.0 M HCl, the X52-steel surface will initially bind anionic ions that may cover the surface; however, in a second stage, the association of these anionic charges can assist in the adsorption of BLE cationic compounds. Because the organic molecules in BLE extract have greater dipole moments than water, they readily substitute water molecules at the surface of the X52-steel⁴⁴. Table 5 compares the current study’s findings to previous work done by other researchers and demonstrates that the BLE extract can be highly efficient anti-corrosive agents at lower dosages^{14,15,39,45,46}.
In pickling solution, BLE extract indicates an effective inhibitor for corrosion of X52 pipeline steel. The presence of triterpenoids (betulin, betulinic acid, oleanolic), sitosterol, and kaempferol were identified by the chromatogram. The physisorption of the compounds included in the BLE extract is the cause of inhibition. These compounds protect the surface of X52-steel sheets, minimizing pickling solution corrosive damage. The EIS plots imply that the inhibitory effect improves with rising BLE dosage: the R_ct increases significantly while the CPE declines dramatically. Importantly, the polarization findings show that the BLE extract acts as a mixed inhibitor. The adsorption activity of BLE extract is consistent with the Langmuir adsorption theory, as evidenced by SEM and FTIR spectra. This research opens up a new avenue for environmentally corrosion inhibitors (i.e. BLE extract).for pipe steel that must be cleaned using acid chemicals.
The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia
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Mohsen, Q., Deyab, M.A. Utilizing birch leaf extract in pickling liquid as a sustainable source of corrosion inhibitor for pipeline steel. Sci Rep 12, 19307 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23037-8
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Steely Dan’s November 1972 debut release Can’t Buy A Thrill has often been overlooked in the wake of the band’s later, mega-impactful hit albums like September 1977’s Aja and November 1980’s Gaucho. But the reality is, the template for the Steely Dan sound was born in full flower on their first album, and is thus ground zero for understanding and appreciating the trajectory of the band.
The new, standard-edition 180g 1LP version of Can’t Buy A Thrill is the first entry in Geffen/UMe’s fine new reissue series of the core ABC and MCA Records-era Steely Dan catalog. The series includes both standard 33 & 1/3rpm 180g 1LP versions via UMe, and super-deluxe 45rpm 200g 2LP ultra-audiophile UHQR editions via Analogue Productions. (More on all that in a bit.)
One thing that’s really interesting when you go back and listen to older albums like this one with fresh ears and 20/20 hindsight [or should that be 2022 hindsight?—MM] is you hear things differently than you did many years before. When Can’t Buy A Thrill came out in 1972, it sounded like nothing else on the radio, really — although it did have several touchstones that made the music feel at once familiar: strong, hook-filled pop melodies, intriguing lyrics this side of Bob Dylan and later-stage Beatles, and harmonies that embraced the close-knit aesthetics of Crosby, Stills & Nash (the latter of which were then top of the pops as far as public taste went).

And then, there were those infectious, witchy-mesmerizing grooves crafted from a recipe that included a pinch of jazz, a hint of future funk, a spritz of gospel-informed soul, and a big heaping dash of good ol’ rock & roll. True, Steely Dan lyrics could be oblique, yet their hooks were at times bubblegum-worthy, and the music sophisticated enough to resonate with a generation raised on John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Horace Silver, Dave Brubeck, and Jimi Hendrix.
With all that in mind, Grammy-nominated producer Gary Katz did a great job of clarifying their sound to make Steely Dan radio-worthy — a sound that had one foot in AM radio of the past (mono, very compressed) and the other foot in the higher-fidelity future of FM radio (stereo, much more dynamic range).
I’ve owned many original ABC Records pressings of Can’t Buy A Thrill over the years including the 1972 black-label edition, and the later “rainbow” design from the mid-’70s. Exactly none of these pressings were perfect, as far as listening experiences went — thus, my ongoing quest for better versions. [Me, I still have a so-so rainbow copy I can’t bring myself to play anymore—MM]
Unfortunately, Steely Dan’s popularity ascension in the 1970s coincided with two conflicting cultural phenomena: the music industry’s explosive growth, and the Middle East oil crisis (oil being a key ingredient in making vinyl, of course). The band’s original label, the above-noted ABC Records, was never known for especially great pressings when it came to rock recordings. From my then-junior-high-age perspective as an aspirant novice audiophile, the parent company seemed to pay more attention to those sonic details for their jazz releases on Impulse!, which generally sounded better than most rock records I heard from them. Three Dog Night, Steppenwolf, Emitt Rhodes, Jim Croce, Joe Walsh, and James Gang were all Steely Dan labelmates around that time period — and they all made some great records that sounded “just ok,” even to my inexperienced ear back then. As the company grew, pressings quality seemed to suffer at times. (To be fair, this happened at other labels as well.)

One of my biggest challenges with Can’t Buy A Thrill over the years has been finding a copy that was not off-center. Especially when you get to the end of Side One and the song “Only A Fool Would Say That,” wherein there are some full-stop breaks by the band featuring a big, Beatle-esque guitar chord that chimes on its own. When the album is off-center, that chord can easily waver annoyingly in and out of tune.
That said, this is a good time to discuss the details of how these new Steely Dan reissues have been crafted — many details of which MM initially covered in his News post from September 16, which you can refresh yourself with here.
I do want to share the following (in italics below) from the official press release for the series, which explains the nuance between the different versions of the albums that will be made available:
All albums are being meticulously remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes except for Aja, which will be mastered from an analog, non-EQ’d, tape copy, and Gaucho, which will be sourced from a 1980 analog tape copy originally EQ’d by Bob Ludwig. (There’s no evidence the original tapes containing the flat mixes of Aja and Gaucho were delivered to the record label and it’s presumed the tapes no longer exist.) Lacquers for UMe’s standard 33 1/3 RPM 180-gram version will be cut by Alex Abrash at his renowned AA Mastering studio from high-resolution digital files of Grundman’s new masters and pressed at Precision. They will be housed in reproductions of the original artwork.
As noted both above and in MM’s earlier News post, the Steely Dan catalog up to Gaucho will also be issued in limited-edition premium 45rpm formats in the Ultra High-Quality Vinyl (a.k.a. UHQR) series from Analogue Productions, the audiophile in-house reissue label of Acoustic Sounds. (When are we reviewing the latter version, you ask? Early next week.)
These are important distinctions needed to be understood from the get-go of this series, and I bring it up fairly early in my review because I’ve seen some people commenting/assuming in the socials that this new standard edition from Geffen/UMe is “all-analog.” That status seems to be reserved for the UHQR editions, all of which we will also be reviewing as they are released. So, to restate for the sake of clarity: the standard edition’s lacquers were cut from high-resolution digital files of Bernie Grundman’s new masters.
With those technical distinctions in mind, I will go on record stating I think this new standard edition of Can’t Buy A Thrill is really very good — all things considered. In fact, after several back-to-back listens, in general, I find it pretty fine when comparing it to my mid-1970s pressing (i.e., the rainbow label version). There is no doubt a brighter high-end here than on my old copy, but also the vinyl itself — 180g, dark and black, and pressed at Precision — is generally much quieter than any of the original copies I’ve had over the years.
I italicize the word generally here, as there is one caveat: I have heard a couple minor “non-fill” type glitch moments at a couple points during my listening sessions with this new edition. They weren’t dealbreakers, however, as they were short and irregular during loud passages and not annoying, but I have to report two or three “pfft” type sounds came up — and thus far, they have not worked their way out, if you will, with repeated plays (as sometimes happens).

While this new pressing of Can’t Buy A Thrill is indeed better than my original in terms of centering, it still wasn’t perfect. Thus, I still heard a bit of that wavering thing going on at the end of Side One on “Only A Fool Would Say That.”
Once I got used to the increased brightness, I grew to like the sound of this new edition. In comparison, my original sounds muddy, and overly compressed. This was effectively a jazz-rock band playing pop, so producer Katz could have easily gone the other direction and made Can’t Buy A Thrill a very dynamic, wild-ride recording. But since it was a mainstream release with AM-radio hit aspirations, I think he, and they, wisely decided to constrain the dynamics a bit. I suspect this was also done to ensure there wouldn’t be any returns from average teenage record players not being able to track the albums (a practice dramatically exemplified by Atlantic Records’ treatment of Led Zeppelin’s infamous/legendary October 1969 second album, Led Zeppelin II, and its initial amazing mastering by Robert Ludwig that was soon enough recalled).
As Steely Dan grew in popularity, their strengths as a studio group increased accordingly — as did the fidelity of their later albums, paralleling the growth of higher-fidelity FM radio and the advent of affordable, audiophile-leaning component audio systems that were all the rage at that time. If you went into most any stereo shop back in the day, there were almost always Steely Dan records being used for speaker demos (especially by the time of May 1976’s The Royal Scam and the aforementioned Aja).
This new 2022 reissue of Thrill shines fine light on the little details of the recording. Listen closely for the cymbal crashes and related decay on “Do It Again,” “Reelin’ In The Years,” and “Dirty Work” for some quick examples. Said crashes, courtesy drummer Jim Hodder, are much more natural, realistic, and present on the new version than on my original copy. Additionally, Denny Dias’ acoustic guitar strums on “Dirty Work” sound more full-bodied and woody.
Walter Becker’s bass on “Midnight Cruiser” is punchier than on my original LP, and the instruments and vocals on “Only A Fool Would Say That” feel richer and rounder comparatively, especially the acoustic guitars. Donald Fagen’s acoustic piano on “Fire In The Hole” sounds very natural, rich, and open, complemented by those beautiful pedal-steel guitar lines by Jeff “Skunk” Baxter. Then listen for that badass amplifier tone on the guitar solo during “Change Of The Guard,” which never came through this strongly on the original edition I have. I went back again to double-check, and the whole song sounds very squashed down on the ’70s mastering, comparatively.
In general, this new edition of Can’t Buy A Thrill is a solid, basic reissue. If you don’t have it on vinyl or are hoping to upgrade from an older copy without breaking the bank, this will be more than adequate for most general high-fidelity listening situations.
Again, it is important to understand that great-sounding original pressings of Can’t Buy A Thrill were never easy to find, and many later reissues of the Steely Dan catalog were decidedly lackluster — especially in the late-’70s and into the ’80s, when MCA Records took over the catalog, and quality controls suffered greatly.
In some ways, it is even harder today to track down a decent used copy of Can’t Buy A Thrill, seeing how it was a popular album back in the day, especially among collegiate audiences. So many original copies of the album in the collector’s universe (a.k.a. “out in the wilds,” as they say) have been played on average to sub-average equipment quite often, not to mention in party settings. Notably, I’ve frequently come across copies with annoying groove distortion towards the center of the disc, a telltale sign of it being played on a turntable or record player that was improperly aligned. [Hence, the latter being one of the main reasons I don’t play my own rainbow copy anymore, as mentioned earlier—MM]
Due to the relative scarcity of finding these albums in good condition, prices of original pressings have escalated to fairly absurd levels these days. At the time of this posting, there were just eight near-mint original 1972 pressings on Discogs, with prices starting at just under $100 and maxing out at around $220. That’s a lot of money for a popular record that was far from obscure back in the day, seeing how it reached No. 17 on the Billboard album charts, and was subsequently certified Platinum (i.e., 1 million copies sold) by the early-1990s.

If I have any nits to pick at all, it is that it would have been a nicer touch if the album’s designers had been able to make the record labels look a little bit more like the original 1972 editions. To UMe’s defense, however, they may very well have had their hands tied to some degree, given they probably don’t own the ABC brand or stamper outright.
[MM interjects: We’ll look into confirming that for future SD LP reviews, but I must also point out here that the word “Reeling” is spelled out with the “g” at the end on the label that appears on Side Two (as was the case on the earlier ABC label), whereas the title is spelled with the “g” dropped and the apostrophe in place — “Reelin’ In The Years” — on the back cover and on the inner gatefold. Which way do you prefer? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below, either way.]
The album cover itself is made from a thinner white-card stock than the sturdy, thick brown cardboard used back in 1970s. Feeling more like album covers from the 1980s, the printing quality is quite good.
Taken as a whole, and considering the $29.99 SRP, this new 33 1/3rpm standard edition 180g 1LP reissue of Can’t Buy A Thrill is a very fair deal indeed, and worthy of your consideration. As to whether you need the more expensive super deluxe UHQR version — which spins at 45rpm, is 200g, and comes in a much more elaborate packaging design — tune in early next week as we will explore that edition in full. Ultimately, whether you get one, or both, of these versions will depend on how much you love Steely Dan music, what kind of audio gear you own, and the current state of your wallet.
For those of you who already consider Can’t Buy A Thrill an all-time Steely Dan favorite, owning the ultimate UHQR pressing of it may well be an investment-worthy Holy Grail. But for many, having a simple, clean, and nice-sounding standard edition may well be more than thrilling enough.
(Mark Smotroff is an avid vinyl collector who has also worked in marketing communications for decades. He has reviewed music for AudiophileReview.com, among others, and you can see more of his impressive C.V. at LinkedIn.)

STEELY DAN
CAN’T BUY A THRILL
180g 1LP (Geffen/UMe)
Side One
1. Do It Again
2. Dirty Work
3. Kings
4. Midnite Cruiser
5. Only A Fool Would Say That
Side Two
1. Reelin’ In The Years
2. Fire In The Hole
3. Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer Under Me)
4. Change of the Guard
5. Turn That Heartbeat Over Again

Sadly it looks like i will not be getting one.
I don’t want one cut from digital files and i can not purchase anything from Analog Productions because they refuse to use USPS to ship to Alaska.
Waiting for a good Quad mix to pop up for a “resonable” price.
Have release dates for the Geffen/UME releases of “Countdown” and “Royal Scam” been announced?
I believe that I saw in print that the file that Bernie sent over was indeed a DSD file (don’t know if it was 64 or Quad) But, that is a BIG leap over the standard 24/192 file that say Abbey Road routinely uses, and should be specified. Especially since the extremely revelatory video on YouTube by ‘The Audio Analyst’ and his interview with Dr. David Robinson, owner of Positive Feedback, who with Chad (of all people) and another known Audio person in doing blind tests could NOT even 1 time tell the difference between the original master tapes and DSD Quad copies 🙂
As a matter of fact Robinson said that these guys as Abbey Road should get off their @sses and go to the Quad DSD format and ditch the PCM files.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uFieIMK4QM&list=WL&index=4&t=2301s

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Nigerian rapper, Nanle, has released the official music video for his buzzing single, “On a Base to Score.”
The rap single was produced by Dr. Tim who has worked closely with Nigerian rappers, M.I Abaga and Skales. 
The scintillating video shot on locations in Istanbul, Turkey, was directed by famous Iranian cinematographer, Mojtaba Mantreh.
In the video, he goes from waving the Beşiktaş flag (a Turkish sports club) in front of the Vodafone Park to partying with pallbearers.
Speaking about the influence and concept behind the song, Nanle said, “The song was inspired by me and my friends’ life journey; from being regular broke college kids to having some success in life.”
“The song’s title comes from a secondary school slang I and a childhood friend had. The video is dedicated to my late friend, Walshak Ngok, who was killed” he added. 
Born on the 2nd of December 1994 in Jos, Nanle started his music career in 2013, freestyling at Nicosia nightclubs in North Cyprus, before foraying into beat-making in 2015. 
Having grounded himself in music production, in 2016, he collaborated with Sigzerz on his “Greatness Remix” extended play. 
Prior to the release of his 2022 drill-infused single, “On a Base to Score,” Nanle released a freestyle cover titled “The Prophecy” over JAY-Z and Kanye West’s “Gotta Have It” beat in 2021.
He cites MI Abaga, Reminisce, Nas, JAY-Z, and Lil Wayne as his biggest rap influences.
Nanle has a master’s degree in Economics and a passion for waste management & recycling, infrastructure building, tech, and poverty eradication.

RELATED NEWS

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The Ambassador Hotel will be converted into an affordable housing community comprising studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments.
ORLANDO, FLA. — One Stop Housing has purchased the Ambassador Hotel, a 155-room hotel located at 929 W. Colonial Drive in Orlando, from Sammy Investments Orlando for $7.1 million. The buyer plans to convert the hotel into an affordable housing community. When completed, the property will feature a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments. Construction is scheduled to begin this year. Glen Jaffee of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller and procured the buyer in the $7.1 million acquisition. The Orlando City Council approved zoning for the Ambassador Hotel to be redeveloped into an affordable housing community in late July. Once complete, the community will become the eighth hotel conversion for One Stop Housing.

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Studio Two Three buying Dogtown Dance Theatre, listing price $1.8 million  Richmond Times-Dispatch
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The first challenge in Netflix’s Drink Masters seems quite simple: make a margarita. Obviously, its professional mixologist contestants do not do what I’d do, which is splash some tequila into a glass with some Target margarita mix, because they’re not monsters.
But I was still surprised that they were given 90 minutes for that challenge. That’s twice as long as chefs on some cooking competitions get to make multiple dishes from scratch. An hour and a half to make a margarita?
What Drink Masters quickly does, though, is establish itself and the craft as about more than just mixing alcohol and other liquids in a glass. Mixology is presented as a culinary art, and the contestants combine ingredients, techniques, and presentation methods to create some truly spectacular cocktails—and in one case, potentially deadly.
Each episode of Drink Masters has two challenges: a big challenge, after which the contestants in the bottom compete to avoid elimination. Instead of lip syncing for their life, though, they’re in a mix-off.
They’re then judged by a two-person panel on taste, appearance, and creativity—which of course is the criteria for Chopped, if you replace “appearance” with “presentation.”
Like on Top Chef, the challenge is generally to do something new with familiar ingredients, and there are, alas, some Baking Championship shenanigans thrown in, with the challenge winner getting first pick and the ability to swap two contestants’ choices. It’s almost like the show doesn’t have the confidence in what it has to offer, so that stuff gets added.
The familiar elements don’t make for a dull show, though. What Drink Masters does is follow in the footsteps of Netflix’s own Blown Away or Discovery’s great A Cut Above and turn a craft into compelling television.
As it turns out, all three shows are produced by the same company: Marblemedia, which has single-handedly resurrected a subgenre of reality TV that Bravo used to traffic in in the late 2000s, one that showcases everyday crafts and art forms. (Drink Masters is also produced by Boomerang Productions Media.)
The difference between Bravo’s shows—and more-current ones such as Fox’s Lego Masters—is that Marblemedia’s shows make drama is secondary to craft. They are, however, big on character, showing us who the artists and craftspeople are, sometimes through the challenges but also in other parts of the show.
Perhaps because mixing drinks and cooking food are more familiar, from television and real life, Drink Masters gives a little more attention to process than Blown Away did, where suddenly an artist would have an amazing shape and I wouldn’t have a clear sense of where that came from.
One contestant bakes durian, pine nuts, and rum to incorporate that into his cocktail; others chill elevated Jello shots.
But it’s in presentation that everything is really elevated. The presentations of the cocktails are astounding, from the glassware to wisps of flavored smoke, and the show’s cinematography captures it and the preparation with a lot of smooth close-ups and slow motion shots.
All of this takes place in a massive bar set that manages to not look like a set, with its dripping chandeliers and towering shelves, all glowing gold and blue. The lighting is stunning, and not the typical culinary competition lighting.
Host Tone Bell, a comedian, is immediately terrific. He takes the competition seriously, approaching it with the elegance of an upscale bar, but also has fun.
He finds perfect moments of levity, from his opening bit to a moment when he introduces a fruit-infusion challenge by presenting a “sexy-ass display of fruit” and then, noticing the durian’s smell, says, “ugh, someone had dairy this morning.”
While he’s a bit awkward early on with a handful of scripted lines, his casual, improvised reactions are one of the show’s highlights for me.
The series judges, Julie Reiner (a mixologist, bar owner, and craft cocktail cookbook author) and Frankie Solarik (a cocktail bar owner who also has his own craft cocktail book), are immediately comfortable whether they’re explaining or judging.
Julie is the break-out judge so far for me, with her wonderfully direct and specific lines: “this is a combination I’ve tried eight million times,” she tells one contestant.
In the second episode, there’s a steady shot of judge Julie watching the contestants, one of whom goes running through the bar behind her, and suddenly disappears, having slipped on the ground. Both laugh.
During judging, one contestant, Alex, presents the judges with a bubbling margarita, and Frankie says, “the dry ice. If I was to consume one of those pellets, it will stick to my esophagus; it will then create carbon dioxide, and I will choke to death.”
“Yeah, I know,” Alex says, insisting he’s done this safely, anchoring the dry ice to the glass.
Julie replies, “if it’s not done correctly, you die,” and then explains they won’t drink the cocktail for safety reasons.
When Tone later Julie what Alex needed to do to stay in the competition, Julie says, “Not kill the judges?”
The judges are alive, thankfully, and so is this genre of reality TV, showing us what talented people can make, even under time constraints and the glare of television lights. Cheers to that!
Cheers to a classy culinary competition with cocktails, not cuisine, that elevates both the craft and this genre of reality TV. B+
What works for me:
What could be better:
All reality blurred content is independently selected, including links to products or services. However, if you buy something after clicking an affiliate link, I may earn a commission, which helps support reality blurred. Learn more.
Andy Dehnart is the creator of reality blurred and a writer and teacher who obsessively and critically covers reality TV and unscripted entertainment, focusing on how it’s made and what it means.

I value our community at reality blurred, which connects people through open and thoughtful conversations about the TV we’re watching and the stories about it.
Comment rules: My goal is for us to be able to share our perspectives and exchange ideas in a welcoming, supportive space. That’s why I’ve created these rules for commenting here. By commenting below, you confirm that you’ve read and agree to them.
Happy discussing!
B L G
Sunday 6th of November 2022
How can someone who was given a black and white drink to make and made a red one be push through to stay on the program????
Andy Dehnart
Monday 7th of November 2022
Probably in the same way that someone who, in episode one, served dry ice in drinks that the judges didn’t even taste, but he also wasn’t eliminated! Also, subjective judging is subjective, after all.
Jordan
Sunday 6th of November 2022
Show was incredible! Until it wasn’t….
Aisling got absolutely ROBBED when she got sent home. I stopped watching the show when she got kicked because I thought it was obvious that Suzu was the weaker link. Even he said so himself. Judges are lame as hell for sending her home when she made some of the most delicious and inspired creations on the show… Absurd
Margaret
Sunday 6th of November 2022
Really, really enjoying this and I’d never have discovered it without this review – thanks!
Cat
Friday 4th of November 2022
The set is stunning, and I’m just on episode 1, but as someone who is long past the bar scene, it’s really fascinating
I’m Andy Dehnart, a writer who obsessively and critically covers reality TV, focusing on how it’s made and what it means.
I created reality blurred 20 years ago as a place to collect interesting links I found. Today, I review and recommend reality shows, documentaries, and nonfiction entertainment; analyze news and report from behind the scenes; and interview people who create and star in reality TV shows. You’ll also find other people’s insightful takes on reality TV in these pages, too.
I believe pop culture can both entertain and affect us, and so reality blurred’s goal is to amplify the best and hold the worst accountable. In other words, I’m here to call it out when it sucks and celebrate it when it’s amazing. Let’s talk about it together!
reality blurred is your guide to the world of reality TV and unscripted entertainment, with reality show reviews, news, and analysis. It was created in 2000 by Andy Dehnart, who’s still writing and publishing it today.
reality blurred is regularly updated with highlights from the world of reality TV: news and analysis; behind-the-scenes reports; interviews with reality TV show cast members and producers; and recaps and reviews of reality TV shows including Survivor, The Amazing Race, The Mole, Big Brother, The Great British Baking Show, Shark Tank, Top Chef, Holey Moley, The Bachelor, Project Runway, Dancing with the Stars, and many more.
Get reality TV news, reviews, and recommendations in your inbox every week. My hand-crafted newsletter is sent most Fridays, and is free!
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Scientific Reports volume 12, Article number: 19296 (2022) Cite this article
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The charging of poorly conducting liquids due to flows is a well-known phenomenon, yet the precise charging mechanism is not fully understood. This is especially relevant for sprays, where the spray plume dynamics and maximum distance travelled of a spray dramatically changes for different levels of charging: charging of the droplets makes them repel, thereby preventing drop coalescence and altering the shape of the spray plume. As the charging depends on many factors including the flow and the interactions between the liquid and the nozzle, many models and scaling laws exist in the literature. In this work we focus on perhaps the simplest flow regime, laminar jets created by ultra short channels, and quantify the charging as a function of the different parameters. We present a simple model that collapses all the data for over 4 orders of magnitude difference in streaming currents for various nozzle sizes, flow velocities and surface treatments. We further show that the charging polarity can even be reversed by applying an oppositely charged coating to the nozzle, an important step for any application.
Spray plume dynamics are important for many applications such as drug delivery^1,2, health and bodycare, perfumes, agriculture, but also in the spreading of pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2^3,4. When poorly conducting liquids are used, interaction of the flow with the nozzle can lead to self-charging. If droplets are large, this effect can often be ignored. For fine sprays however, the droplets are small enough such that the electric charges can have a significant impact on the droplet size and the dynamics of the spray cloud (Fig. 1). Such small drops are encountered in many practical situations, in particular drug delivery, inkjet printing or chromatography. It is therefore essential to understand when this effect takes place and to be able to predict the magnitude of the acquired charge.
Charge separation due to liquid flow has been widely studied in various contexts, such as energy production^5,6, sliding droplets⁷, erosion due to liquid flow⁸, and risks of fire and explosion in the transport of hydrocarbons through metallic pipes^9,10,11,12. The phenomenon of charging of poorly conducting liquids flowing through pipes and orifices is therefore well-known, and as a consequence a number of theories has been developed^{12,13,14,15,16}. Still, a clear agreement between theory and experiments is often missing, which can partly be attributed to the complicated dependencies of the charging on the experimental settings. In this work we therefore focus on a clean model situation, i.e. jets and sprays produced by laminar flow through ultra short channels, and develop a theory that agrees extremely well with all of the experiments.
Models for electrokinetic charging are generally based on the fact that when a material comes into contact with a liquid, it will release or absorb some ions, leaving behind a charged surface. With counter-ions moving towards the surface an electrical double layer is formed¹⁷. The charging that occurs due to the liquid flow is then explained by the overlap between this electrical double layer and the velocity gradient of the flow profile near the wall (Fig. 6). The net transport of charge leads to the so called streaming potential or current. Consequently, the charging strongly depends on the flow profile near the interface, and different behaviours are to be expected for different flow regimes, i.e. laminar versus turbulent and short versus long channels. Indeed, various scaling laws and phenomenological models can be found in the literature, especially for the dependence of the streaming current, (I_{s}), on the average liquid flow velocity ({bar{v}}), which varies from a linear dependence for laminar parabolic flow profiles¹⁸, to quadratic in turbulent cases^6,19. Selection of the correct physical model is often complicated by the fact that the charging is strongly affected by the surface chemistry, which can depend on many factors such as pH, cleaning protocols, ageing, and contamination, but can also change due to the liquid flow itself⁸. These complicating factors explain why most research does not allow to discriminate between competing models, that often differ only slightly in scaling exponents.
For most practical nozzles, the channel length is short compared to the hole diameter, as this reduces frictional losses and lowers the minimal acquired pressure to produce a spray. The flow profile in short channels follows a so called top-hat shape, i.e. a constant bulk velocity up to some boundary layer flow near the wall of thickness (delta x). In such cases, one can show that the streaming current is inversely proportional to the thickness of this boundary layer, i.e. (I_{s} sim 1/delta x)¹². However, there is no consensus on what gives the thickness of the boundary layer. Duffin et al. performed experiments of microjets of sizes 5–20 (upmu)m formed with Pt/Ir electron microscopy apertures, and used a boundary layer scaling (delta x propto R Re^-7/8), with R the nozzle size and Re the Reynolds number as defined below^5,6. Although this appeared to give a reasonable description of their measured streaming currents, the expression for (delta x) is that for the laminar sublayer thickness for turbulent flows through long pipes^20,22. On the one hand, their inlet length is not large enough to create fully developed turbulence, and on the other hand, the nozzle sizes are so small that it is unlikely that the flow is turbulent at all. Likely for these reasons, Faubel et al. used a different scaling, namely, the Prandtl layer thickness which scales as (delta x sim L sqrt{Re^{-1}}) with L the characteristic channel length, for exactly the same nozzles²¹. They also arrived at a reasonable description of their data, showing that there is no consensus on the thickness of the boundary layer even for the arguably most relevant case of laminar flow through short channels. In this paper, we perform a systematic experimental study over a much larger range of parameters than the previous works, and simultaneously solve the boundary layer thickness problem. We find that the boundary layer in this case scales as (delta x sim R sqrt{Re^{-1}}), a result that describes our measured streaming currents extremely well.
In this paper, we explore the electrokinetic charging of sprays consisting of micrometer-sized jets produced by ultra short orifices. This allows us to perfectly quantify the flow parameters. In addition, as the effect of charging is difficult to examine with an array of jets, we mostly focus on single jets. The nozzles used to create the jets consist of a small silicon chip with a circular hole in a 0.5 (upmu)m thin layer of silicon nitride (Fig. 2b,c). Due to the small size of the orifice, all measurements correspond to the laminar flow regime. The short channel length ensures a plug flow like velocity profile. We measure the streaming current for hole radii between (R = 2) (upmu)m and (R = 16) (upmu)m and liquid velocities up to 80 ms(^{-1}). A theoretical prediction is given and is found to match experimental data for over 4 orders of magnitude difference in streaming current.
Typical spray plumes with and without self-charging. (a) The spray plume generated by a nozzle with 8 holes of radius (R=2 ,upmu)m using demineralized water. Due to the small spacing between jets, the individual jets cannot be discriminated and appear as one single jet. The self-charging makes the spray plume flare out once the droplets have decelerated significantly. Because of a decrease in coalescence, spray droplets are significantly smaller with self-charging, reducing the maximum travelled distance of the spray plume. (b) The same spray now containing small amounts of salt. As there is no charging the spray plume remains narrow and travels a longer distance. Still, due to vortices and complex flow in the surrounding air the spray plume starts to diverge and mix as well.
For the experiments we use spray nozzles consisting of 1 mm (times) 1mm silicon chips, with single circular holes of radii (R = 2, 4, 8) and 16 (upmu)m (Fig. 2b–d). The silicon chip contains one or multiple cavities of 50 (upmu)m in diameter up to a 0.5 (upmu)m thin layer of silicon nitride, the so called membranes. The holes of the nozzle are etched within this thin layer. The length of the channel, L, is therefore always the same for each nozzle, and much smaller than the critical length needed to form a parabolic flow profile ((L/R sim 0.06 Re sim 40)). The chip is mounted in a polypropylene adapter with a luer fit, and has a small porous filter in front of the nozzle chip. Despite considerable effort to use ultra clean liquids, there are always some contaminants such as single-celled organisms that can easily clog the smallest nozzle holes, therefore requiring the use of prefilters.
(a) Measuring setup. Liquid flow is generated using a Harvard Apparatus ULTRA CP syringe pump and an 8m L stainless steel syringe from Darwin Microfluidics. The grounded syringe is connected to a pressure sensor (U5600-000005-300PA TE Connectivity Measurement Specialties). The streaming current is measured by spraying the charged jet into a Faraday cup. The outside of the Faraday cup is grounded and the inner and outer conducting layers of the cup are connected through a coaxial cable with the Keithley 617 electrometer. Current measurements can be logged simultaneously with the pressure sensor output. To connect the Keithley 617 with the computer a Prologix GPIB-USB connector is used. For the direct velocity measurements of the jets, the jets are filmed using a Phantom TMX 7510, with frame rates upto 870,000 fps. Backlighting is used to illuminate the jets. (b) The polypropylene adapter holding the 1 mm (times) 1 mm silicon nozzle chip. (c) A microscope image of a nozzle chip with a hole radius of 4 (upmu)m. (d) Schematic of the liquid flow through the nozzle. The liquid first passes a filter and continues towards the orifice. The orifice consists of a circular hole in a 0.5 (upmu)m layer of silicon nitride, with radius R, between 2 and 16 (upmu)m. A boundary layer of thickness (delta x) is formed near and in the nozzle hole. (e) Liquid jet formed from a (R=8) (upmu)m jet, with a liquid velocity of 12 ms(^{-1}).
The electrical current is measured by spraying the charged jet into a Faraday cup, which is grounded and connected to a Keithley 617 electrometer via a triaxal cable. The Keithley 617 is capable of measuring currents as low as 0.1 fA, however for our experiments no currents were measured below 10 pA. The liquid flow is maintained with a Harvard Apparatus ULTRA CP syringe pump using an 8 mL stainless steel syringe from Darwin Microfluidics. This setup allows to generate pressures up to 40 bar, resulting in jet velocities as high as 80 ms(^{-1}). The metallic syringe is also connected to ground, so that no charge build-up can occur.
The velocity of the jet was measured using two methods. For the first method we used image analysis to track the trajectories of the micrometer-sized droplets generated by the breakup of the liquid jets. The jets were filmed at the nozzle exit, using a Phantom TMX 7510 camera. Since the droplets are small and the jet velocity high, the required frame rate was 870,000 fps for the fastest jets. By adjusting the flow rate of the syringe pump, the jet velocity was varied. After each flow rate adjustment, a measuring pause of typically a minute was initiated to allow the flow rate, and therefore streaming current, to stabilize. We attribute the delayed onset of the correct flow rate by the presence of air bubbles in the system, which act as small pressure vessels. Indeed by carefully refilling the syringe avoiding air bubbles, the waiting time can be reduced. After stabilization, each image recording was initiated while simultaneously reading off the current on the electrometer.
For the second method we use a pressure sensor (U5600-000005-300PA TE Connectivity Measurement Specialties), to read out the pressure along with the electrical current, which is logged using the Prologix GPIB-USB, connecting the Keithley electrometer with the computer. As the nozzle consists of a small porous filter followed by an orifice, the velocity can be directly calculated from the pressure using Bernoulli’s principle, plus a correction term for the flow through the filter (Darcy’s law). We find that this indirect measurement of the jet velocity perfectly coincides with the measurements from the pressure sensor, as well as the calculated velocity from the syringe pump flow rate and the nozzle hole diameter.
As the direct velocity measurements using high speed photography cannot be performed continuously, it is difficult to measure the streaming current when the flow rate approaches zero. However, when the syringe pump is discontinued, the liquid pressure does not go to zero directly, which is likely due to air bubbles as mentioned previously. During this final slow pressure drop, both the fluid pressure and electrical current can be recorded up to the moment the pressure is insufficient to support the formation of a jet and the measurement is discontinued. This method allows to measure the streaming current for very low flow rates.
The electrokinetic charging only becomes apparent when poorly conducting liquids are used. Due to the self-ionization of water, pure water always contains some ions, but at a very low concentration ((10^{-7}) M), giving pure water a conductivity of only 5 (upmu)S cm(^{-1}). Figure 3 shows the charging efficiency measured for a (R=8) (upmu)m nozzle, for different concentrations of NaCl. The results demonstrate that for water with salt concentrations higher than (10^{-4.25}) M, the electrokinetic charging starts to disappear. The ions present in the fluid not only change the conductivity of the liquid, but also the screening length of the electrical double layer, i.e. the shielding of the electric surface charge. The colorless markers in Fig. 3 show the behaviour for a multivalent salt CaSO₄, which should have a stronger screening effect. Though the curves for the multivalent salt are a bit below the equally concentrated NaCl solutions, the effect is small.
Charging efficiency for different salt concentrations in water. Salt changes the conductivity of the liquid as well as the electrical double layer. The arrow indicates decreasing salt concentrations (NaCl), showing that for salt concentrations higher than (10^{-4.25}) M, charging becomes insignificant. The white markers show the multivalent salt CaSO₄, which should have a larger screening effect. Though the charging is less efficient than for NaCl, the effect is not very strong.
The charging is strongly affected by the surface chemistry, or zeta potential, of the orifice. The orifice surface consisting of silicon dioxide, is a weak acid (orthosilicic acid), and therefore has a decreasing, i.e. more negative, zeta potential for higher pH values²³. A more negative zeta potential would therefore increase the streaming current. However, the conductivity also increases for higher pH. It is therefore expected that the optimal pH for silicon dioxide is somewhat higher than neutral. Figure 4 shows the charging efficiency for a (R=8) (upmu)m sized jet for water of different pH levels and liquid velocities. When the pH is very high or low, the charging diminishes. As expected, the optimal pH is higher than neutral and seems to be close to pH = 9.
Charging efficiency for different pH levels in water. For very high or low pH the charging efficiency decreases, as can be expected from the increase in conductivity. For pH=9 however, the charging efficiency seems to be the highest. As silicon dioxide is a very weak acid (orthosilicic acid ), the zeta potential increases with higher pH²³, which easily explains the optimal pH is higher than neutral.
As the nozzle hole diameter is small and the length of the channel considerably smaller than the hole size, the flow through the hole is a plug flow up to a small boundary layer, such that liquid flow through the nozzle chip only depends on the liquid density and pressure drop according to Bernoulli’s principle. This means that viscous losses are very small as required by the small Reynolds numbers (see following section). However, to avoid clogging due to impurities, a porous filter is placed in front of the nozzle chip. The flow through the filter is described by Darcy’s law, which states that the flow rate Q scales linearly with the pressure drop over the filter. The total pressure drop can therefore be calculated through Bernoulli’s principle plus a small linear correction term to account for the presence of a filter, such that
where (mu) is the liquid viscosity, L the length of the filter, k the nozzle’s filter porosity and (A_{2}/A_{1}) the ratio between the area of the nozzle hole and the area of the filter. According to Eq. (12) the streaming current should scale as (I_{s} sim v^{3/2}). Solving for (v) in Eq. (1), the streaming current can be expressed in terms of (Delta p) as
where C is a parameter set by the liquid viscosity and by the properties of the filter such as its porosity (see Eq. 1). Figure 5 shows the streaming current, (I_{s}), against the pressure drop, (Delta p), for a typical experiment, with the orange line indicating the prediction following Eq. (2). The line shows an excellent agreement for a given value of C, which varies between experiments, due to differences in liquid viscosity and porosity of the filter. Especially the latter can change drastically through clogging of the filter, though for fresh nozzles the differences are of the order of 50%. Equation (2) therefore allows one to convert pressure measurement data into liquid velocities.
Example of the streaming current (I_{s}) against the pressure drop (Delta p). Following Eq. (12) the streaming current scales as (I_{s}sim v^{3/2}), solving Eq. (1) for (v) allows one to express (I_{s}) in terms of (Delta p). The orange line shows that this gives an excellent prediction of the experimental results, for a certain value of C, which is determined by the filter’s porosity and the liquid viscosity. This causes C to differ slightly between experiments.
On the liquid-wall interface, there is always some exchange of ions, the amount of which sets the created potential difference, or zeta potential (Fig. 6). Due to charge neutrality, counterions will move towards the surface to form a diffusive double layer. For example, as in case of the nozzle chip that contains a layer of silicon dioxide, the silanol hydroxyl groups will act as a weak acid when in contact with water and release some H+ ions at the interface. The charging is then due to the interaction of the liquid flow and this electrical double layer, transporting a net charge. The streaming current (I_{s}), can then be calculated by integrating the liquid velocity profile (v)(r) and the charge density distribution (rho (r)) as
For short channels the velocity profile (v)(r) is a plug flow, up to some boundary layer flow of thickness (delta x), where the liquid velocity goes from the bulk velocity (v) to zero at the interface (Fig. 6). Davies¹² showed that by taking as a velocity gradient, (v/delta x), the streaming current can be approximated by
where (zeta) is the zeta potential, (epsilon) the electric permittivity of the liquid, (v) the liquid velocity, R the radius of the nozzle hole and (delta x) the boundary layer thickness.
Hydrodynamic boundary layer velocity profile interacting with the electrical double layer. When a material comes into contact with a liquid it will release or absorb some ions according to its zeta potential. For charge neutrality counterions will move towards the surface to form a diffusive double layer. For laminar flow through short channels, liquid flow goes from zero near the wall up to the bulk velocity (v) over some boundary layer thickness (delta x). The charging depends on this layer thickness, which scales as (delta x sim Rsqrt{Re^{-1}}).
Though liquid velocities are up to 80 ms(^{-1}), due to the small nozzle hole radii Reynolds numbers
are not higher than 400 in our experiments. The liquid flow can thus be expected to be laminar.
The thickness of the boundary layer (Figs. 2d, 6), (delta x), near the nozzle hole can be determined using scaling analysis. Let R be the spherical radial coordinate measured from the center of the orifice, and let r and z be cylindrical coordinates such that the start of the hole is (z = 0). The first step is to write down an expression for the inviscid flow external to the boundary layer. This flow is approximately a purely radial inflow towards the orifice, which can be treated as a point sink with volumetric strength Q. The associated radial velocity is
which is then also the velocity at the boundary layer. The flow in the boundary layer satisfies the steady boundary layer equation
where (u_{z}) and (u_{r}) are the cylindrical components of the velocity inside the boundary layer. There is no pressure gradient term in Eq. (7), because the pressure associated with the external flow is identically zero. Now according to standard boundary-layer theory, the two terms on the left-hand side of Eq. (7) are of the same order of magnitude. Therefore we have
Scaling (partial _{r}sim -r^{-1}) and (partial _{z} sim delta x^{-1}), we obtain
Solving for (delta x) and setting (u_{r}sim U_{r}), we obtain
The boundary layer therefore becomes progressively thinner as one approaches the hole, due to the strong acceleration of the external stream as r decreases. Now the boundary layer thickness at the edge (r = R) of the hole is
Using this expression in Eq. (4) gives for the streaming current
This expression for the streaming current differs slightly from what is often used in the literature^5,6,12, as most authors use for (delta x) the result of Rouse and Howe²⁰ for the laminar sublayer thickness in a turbulent flow, which equals
though Faubel²¹ uses the Prandtl layer thickness which scales as (delta x sim L sqrt{Re^{-1}}), where L is the characteristic channel length. However, none of the experimental results in literature seems to be able to fully discriminate between the different scaling laws nor do the expressions used for the layer thickness seem to be applicable for such short channels in a laminar flow regime. In this work however, we find that the data can only be described by taking the derived boundary layer thickness (delta x sim R ;sqrt{Re^{-1}}), which gives a correct prediction for over 4 orders of magnitude difference in streaming current.
To understand the effect of the electric charges on the spray droplets, we can start by estimating when the charging efficiency becomes sufficient to prevent droplet coalescence. From high speed images we observe that droplets generated from jets have slightly different velocities, which as they travel in the same direction, is the main driving force for coalescence. We find that the relative velocity between droplets is normally distributed around a mean of approximately (Delta v approx v/100). It should be noted though, that the velocity distribution depends on the nature of the perturbations that cause the instability of the jet, which might be very different, e.g. when the perturbation are not random, but due to an external source. Droplet coalescence will not occur if the potential energy due to the electric charge is higher than the kinetic energy of the approaching droplets. If we take as the interdroplet distance the Rayleigh wavelength, the potential energy between two equally charged droplets is
Measured droplet size of a 8(times R=2) (upmu)m spray nozzle, i.e. 8 holes of radius 2 µm, and numerical models for the expansion of the spray cloud due to self-charging. (a) droplet size distributions measured with laser diffraction (Malvern Spraytec) for a 8 (times 2) (upmu)m spray nozzle at a distance of approximately 0.05 m from the nozzle, with and without self-charging (see also Fig. 1). Sodium chloride is added to produce uncharged droplets. Droplet sizes are smaller in the case of self-charging, though droplet coalescence is not completely prevented. (b) the predicted divergence of the spray cloud according to Eq. (22). (c) numerical simulation of 200 droplet trajectories projected on the x-y plane.
where (k_{e}) is the electrostatic constant, R the radius of the nozzle hole and q the charge of each droplet. The charge density of a jet with velocity (v) is
For Rayleigh breakup the droplet radius is (R_{d} approx 1.89 R), which gives for the droplet charge
The potential energy can then be expressed in terms of the streaming current as
To prevent droplet coalescence for the fastest droplets, the electrical potential should be much larger than the average kinetic energy of the approaching droplets, i.e. (U_{e}/E_{kin}gg 1). The kinetic energy is given by
where we use that the droplet radius (R_{d}) is approximately 1.89R for Rayleigh breakup. The criteria for droplet coalescence suppression for water then becomes
where we use (zeta approx 100) mV (see following section). This shows that the larger the jet radius, the smaller the effect of the charging is on the droplet dynamics, as can be expected. For a spray of hole radius (R=2) (upmu)m and a typical spray velocity of (v =20) ms(^{-1}), (U_{e}/E_{kin} approx 8), so that one can expect droplet repulsion to become relevant. Indeed, droplet sizes measured at equal distances using a laser diffraction technique (Malvern Spraytec), are significantly smaller when there is self-charging (Fig. 7a). Still, as compared with the nozzle radius, R, an average of 15 droplets must have merged to reach the measured median droplet size. A more detailed measurement of the droplet velocity distribution would allow to evaluate the coalescence criteria for the whole spray. Such detailed measurements are however beyond the scope of this paper.
As is clear from Fig. 1, the self-charging has a significant impact on the spreading of the spray plume. To estimate the expansion of the spray plume, ignoring other aerodynamic effects such as vortices, we explore a simple model for the contours of the spray plume and perform a direct numerical simulation of an array of charged droplets. Let (vec {r}(z)) be the radial position from the center of the jets and z the axial distance from the start of the nozzle. The electric field due to a stream of charged droplets can be estimated by viewing the jets as a charged cylinder with a charge density (lambda) such that
where we use (lambda = I_{s}/v_{a}(z)), with (v_{a}(z)) the velocity in the axial direction. The droplet charge can be calculated by using the charge density and droplet volume as in Eq. (15), such that the Coulomb force on a particle is
where (v_{0}) is the velocity of the fluid at the nozzle exit. The electric repulsion is opposed by frictional forces, (vec {F_{s}}), according to Stokes’ law such that the full equation of motion becomes
where (C_{1} = 2 I_{s}^{2} R_{d}^{3}/(3pi epsilon _{0}v_{0} R_{nozzle}^{2})) and (C_{2}=6 pi mu _{air} R_{d}).
The movement of the droplets in the spray strongly depends on their size, (R_{d}), as the deceleration or stopping distance of the spray scales as (sim R_{d}^{2}). Using the droplet size as expected from Rayleigh breakup would lead to unrealistically short spray plumes. Due to coalescence the median droplet size is significantly larger, resulting in much larger stopping distances of the spray droplets. For the spray nozzle in Fig. 1, the measured median droplet radius is 9.2 (upmu)m at the point the spray plume starts to diverge (Fig. 7a), i.e. when the radial velocity becomes comparable to the axial velocity, while from Rayleigh breakup one would expect droplets of radius (sim 😉3.8 (upmu)m. Using the measured droplet radius for (R_{d}), the streaming current (I_{s}), and placing the droplet at the edge of the spray, i.e. (r(z=0)=250) (upmu)m, the equation of motion can be solved numerically. Figure 7b shows the predicted contour of the spray plume for this nozzle configuration compared with a picture of the actual spray plume, which demonstrates an excellent agreement.
We also performed a basic numerical simulation of a single jet using the Euler method for integration. As initial conditions, we use the measured droplet size and corresponding interdroplet spacing, i.e. assuming an average of 15 droplet coalescence events to reach the measured droplet size. We simulate a jet by periodically producing droplets, with a maximum of 200 droplets for computational efficiency. To the starting position of each droplet a small noise parameter is added, something that can also be expected in a real experimental set-up. Perfectly aligned droplets would lead to unrealistic artefacts in the electrostatic interaction. The force on each droplet is then the sum of all electrostatic forces and the frictional drag according to Stokes’ law. Figure 7c shows an overlay of the spray plume with the projection of all the 3D trajectories on the xy-plane according to the simulation. Though the real spray consists of multiple jets, this simple model with only a single jet captures the deceleration and the radial spreading of the spray droplets.
Streaming current against the prediction (Eq. 12). The absolute value of the streaming current, (|I_{s}|), plotted against the prediction, for different flow rates, nozzle sizes, liquids and surface treatments. A negative zeta potential in this case indicates a positively charged jet and vice versa. When anhydrous ethanol (EtOH) or methanol (MeOH) is used, the polarity is opposite that of water. Mixed with water, the zeta potential is however again negative (not shown in the figure). Cleaning the nozzle prior to the measurement with Hellmanex III leads to a more negative zeta potential. When heavy water is sprayed before measuring the streaming current with normal water, the zeta potential temporarily more than doubles from (zeta =-115) mV to (zeta =-250) mV. This indicates some kind of incorporation of deuterium atoms on the surface, or the absorption of deuterium oxide molecules. By applying a silane coating on the silicon dioxide surface with positively charged end-groups, the zeta potential can be reversed ((zeta = 75) mV), leading to a negatively charged jet for water.
We are now in a position to compare theory and experiment. Figure 8 shows the data collapse using Eq. (12) for all measurements, where the liquid velocities were determined by using the pressure sensor data, as well as direct measurements using the high speed camera. We use the absolute value of the streaming current and the zeta potential, so that both polarities fall on the same curve. A positive value for the zeta potential therefore indicates a negatively charged jet (legend Fig. 8). We varied the liquid velocity, nozzle hole diameter, fluid type and the treatment of the nozzle wall surface. The only unknown fitting parameter is the value of the zeta potential, (zeta), which depends on the chemical interaction of the liquid with the nozzle surface. Interestingly, we find that many things can have a significant impact on the value of the zeta potential. For example, cleaning the nozzles beforehand with Hellmanex III, makes that the zeta potential decreases from (zeta = -115) mV to (zeta = -185) mV. Also the use of other liquids can have a temporary effect on the surface chemistry. Curiously, by first flowing heavy water through the nozzle, the zeta potential more than doubles when normal water is subsequently used. This suggests some kind of exchange of deuterium on the surface or the absorption of deuterium oxide molecules. Coupling of the ionized jet with a mass spectrometer together with the use of normal and deuterated molecules, could provide a way to track the exchange of protons so as to give more insight into the chemical interactions at the interface, however this is beyond the scope of this paper. Given the hysteresis effects on the determination of the zeta potential, measurements were carried out after prolonged spraying to reach a steady state.
Besides the effect of density, viscosity and electric permittivity on the change of liquid, the zeta potential depends on the chemical interaction of the liquid with the surface, which especially in the case of SiO₂ surfaces is notoriously difficult to understand. In water, the silanol groups at the surface of SiO₂ act as a weak acid, releasing protons at the interface to form a negatively charged surface. The resulting jets therefore have a positive charge (Fig. 8). Alcohols such as methanol and ethanol can, by the presence of a hydroxyl group, both absorb or donate a proton. We find that water/ethanol mixtures lead to positive charging, but when anhydrous methanol or ethanol is used, the polarity changes (Fig. 8). As there must be a cross-over between both polarities, when the ethanol or methanol samples contain only small amounts of water ((lesssim 10)%), the charging efficiency becomes very low. Predicting the zeta potential in such cases would require the calculation of the acid dissociation constant between the silanol groups of the nozzle wall and the hydroxyl groups of the liquid, for which at the present time there is no available literature.
To further demonstrate that the charging polarity is due to the surface charge, we apply a silane coating with positively charged end-groups. After silanization the polarity with water is reversed, with a zeta potential of (zeta =) 75 mV (Fig. 8).
Equation (12) shows that the streaming current only weakly depends on the radius of the hole, i.e. (I_{s}sim R^{1/2}). We change the radius of the hole by a factor of 8, and find that the predicted streaming current still holds over a large range of liquid velocities (Fig. 8). As the flow rate scales with (sim R^{2}) for a given liquid velocity, the charging efficiency scales as (sim R^{-3/2}). Therefore, better charging efficiencies can be achieved by using smaller orifices.
The results so far only dealt with single hole nozzles, while most practical spray applications require a larger flow rate and therefore a nozzle consisting of an array of holes, such as the nozzle in Fig. 1. Though one can expect the streaming current to simply scale with the number of holes, saturation effects could play a role. For a (8times 4) (upmu)m spray nozzle at a flow rate of 300 (upmu)L  min(^{-1}) using pure water, we measure a streaming current of (210/8=25.5) nA per hole, while according to Eq. (12) one expects this to be 20 nA, a difference that can easily be attributed to a small difference in the zeta potential.
When poorly conducting liquids are sprayed, they can undergo self-charging, an effect that can have a significant impact on the spray plume dynamics and droplet size. This electrokinetic charging is a result of the interaction of the liquid velocity flow profile near the nozzle wall and the electrical double layer, which in turn depends on often complicated surface chemistry. In this work, we explored the charging for a model situation, laminar flow through micrometer-sized orifices, that is amendable to a full theoretical analysis. Contrary to flow through long pipes, the ultra short orifices lead to a plug-like flow profile with a thin boundary layer at the nozzle wall. As the streaming current is due to the overlap between the liquid flow profile and the electrical double layer, one can show that the streaming current is inversely proportional to the boundary layer thickness (delta x). We showed that for this case, boundary layer theory predicts that the liquid velocity profile is within a layer thickness of (delta x sim R ;sqrt{Re^{-1}}), slightly different from the commonly adopted model for the layer thickness of Rouse and Howe²⁰, where (delta x sim R ;sqrt{Re^{-7/8}}). We demonstrate that the predicted streaming current, (I_{s}), using this layer thickness, perfectly coincides with the experimental results over four orders of magnitude difference in streaming current, for different nozzle hole diameters, surface treatments and liquid types. We further showed how the charging efficiency changes with salt concentration and pH.
We demonstrated that the charging can have a significant impact on the droplet size and spray plume dynamics. Especially in the case of sprays produced by jets, coalescence can have a considerable impact on the final droplet size, and therefore, the stopping distance of the spray plume. We showed that when droplets are small enough, the self-charging can suppress coalescence and lead to a diverging spray plume. Using computer simulations and a simple model for the electrostatic repulsion, the divergence of the spray cloud can be accurately predicted.
As the streaming current scales linearly with the zeta potential, (zeta), the charging efficiency is strongly affected by the surface modification and type of liquid used. Silanol groups of the silicon dioxide surface act as a weak acid in water, releasing protons from the nozzle surface, resulting in a positively charged jet. In accordance with this picture, we showed that the application of a silane coating with positively charged end-groups, leads to a switch in polarity of the streaming current. Interestingly, the use of anhydrous methanol or ethanol gives a positive zeta potential, while when mixed with water gives a negative zeta potential. A complete description of the charging then requires being able to predict the zeta potential given a certain liquid and nozzle surface.
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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This research has been funded by the Dutch Research Council NWO, IPP Grant “Innovative Nanotech Sprays”, ENPPS.IPP.019.001. N.R. thanks the University of Amsterdam for a two-month visiting professorship during which part of this work was done.
Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Stefan Kooij, Cees van Rijn & Daniel Bonn
1Lab FAST, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, 91405, Orsay, France
Neil Ribe
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S.K. performed the experiments, analyzed the data and performed the computer simulations. S.K., C.R. and D.B. conceived the study. S.K. wrote the main manuscript text. N.R. derived the boundary layer scaling. All authors reviewed the manuscript.
Correspondence to Stefan Kooij.
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Kooij, S., van Rijn, C., Ribe, N. et al. Self-charging of sprays. Sci Rep 12, 19296 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-21943-5
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The DeepRemix creator release another new module
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About this report
The PRI Reporting Framework helps to build a common language and industry standard for reporting responsible investment activities. Public RI Reports provide accountability and transparency on signatories’ responsible investment activities and support dialogue within signatories’ organisations, as well as with their clients, beneficiaries and other stakeholders.
This Public RI Report is an export of the signatory’s responses to the PRI Reporting Framework during the 2021 reporting period. It includes the signatory’s responses to mandatory indicators, as well as responses to voluntary indicators that the signatory has agreed to make public.
The information is presented exactly as it was reported. Where an indicator offered a multiple-choice response, all options that were available to select from are included for context. While presenting the information verbatim results in lengthy reports, the approach is informed by signatory feedback that signatories prefer that the PRI does not summarise the information.
Context
In consultation with signatories, between 2018 and 2020 the PRI extensively reviewed the Reporting and Assessment processes and set the ambitious objective of launching in 2021 a completely new investor Reporting Framework, together with a new reporting tool.
We ran the new investor Reporting and Assessment process as a pilot in its first year, and such process included providing additional opportunities for signatories to provide feedback on the Reporting Framework, the online reporting tool and the resulting reports. The feedback from this pilot phase has been, and is continuing to be analysed, in order to identify any improvements that can be included in future reporting cycles.
PRI disclaimer
This document presents information reported directly by signatories in the 2021 reporting cycle. This information has not been audited by the PRI or any other party acting on its behalf. While this information is believed to be reliable, no representations or warranties are made as to the accuracy of the information presented.
The PRI has taken reasonable action to ensure that data submitted by signatories in the reporting tool is reflected in their official PRI reports accurately. However, it is possible that small data inaccuracies and/or gaps remain, and the PRI shall not be responsible or liable for such inaccuracies and gaps.
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Table of Contents
Module/Indicator
Page
Senior Leadership Statement (SLS)
4
Organisational Overview (OO)
8
Investment and Stewardship Policy (ISP)
30
Manager Selection, Appointment and Monitoring (SAM)
68
Listed Equity (LE)
84
Fixed Income (FI)
98
Real Estate (RE)
111
3
Senior Leadership Statement (SLS)
Senior leadership statement
Our commitment
Indicator
Type of indicator
Dependent on
Gateway to
Disclosure
Subsection
PRI Principle
SLS 1 S1
CORE
N/A
N/A
PUBLIC
Our commitment
GENERAL
Why does your organisation engage in responsible investment?
What is your organisation’s overall approach to responsible investment?
What are the main differences between your organisation’s approach to responsible investment in its ESG practice and in other practices, across asset classes?
eQ Asset Management has for several years acted as an active forerunner for responsible investment. We have signed the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in 2010. We promote responsible investment at the Finnish Venture Capital Association, Invest Europe and Rakli. Since the spring of 2020, eQ has been member of Finance Finland’s Responsibility Committee. In addition, we are an active member of Finsif (Finland’s Sustainable Investment Forum) and have signed CDP’s Climate Change programme.
eQ Asset Management’s principles for responsible investment form a framework to the Group’s investment operations and their processes. The principles cover all asset classes, and their application depends on the asset class and investment method. These principles have been updated in the autumn of 2020, and eQ Asset Management’s Board has approved them on 3 September 2020.The principles for responsible investment are available on eQ’s website. The corporate governance principles of eQ Fund Management Company Ltd and eQ Asset Management Ltd, which were updated in the spring of 2020, can also be found on the website.
Responsible investment is not a separate consideration for eQ, as ESG is part of all investment operations. In practice this means that sustainability is continuously and systematically integrated in the selection, monitoring and reporting of investees in all investment areas of eQ. eQ’s Director for Responsible Investment is responsible for this work and its development. Each investment team also has a dedicated person who has deeper knowledge of responsible investments. In addition to these persons, we believe that it is of utmost importance that all our portfolio managers and analysts understand, recognise and take into account the potential sustainability risks and opportunities pertaining to investments. This is something that cannot be outsourced. In addition to ESG analyses, it is an important part of a portfolio manager’s job to have a regular engagement dialogue with the investees.
eQ Asset Management’s activities related to responsible investment are also discussed by eQ Plc’s Board of Directors once a year. In addition, the Board of eQ Fund Management Company Ltd receives regular reports on ESG events and the engagement dialogue with the investees in all of eQ’s investment areas.
4
Annual overview
Indicator
Type of indicator
Dependent on
Gateway to
Disclosure
Subsection
PRI Principle
SLS 1 S2
CORE
N/A
N/A
PUBLIC
Annual overview
GENERAL
Discuss your organisation’s progress during the reporting year on the responsible investment issue you consider most relevant or material to your organisation or its assets.
Reflect on your performance with respect to your organisation’s responsible investment objectives and targets during the reporting year. This might involve e.g. outlining your single most important achievement, or describing your general progress, on topics such as the following:
refinement of ESG analysis and incorporation
stewardship activities with investees and/or with policy makers
collaborative engagements
attainment of responsible investment certifications and/or awards
Integrating ESG matters in equity and fixed income is very down to earth and part of the portfolio manager’s day-to-day work when selecting investments and managing funds. We aim at excellent long-term return. Responsible and sustainable operations are fully in line with this goal, and that is why the ESG analysis is a key element in the investment processes of all our funds. We influence our investees actively in questions pertaining to sustainability by having a direct dialogue with companies. In 2020 we carried out altogether 144 engagement activities in our equity and fixed income funds in the following areas: 4 within governance, 2 within social responsibility,
131 regarding the availability of the sustainability report and 7 regarding the follow-up of a verified violation of a norm. The reason for the high number of activities related to the availability of the sustainability report in 2020 was the fact that our portfolio managers carried out an active engagement dialogue with all investments that do not yet report their emissions to the CDP organisation. We were happy to see that there is interest in emission reporting. Some companies already had this on their agenda but with some, we just began discussing emission reporting. In general, we wish to encourage companies to report to their stakeholders information on their emissions, the sustainable products that they offer and on how they take climate change into account in their business operations. In connection with the theme, we also signed CDP’s joint initiative that aims at encouraging companies to set science-based emission reduction targets for their operations.
When a property is purchased, the due diligence process always comprises sustainability matters. During the ownership period, measures are taken in separate properties in order to promote sustainability. Among the ma jor pro jects in 2020 can be mentioned the low- carbon roadmap that we have drawn up for eQ Community Properties (former Care) and Finnish Real Estate funds. The aim of the roadmap was to define the measures with which funds can reduce their carbon footprint in an efficient and appropriate manner. We set carbon neutrality target by 2030 for eQ Community Properties and Finnish Real Estate funds and defined measures to meet the target. The use of green district heating has increased considerably in 2020. The reducing impact of this measure was about 6500 tCO2 in 2020. Also, Breaam In-Use Certification targets were defined for both real estate funds. We use the results from the GRESB as one important tool when monitoring our sustainability work. Year 2020 was our second reporting year for GRESB.
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eQ Oyj published this content on 11 November 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 11 November 2022 11:21:07 UTC.

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