Filrence Faraday's Bits and Pieces

~ Market + Restaurant ~ ??? O.o''

2011-05-20T01:38:00.024+08:00

~ *Market + Restaurant* ~ ??? O.o''

If you would like to have a gathering with a bunch of people that can’t make up their mind what to eat. Then I would suggest you a restaurant called Marché. It's located at The Street in The Curve. It offers a wide range of food selection inside. There is actually a small market included the restaurant. Marché (pronounced Mar-shay), means “market” in French, is a restaurant concept developed by the Swiss-based Mövenpick Group. It is totally a fresh concept in dining pioneered. Customers are given a “ market passport” upon entry, and each and every food item ordered will be stamped on the passport and the bill will be counted based on the stamps in the end. The food purchased will be cooked right on the spot by the chef and served immediately!
A warm reminder for you here: Lost of passport will cost RM200.00 so be careful!!
Some photos for you =)

The 'Market Passport" !^.*!

More Information?

Marche Movenpick
G87, Ground Floor
The Curve, Mutiara Damansara,
47800 Petaling Jaya

Reservation Hotline: 03-7727 8461

Frames Restaurant @ Sunway Pyramid

2011-05-20T00:26:00.007+08:00

Frames Restaurant @ Sunway Pyramid

Days before, I've dug out some photos in my phone and they made me recalled those yummy memories which is still vivid in my mind. And so I've decided to share with all of you here! =) It was the time that I had my lunch after doing some shopping in a western restaurant called Frames. It is located in Sunway Pyramid shopping complex, it is on your left if The Opera club is on your right. As how it is named, the restaurants has been decorated with all sorts of photo frames hung on the wall.

What I would like to share is that normally these type of restaurant will give me kind of impression like they'll serve fine nicely decorated food in 'tiny' portion which couldn't really fill up one's stomach with 'so so' taste rating and yet still can cost you a pretty penny. But Frames is just so outstanding in every aspect, from its dining environment to foods and drinks. To my surprise, I was wrong! The foods were surprisingly delicious and I could even tasted and felt the chef's sincerity and passion in preparing the foods for his customers. And the portion was just nice for me. The chef was really considerate and warming to keep an eye on what customers needs and if we had any suggestion or opinion for the foods. The prices are average. Frames just proved my thoughts wrong! ^.~ I rated it 4 stars out of 5 after all! ****

I had Oglio-Oglio Smoked Duck while my friend had a tempting beef burger. Have a look? Here you go:

Outing To V1 Concept Bar and Restaurant

2011-05-19T23:27:00.017+08:00

Outing To V1 Concept Bar and Restaurant

Last month Family and I have been to a very unique Bar and Restaurant after our dinner to have a look at its environment. V1 concept bar and restaurant is the first sports car themed restaurant in Malaysia which located in Bandar Puteri Puchong. It provides a very special dining atmosphere to customers.

There is a car display in the restaurant, a red Ferrari! Customers can experience sitting in a sports car because instead of using ordinary chair, this restaurant adopts semi-bucket seat!

What’s really cool about this restaurant? It uses Ipad as menu! By ordering with Ipad, customers need not to raise hand and wait for waiter, how convenient is it?!

I was so surprised when I stepped into toilet because of its design! What do you expect to see in a toilet?

Steering and brake pedal! By turning the steering, you can get water. How about the pedal? Soap! =D

Although the ambience is good, food that it serves is a bit disappointing. It charges above average, perhaps people pay for its dining atmosphere instead of food!

Anyhow, it was still a great outing with the dearest!
Look how satisfied my cousin was
:P

Great experience at Japanese MAIU Restaurant

2011-05-19T22:02:00.016+08:00

Great Experience at Japanese MAIU Restaurant

I was recommended to this Japanese restaurant by a long known friend. This restaurant is a bit hard to find as it is stucked right in the middle of a mini industrial area/office lot. Parking is a problem during the day as the offices are opened for business and the lots are occupied by either cars or vans. MAIU Japanese Restaurant serves fusion japanese food to cater local taste buds. Its branches are located at Damansara Perdana and Seri Petaling, both open for lunch until 2.30pm and resumes back at 6.00pm to 10.30pm for dinner. The buffet promotion which cost only RM38.80 per person for adult and RM 19.90 for children. One thing that I like about their buffet is that, they only cook and prepare when you ordered. So all the foods are freshly served!! Their foods are of wide variation and are really delicious! What I love the most was their handrolls! The handrolls there are unique in sense that they have fried bits and pieces in them which brought wonderful mouthfeel and taste! Besides, their Sashimi were really fresh and you can have them unlimited all night long before you call for the bill. Frankly it is really worthwhile to enjoy such yummy and fresh japanese foods at such a reasonable, erm perhaps I should say CHEAP price! Here are some of the foods they served:

For more information or reservation contact, kindly click:

Japanese MAIU Restaurant

The Dream Relationship & Dream Wedding !

2011-05-19T21:21:00.013+08:00

Weeks ago, BF Wedding, the wedding of Taiwanese stars - Blackie & Fan Fan (Christine Fan) has been everyone's chit chatting topic. For me, not only being the dream wedding of everyone, both of them own the dream relationship of every single couple along the love journey! They have been together for 10 years and yet the temperature of their love has never dropped! Both of them has just held a warm, natural and sweet wedding in Taipei. One of the "What's so special" of their wedding was that they did not have elegant Bally shoes and gorgeous high heels but lovely sport shoes for both bridegroom and bridge made specially by Nike with the wedding date printed on the shoes! Moreover, both of them have written the marriage vows for each other by themselves. It was really touching to hear them spoke the marriage vows out in the church! Best wishes for both of them! God bless so that they'll live happily ever after like prince and princess! ^^

I'm sharing a video of their wedding here. Wish you guys enjoy watching and I'm pretty sure that you'll be touched! =)

Bleaching Agents

2009-08-07T04:19:00.030+08:00

My Mother ^^

^
^
^

When i was at younger age, my mother used to be very angry when i was home from primary school with my "yellowish brown" school uniform which was actually in sharp and clean white before setting off to school in the morning! She was really sick and tired of washing my school uniform as it will be dirty again very soon :) i could often see her black face especially when the dirty shirt was again with some stubborn stains. Do you have the experience like mine? :)

However, i did not get an black eye everytime because of their existences :

Yea~ bleaching agents!

As we know, bleaching agents are bottlled of solution which used to lighten or remove stains or colours. Chemically speaking, bleaching agents contain certain composition of active chemical compounds or molecules that react with various type of substrates such as stains, dyes to remove or decolourize them on textiles or fabrics.
As what you've seen , There are two main types of common household bleaching agents which are 'chlorine' bleaches and 'oxygen' bleaches. Although of the different manufacturing ingredients, both of them function in the same way - decolourising substances through oxidation process.

Oxygen bleaches is one of a common strong bleaching agent that contains the chemical compound of hydrogen peroxide(H2O2) or other peroxide releasing compounds as the main ingredient. Hydrogen peroxide is a pale blue weak acid which has strong oxidising properties. The commercial brand "Vanish O²" on the market is one of the example of oxydative bleaches.

Structural formula of Hydrogen peroxide:

However, we'll only focus on CHLORINE bleach here and now ...o.O

"Chlorox", the commercial bleaching agent which most of us will have it at home is in fact falls into the category of "Chlorine" bleaches as it involves chlorine molecules in its process of manufacturing which then finally produces a chemical compound known as Sodium Hypochlorite(NaOCl) - the active ingredient of all Chlorine bleaching agents.

Structural formula of Sodium hypochlorite

:

Molecular formula = NaOCl

Sodium hypochlorite, also known as Sodium chlorate(I) is a chemical compound consists of Sodium, Chlorine and Oxygen which has been used for bleaching and disnfecting purposes for centuries.

How is it produced?

Earlier in 1789, Hypochlorite had been produced by passing chlorine gas through a solution of sodium carbonate in Javel, France, due to that the product which is a weak acid solution of Sodium hypochlorite was known as "Javel water" Or "Eau de Javel".This less efficient method of production is then replaced by another alternative method of E.S.Smith later in the end of 19th century.

In this method, Chlorine gas and caustic soda is first obtained through the hydrolysis of brine solution before the chlorination process, that is to mix both products to form Sodium hypochlorite. Nowadays, the method has been improved and so called the Hooker process. This process is now the large scale industrial method in the production of commercial bottled Sodium hypochloride solution in various trademarks. Throughout the process, Chlorine gas is to react with cool and diluted aqueous Sodium hydroxide to yield Sodium hypochloride, Sodium Chloride and water as the by-products. Electrolysis process is involved in the separation of charges in cathode
and anode.

Cl2(g) + 2 NaOH(aq) <--------------> NaClO(aq) + NaCl(aq) + H2O(l)

Commercial household bleach usually contain 3 - 6 % of Sodium hypoclorite. Different formulation certainly will have products of different strength but the strength of the solution might be gradually decreased due to long storage too!

Why do substances have colours?

Well~ We'll start with a little Physic + Chemistry :D

A substance has a colour because it contains Chromophore!
A Chromophore is the a group of atoms make up a dye molecule with different functional group of that is largely responsible for its colour or pigmentation. It is the region where there is a difference of energy level falls in a range of visible spectrum between two different molecular orbitals created by a series of single and double bond alternately. A molecule has a colour when it absorbs and reflects others with certain wavelengths of visible light as the light can hit the chromophore and being absorbed throuugh exciting an electron from its ground state!

Fabric dyes, also known as Azo compounds, food coloring, flower pigmentations and many more substances contains chromophores!

Chromophores contain unsaturated groups like C=O and -N=N- extended from arene rings. Within the structure, the unsaturated group often appears in a system of electron delocarization. All Azo Compounds, with the colur of the shirts you're wearing inclusive, have the general equation of R-N=N-R' arrangement! ^^

Here are a few examples of Azo dyes' structural formula:

Yellow Azo dye looks like this!

Basic Chrysoidine Dye (orange)

An Advance Red Dye ^^

Do you know how the stain on your shirt is being removed?

Get to know ~*The mechanism of bleaching*~

Substances can be decolourised through either oxidation or reduction process. For reducing agents, sodium dithionite can be one of the examples while most commercial bleaches today are oxidising agents with chlorine and oxydative bleaches inclusive.
Sodium hypochloride is highly reactive and unstable when it's pure thus we often buy it in the form of diluted aqueous solution. When it is being mixing with water, hypochlorite will decompose to form Hydrogen ions, Chloride ions and a powerful oxidising agent known as Hypochloric acid(HClO) which has a excellent bleaching and disinfecting effect.
The equation of the process is as the following :

Cl2(aq) + H2O(l) ---------------> H+(aq) + Cl-(aq) + HClO(aq)

Structural formula of HClO:

Hypochlorous acid is then partially dissociates in aqueous solution and forms the anion known as Hypochlorite (ClO-) :

HClO(aq) ----------------> ClO- + H+

Next, Hypochlorite tends to decompose into chloride and oxygen :

ClO- -------------------> Cl- + O

The oxygen is in highly reactive form which then leads to bleaching and anti-bacteria effects when reacting with other organic substances.

As oxidising agents, Chlorine and oxydative bleaches cause the substance it reacting with to be oxidised while itself being reduced in the bleaching process. Recall that oxidation is losing one or more electrons whereas reduction is gaining of one or more electrons. During the process, the bleaching agent undergoes reduction by gaining activated electrons which can absorb visible lights from the substances and hold them to itself. The oxidation and reduction process occur simultaneously . In other words, the bleaching process is actually a redox reaction!

You may have a look at the following simplified diagram to help in illustrating the process :

The hypochlorite ion (OCl-) is reduced to chloride ions and hydroxide ions during reduction. It is then forms a basic solution as it receives electrons from the coloured material.
Equation :

OCl- + 2e- + HOH -------------------> Cl- + 2OH

Besides that, Chlorine and oxydative bleaches works by breaking the series of alternating chemical bonds of the chromophores so that the molecules are changed into a different form and thus destroy the ability of the chromophores in absorption of visible light causing the substance to be gradually decolorised. By destroying chemical bonds, large stain molecules can be broken down to smaller and water-soluble fragments which eventually to be removed much easily by detergent during washing process.

Some pictures for you :)

Stain molecules has it colour's origin in the double bond connections.

Bleach molecules breaking up the double bond connections!

Double bond connections have been broken!
AND~

Stain has been decolourised!!

In addition, besides chemicals in bleaching agents, high energy such as photons in sunlight can also distrupt chemical bonds in chromophores for decolourising effects. This is what was done by many of the people in the past to bleach out colours from substances!

Apart from being household and laundry products, bleaching agents are very useful in many industries such as bleaching of wood pulps, beeswax, flour, tissue papers, skin, cellulose, disinfectant for swimming pool and a number of other industries!

Oats will never be an Overdose !!

2009-08-06T16:06:00.049+08:00

Undoubtedly, everyone agrees that breakfast is the most important meal among all in a day. A satisfying and nutritious breakfast would definitely provide us great mood and boosts our energy level for the whole day to embrace all challenges! Nevertheless, how many of us have actually prepared our meal or eat according to the food nutritional pyramid especially in a sleepy morning or when you are chasing time to set off to universities or workplaces? It is just too much to do due to our hectic lifestyles nowadays. As a solution to that, some of us have been making a smart decision - that is, to start the day off with food that requires simple way of preparation while able to supply us enormous nutritional benefits -

OATS

Oat plants, with a scientific name of Avena sativa.

Rolled Oats

Watching TV is one of my favourite pastimes :), if the same goes to you, I am sure that you have seen some advertisements of oats products, do you agree that oats' advertisements will always have something to do with CHOLESTEROL? We've been told that oats is effective in lowering cholesterol levels. Have you ever wondered if it is true and curious about what chemical components do oats contain and how do they work to enable oats to have this great effects?

Ø What is CHoLesTeRoL...

Molecular Formula: C27H46O / C27H45OH

Cholesterol molecule consists of a polar hydroxyl group, while a hydocarbon tail and 4 hydrocarbon rings make up the non-polar region. Cholesterol is said to be amphipathic because of its water soluble hydroxyl group and the fat-soluble hydrocarbon tail and rings structures. The -OH group makes cholesterol an alcohol, together with the ring structure, cholesterol is classified as an animal "sterol". However, cholesterol is not soluble enough to dissolve into the bloodstream, it is thus being travel by a special carrier known as lipoprotein in the blood plasma in two forms - High Density Lipoprotein(HDL) and Low Density Lipoprotein(LDL).

HDL Cholesterol is the good cholesterol while LDL is not.

3D Structure of cholesterol :

Cholesterol is a waxy, lipidic and soft substance found in the plasma membranes and being transported in our bloodstream. Cholesterol plays extremely important roles in the human body to maintain permeablity and fluidity of plasma membrane, stabilizing cells against temperature changes, as well as being building block for plasma membrane, bile acids, steroid hormone and several fat soluble vitamins. Nevertheless, hypercholesterolaemia, having higher level of cholesterol in the blood than the body needs can threaten our health as we'll have higher risk to associate with various kinds of coronary heart diseases and cardiovascular diseases!
Surprisingly, consuming adequate amount of oats daily can be a solution to hypercholesterolaemia!

This is because Oats are very rich in two components which has great effects in lowering and controlling Cholesterol level. They are ~BETA - D - GLUCAN~, a form of roughage or Dietary Fibers, and Avenanthramides, a type of antioxidants.

Ø Understanding Dietary Fibers

Hmm~ let me guess, when talk about fiber, the first term appears in your mind must be "constipation", am i right? In fact, besides preventing constipation, fiber has many other functions!

Dietary fibers fall into two categories, that is the soluble and insoluble types. Oats are an excellent source of both types of fibers after all! Beta-D-glucan which has just been mentioned is a member of the few essential soluble fibers which needed by our bodies.

*BETA-D- GLUCAN*?

Beta-D-glucan is also known as beta glucan.
It is an unique non-starch and non-digestible vicous polysaccharides which can be found in bran or endosperm cell wall of natural sources such as oats, barley, yeast, mushrooms and other cereal grains.

O_0 Wow~ isn't this amazing? Such a long structural formula...

This is because beta-glucan consists of linear unbranched polysaccharides of β-D-Glucose like cellulose, have -CH2OH groups oriented up and down the plane of beta-glucan molecules alternately. Within the structure, each monomer, that is the glucose unit, is linked by a structure known as Glycosidic bond. There are 3 common types of Glycosidic bond - which are ß-1, 3 linkage, ß-1, 4 linkage and ß-1, 6 linkage.

Structural formula of the linkages:

Top : ß-1, 3 linkage, Middle: ß-1, 6 linkage, Bottom: ß-1, 3,ß-1, 6 linkage

In oats, every three or four ß-1,4 linkages will be linked with one ß-1,3 linkage. For this reason, beta glucan is sometime being known as mixed-linkage (1›3), (1›4)-beta-D-glucan. With unit links to unit connecting by glycosidic bonds, beta-glucan forms molecules consist of about 250000 glucose units in long cylindrical form! What you are looking at is actually a small part of it!

With the presence of the both types of linkages, oats are thus an excellent source of both soluble and insoluble fibers. This is because the one ß-1,3 linkages can break up the uniform structure of the molecule of beta-glucan making it to be soluble whereas the hull or cellulose part of oats are made up of only ß-1,4 linkages which is rigid and so causing it to be insoluble and indigestible by our bodies!
Percentages of Beta glucan content in some oat products:

Beta glucan has a number of health benefits.

Study after study have proven that Beta-glucan, can effectively lower one's total blood cholesterol level by lowering the LDL Cholesterol without lowering our good cholesterol, the HDL Cholesterol!

Soluble fiber traps cholesterol molecules!

Next, Beta Glucan has high santiety level, meaning it can transform into a gel when passing through our digestive tract making us feel full for a longer duration of time as the gel like substance can slow down the rate of digestion by increasing the viscosity of the stomach contents.

Furthermore the gel can trap bile-acid which is Cholesterol-rich to reduce the amount of cholesterol intake into our bloodstream and also prolong the conversion and absorption of sugar to stabilize blodd glucose level. Moreover, beta glucan is also believed to have great beneficial effects on boosting Immunity!

Evidence? Here you are!

An article written by Dr Paul Clayton, a former Senior Scientific Advisor to the UK government's Committee on the Safety of Medicines and a member of The Royal Society of Medicine. He says that beta-glucans are a great breakthrough in immune protecting functions against inflection, cancers, allergies as well as in anti-aging aspects.

Consume oats daily and you might be as strong as him!! :-)

Last but not Least....

~*Avenanthramides*~

Besides soluble fiber like beta glucan, oats also rich in the component of Avenanthramides, a type of phenolic antioxidants. This type of antioxidant is very effective in preventing Low Desinty Lipoprotein (LDL) Cholesterol from turning into the oxidised form. This is because cholesterol oxidation can cause plaque formation, that is the accumulation or deposition of hard and thick form of cholesterol in the arterial wall which will eventually lead to high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke and heart diseases.

The major types of the total soluble antioxidants present in oats are Avenanthramides A, Avenanthramides B, and Avenanthramides C.

Many studies show that patient with high cholesterol, that is above 220mg/dl, can lower total cholesterol by 8 to 23% by just consuming only 3 grams of this soluble fibre daily, which can be found in a bowl of oatmeal! For further information, there will be 2% decrease of risk in getting heart diseases with only 1% dropping of serum cholesterol. Consuming more high fiber foods like OATS can surely minimize our risks of developing coronary heart diseases and cardiovascular diseases to a lower percentage!

AND So, what will you be having for breakfast tomorrow? ;-)

Oats, Always the Smarter choice !^_^!

Glycerin

2009-08-06T14:00:00.032+08:00

After the second posting of my blog, i was out of idea for themes or topics to be written as the third posting. What i did was took out all my "properties" and "observed" their ingredients listed behind. I found that there are a few chemical compounds present in almost all personal care products from the head to the toe such as shampoo, hair conditioners and treatment masks, shower foams, nail polish removers, moushwash, toothpastes, body lotions, facial creams and many others skin care products.

GLYCERIN is one of the chemical compounds which present in majority of my personal care products! What about yours?

CHECK IT OUT! ^o^

Understanding GLYCERIN...

Glycerin is a colorless, odorless and viscous liquid. The word "Glycerin" is in fact derived from the Greek word "Glykys" which means "sweet". This is because Glycerin is sweet, syrupy tasting and of low toxicity. This chemical compound is also commonly known as :

v Glycerol

v Glycerine

v propane-1,2,3-triol

v 1,2,3-propanetriol

v 1,2,3-trihydroxypropane

v glyceritol

v glycyl alcohol

Structural Formula:

Molecular Formula : C3H5(OH)

3D Structural Formula :

Glycerin molecules have three hydrophilic or polar hydroxyl groups which contributes to its solubility in water and hygroscopic characteristic. The substructure of glycerin is a central unit of many lipids as glycerin makes up the backbone of a triglyceride. Glycerin has a melting point of 20°C and boiling point of 290°C. The low melting point simply explains why glycerin is always in the form of liquid at room temperature :)

Backbone of a triglyceride

Glycerin is discovered through hydrolysate of olive oil by K.W. Shele, a Swedish scientist in 1779. Nowadays, Production of glycerin is through either saponification or transesterification processes. There are two types of Glycerin :

Ø Natural glycerin - derived from oils and fats of plants or animals.
Ø Synthetic glycerin - made from petroleum

Saponification is actually the process of soap making by reacting a strong basic or alkaline solution with common fats or oils. Vegetable oils and animal fats are normally fatty esters in triglycerides form. In this process, the fats will be hydrolyzed by the alkali producing an alkali salt of the fatty acid and Glycerin

Transesterification is another process in which an ester group is exchanged with that of another, higher alcohol to produce a new ester. This process often requires a catalyst of either acid or base, Sodium Hydroxide NaOH, is a common example..

Let's look at the general formula of this process :

In the chemical equation, we see that the organic group R" Of an ester is interchanging with the group R' of the alcohol.

The transesterification process of triglycerides from animal fats or vegetable oils :

This process is the production of biodiesel.

Usages

With three polar hydroxyl groups, glycerin plays an important role as a type of humectant with its potent hygroscopic nature. Meaning, it has great ability in attracting water molecules! Therefore, glycerin can be found in many personal care products where moisturization is desired. Our skins need moistures to stay in supple condition, glycerin can act as a "water magnet" to bind with water molecules and effectively locks them in our skin cells! :) That's why Glycerin is always one of the "a must" component in majority of hair or skin care products of mine and yours!

~ O.o No Wonder~~~

A type of humectants!

Some products of glycerin :

Cute piggy glycerin soap :)

Some other lovely soaps !^_^!

Glycerin Hand soap

Lotion

Being a humaectant, glycerin is also a good "helper" in presevating of foods and manufacturing cigarettes and tobbaco products. When it is being used as a food additive, it can help in keeping some foods moist for excellent condition as it seals the moistures in the products..

Cigarette : "Hey, Do you know? Glycerin is one of my organs!"

In pharmaceutical products, glycerin can be found in cough medications, mucolytic agent and many more. Mucolytic agent is medication that helps to relieve breathing difficulities, for example, nose blocking - a problem which i've always been facing :)

Glycerin Sore throat medicine

In addition, glycerin is used as a type of sweeteners due to its lower glycemic index, that is, slower rate of sugar absorption although having the same caloric density as table sugar.

Besides, glycerin is used in the production of Nitroglycerin, a dominant ingredient for manufacturing explosive material as well as gunpowder used during wars.

Apart from all stated above, glycerin has many more usages and benefits, tell you more about it some day later by chance perhaps? !^_^! : p

Dessicant~

2009-08-05T09:31:00.007+08:00

Look~~ This is my supplementary bottle of Calcium which my grandma bought me 2 months ago. Can you see those little packets of substances? I found them inside the bottle. I think you can certainly guess what it is called as we can often see them in a variety of products and it s name is always written on the package , can't you?

Here's the clearer pictures :

It is SILICA GEL which is a type of desiccant!

It gave me an idea for what to write in this the posting you are reading right now :p

What is a DesiCcAnT?

A desiccant has synonym term of drying agent. It is a substance with great hygroscopic properties, meaning great tendency to attract water molecules from surrounding. Due to this property, desiccant is most commonly used to in preservation of many products to remove excess humidity to sustain a dryness state so that all those products which are sensitive to moisture will neither be degraded nor destroyed! This process is generally termed desiccation. There are a number of substances classified as desiccant, a few of main among them include :

Drierite

Silica gel

Calcium chloride

Montmorillonite Clay

Molecular Sieve

Hygroscopic desiccant has the abillity to attract water molecules frome the surrounding environment through ABSORPTION or ADSORPTION, or both.

Puzzled?

Lets explore about absorption and adsorption of water, they are NOT the same...

Absorption
Is the chemical phenomenon of atoms, ions or molecules enter phase in bulk of gas, liquid and solid. In simpler, it is a process of a substance permeates another or being dissolved by another substance. Absorption is taken up by volume, not surface.

While....

Adsorption
Is the accumulation of molecules of a gas to form a thin film of adsorbate on the surface of the adsorbent. Silica gel functions mostly on the adsorption basis!

Molecules accumulate on the surface!

Back to Buisiness ! :)

Silica gel was known since 1640 but its desiccant properties were found only during the World War I as it's adsorbent ability was realised to be useful in gas masks canisters.
Silica gel is an oxide of the Silicon element as well as a partially hydrated structure of silica, which is - the sand. It belongs to a type of highly activated porous adsorbent and amorphous substance appears in granular form of solid.

HOW is it being manufactured in the industrial process today?
Generally, Silica gel, the high capicity adsorbent of silicon dioxide is made synthetically from an acidification process of the solution of Sodium Silicate, which is "water glass" sold in drug store and a Strong acid such as Sulphuric acid and Hydrochloric acid. This chemical reaction come out with a product known as Silicic acid, which is a kind of hydrated silica with the chemical formula xSiO2 . yH2O due to the polymerization process. This resulting acid appears in the precipitate form of a transparent gel or colloid. Some soluble substances on the gel is to be then removed by washing with water.
Lets use hydrochloric acid as an example,

Na2SiO3 (aq) + 2 HCl (aq) ------------> H2SiO3 (s) + 2 NaCl (aq)

Sodium silicate(aq) + Hydrochloric acid(aq) -----------> Silicic acid(s) + Sodium chloride(s)

Sodium Silicate, Na2SiO3
Silic Acid, H2SiO3

In the primary state of silical gel, each particle consists of a core of a silicon atom join with oxygen atoms by silicon-oxygen-silicon bond known as Siloxane bonds. On its surface, there are still uncondensed hydroxyl groups attaching to the particle for its polar properties. The hydroxyl group are then ti be eliminated from the polymeric silicic acid. There are three types of hydroxyl group with as you could seen from the picture.

When the Silicic acid is obtained, water molecules have to be first eliminated from the acid through heating process, by drying it up or dyhydrating it we can then obtain the solid granular desiccant, sillion dioxide.

Silicic acid(aq) ----------------> Silicon dioxide (s) + water (l)

H2SiO3 (aq) -----------------> SiO2(s) + H2O (l)

General Structural formula of silicon dioxide :

Silicon dioxide is actually a Giant covalent structure... There are three different crystal forms of silicon dioxide.Let me just show you the simplest one :Remember this is just a tiny part of the whole covalent structure extending in 3 dimensional!

~Its Charateristics~

Silica gel comes with a wide range of particles and packaging sizes in semi-permeable or breathable bulk bags or plastics to suit various kind of applications in industries, science fields, medical, as well as in our daily lifes. Besides high permfomance of adsorbing moisture, silica gel is widely used because of its tasteless, odourless, non-corrosive and non- harzardous nature. Additionally, silica gel is also non-flamable, has good termal stabilty and high mechanical strength. Silica gel can be produced in different range in sense of their funtional charateristics by controlling the conditions during the production processes.

How does it work?

Being a desiccant, silica gel is chemically inert and stable that it does not dissolve in any solvents with alkali and hyfdrofluoric acid an exception. The highly porous characteristic has contributed dominantly to the adsorption performance of silica gel. Different size of pore diameters and dimessions will lead to different adsorption performance!

The porous structure of the silica gel!

The internal surface of silica gel is consisted of a network of interconnected pores with extremetly large surface area, that is around 800 m/g allows it to adsorb water molecules, alcohols, hydrocarbons and other types of chemical readily and holds them to itself. Silica gel adsorb water physically by the phenomena of physisorption basis, meaning due to capillary condesation of water molecules by van der waals interations at high humidity in air or liquids. Therefore, during adsorption process, it does not undergo any chemical reaction and does not have any equation as well as products.

Silica gel will be appearing dry and no changing in size or shape even when it is saturated with water! Like a sponge, Silica gel is capable to adsorb 40% of it's own weight in water vapours at a humidity of 100%. With this capability, silica gel is said to have the highest capability of water adsorption among many other commercial desiccants!

Have a look at the following table :)

Desiccant Needed to Adsorb 6 Grams of Water Vapour
Desiccant	Mass (grams)
Silica Gel	15
Indicating Silica Gel	75
Montmorillonite Clay	24
Calcium Oxide (quicklime)	21.5
Calcium Sulfate (gypsum, drierite)	60
Wood 43	43

Silica gel requires in smallest amount to adsorp 6g of water vapour.

There are two types of silica gel which are the non-indicating and self-indicating types. White or colourless gel is the non-indicating type while coloured gel is the self-indicating type as it will undergo colour changing to indicate the moisture level of the gel due to the presence of colour indicator. The most common type is the blue indicating silica gel which will turn to purple then to pink when being hydrated due to presence of Cobalt Chloride indicator. In contrast to indicating type, non-indicating one will be much cheaper as no clour indicator is present. It is effective too after all.

Can silica gel be REUSED?
Yes, used Silica gel can be recycled or regenerated by thermally-induced drying or heating by solar energy or oven at about 120 degree Celsius to dyhydrate it.
Silica gel has multiple functions, they are being widely used in chemistry field for drying of solvents, drying of analytical samples, thicken liquid, combine with alkali metals to form a M-SG reducing agent and chromatograpy which is the separation of mixtures by laboratory techniques. Besides, silica gel is used in supplementary bottles, electronic appliances, pepperoni, leather products, optical instrument, drying and storage of flower and seed and many more.

If you do raise a cat, do you know your cat litter contains silica gel too to adsorb moisture from your cat's faeces and urine to reduce foul odors from ammonia?

Cat : "Yeah~ My sweet home will not be smelly with Silica gel!"

The MYTH and MIRACLE in the cup

2009-07-06T22:53:00.065+08:00

~*The MYTH and MIRACLE in the cup*~

What's your favourite drink? What health benefits does your drink contain?

Well~ I'm sure that staying pretty or handsome,being youthful and healthy must always be one of our wishes! Possible? Where there's a will, there's a way. To stay young and pretty always, skins should be taken good care to slow down aging processes, choosing good skin care products is certainly important, besides that, i am also keen on checking out the nutritional values in all kinds of foods and beverages to know what their health benefits are and to which parts of the body, specifically. For me, both are equally important, identifying the nutritional requirements of our bodies and consuming the right food in the right proportion is essential to maintain an optimum level of metabolism processes in the internal environment of our bodies so that we'll always have healthy internal organs and PRETTY external looking !

Recently, I found that from foods to beverages, even from skin care to hair care products which are being made and manufactured using GREEN TEA start to appear in the market this few years. Through some research, I realised that it's being a long time that Green Tea has been extensively studied in laboratory experiment on human and animal by the experts such as food scientists, clinical groups and many others for it's amazing health benefits to human body in many aspects which have caused it to be the LIMELIGHT all this while!

Some grandma's story perhaps?

Tea leaves were brew in boiling water and started consuming by people 500000 years ago. There's evidences support that China and India were among the first countries in cultivating tea. Today, tea plants are grown in 30 countries and is being consumed by millions of people all around the world!
There's evidence supports that green tea has been used as medicines since 4000 years ago.
Surprisingly, Green tea is reported as the most popular human-made beverage and most widely consumed beverage in the WORLD besides water!!

Tea leaves are from plants species known as Camellia Sinensis but it is classified into three main varieties which are : GREEN TEA, Oolong tea and Black tea due to the differences in their processing methods. Green tea is made from unfermented leaves, Oolong tea from partially fermented leaves whereas black tea is made from fully fermented leaves. Being the least processed leaves, Green tea is found to contain the highest concentration of POWERFUL ANTIOXIDANTS. There's no others food or drinks can even come close to compete~
For this reason, you know, I'm now head over heels in love with MR. GREEN TEA!

Lets get down to business now

Here, we'll share some facts and figures about What make green tea a Miracle~
Green tea contains complex ingredients for about 200 bioactive compounds o_0
However, we'll only focus on the main ingredients. Green tea has been found to contain a large amount of phytochemical constituents known as polyphenols which exists in high abundance in all green teas.and believed to have health-promoting effects. Polyphenols can also be defined as any of various alcohols containing two or more benzene rings that each have at least one hydroxyl group (OH) attached . Flavonoids, a class of plants secondary metablites an example of polyphenols which are anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory and it's most important role, for me, it's an ANTIOXIDANT.

Flavone Backbone :
Molecular structure = 2-phenyl-1,4-benzopyrone

CATECHINS ?

Right, the secrete of green tea for being the KING of tea.
Catechins, also known as flavan-3-ols more specifically, is a simple form of flavonoids. It's pytochemical compounds that exist predominantly in green tea which made up the bulk of green tea antioxidants as well as most healing properties of green tea. Green tea contains about 30% of catechins and might appear in smaller portion in grapes, wine, chocololate and black tea. As the process of manufacturing preclude oxidation, Green Tea is "on the top of the world" for its flavonoids content!
By comparison in research,
Just 1 GRAM of green tea leaves contains 127 milligrams of catechins while the one comes next on the list, dark chocolate only contain 54 milligrams of catechins in 100 GRAMS.
Do you know : A cup of green tea with about 200 milligrams of catechins is equivalent to 8 Apples!

The FOUR main catechins present in green tea are: .
Epicatechin
Epicatechin-3-gallate
Epigallocatechin
*Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG)*

Epicatechin

Epigallocatechin

O.0_Now, The STAR of the show...
EGCG, Epigallocatechin gallate, or Epigallocatechin 3-gallate, one of the major components in green tea, is the ester of epigallocatechin and gallic acid. It contains 3 phenol rings with an phenolic hydroxyl group more than that of epicatechin. It is the most abundant catechins in green tea which is about half of the whole amount of catechins in green tea. In addition, EGCG is also the best researched and most active catechines that caught the eyes of scientific world among all the four.

Epigallocatechin 3-gallate
Molecular formula : C22H18O11

What are its SUPER POWER?
Being the most potent antioxidant, EGCG is proven to be 100 times more powerful than vitamin C and 25 times more effective than vitamin E in its antioxidant power, that is to protects cells and DNA for not damaged by free radicals. Free radicals are Unstable molecules missing an elctron. They're formed from the by products of metabolic processes, our food, breathing air and mostly, the Ultraviolet radiation from our lovely sun which contribute to 90% of signs of premature aging process. When oxygen intake is being processed into enegy, we're in fact carrying out process called Oxidation which can helps in releasing free radicals. However, as we grow older, the process turns to be less efficient which will eventually contribute to kinds of degenerative diseases and aging processes. Now can you imagine how extremely important it is to have anxioxidants to neutralising the free radical and thus slow down aging processes as well as healing our cell deeply in level.

Furthermore, EGCG found to have cardioprotective effects. It is an important heart health agent to prevent hardening and thickening of artery by arherosclerotic plaque formation due to accumulation of cholesterols, fats and blood clots which can eventually contribute to heart attack and strokes. EGCG can inhibit these as it combats lipid peroxidation in the arterial walls, lowering LDL cholesterols and triglycerides Coronary diseases can be prevented with a clear passage way in the endothelial lining in arteries, this would automatically reduce high blood pressure. Drinnking 4 or 5 cups of green tea daily we would have 26% to 46% lower risk to get heart diseases and 65% safer from developing hidh blood pressure. EGCG has shown to minimize brain cells' damage from stroke and also to speed up recovery of heart cells.

Resveratrol, a polyphenol in red wine that believed to reduce negative effect of consuming fatty diets and smoking, this is the secret for lower incidence of heart diseases in French than in America. Guess what? Researchers found that EGCG is twice potent than resveratrol! Despite about 75% of Japanese are smokers, the rates for heart diseases among them is absolutely low.

Whats more, EGCG is also chemiprotective with its cancer prevention properties that have been widely studied and reported. They found that EGCG can protect us against various kinds of cancers in ways. It can reduces cellular damage which can lead to cancers, supresses growth of tumors by blocking the development of new blood vessels to suply nutrients for cancerous cell as well as inhibiting the overproduction of enzymes that could be catalysts to cancer growth such as cyclooxygenase, COX-2 and dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) and junk-2. EGCG has anti-inflammatory propeties to inhibit growth of skin tumors.EGCG is unique for its ability to combat cancer cells for being a free radical in cancer cells causing them to self destruct in all stages WITHOUT harming surrounding cells like other drugs which can lead to terrible side effects!

Apart from those, being an antimicrobial agent, EGCG is able to inhibits the growth of bacteria such as helicobacter pylori, E. coli, and also viruses in our mouths. Thus, it can help to ward off tooth decay and gum diseases to keep the dentists away and cure bad breath so that friends around us will not suffer :) EGCG can also rejuvenate skin cells by stimulating aged keratinocytes to synthesise DNA for cell renewing.

In addition, EGCG can help in weight loss and KEEP FIT too! It can perform fat oxidation or burning, direct our body to less apsorption of dietary fats, block conversion of energy into fats increase our metabolisms and also keep us from food cravings by regulating our blood sugar levels!

Besides all these, green tea has others functions such as protect liver from alcohols, protects lungs from smoking carcinogens, sooth acnes and lighten skins, helps in bone building, immunity boosting, and cell rehydration. Green tea, in fact, shows a really wide range of health benefits from it's combination of all bioactive compounds, which benefit us from head to the bottom, it's just too much and takes too long for everything to be shared after all :p

Some examples of the green tea products:

Now, are you in the picture what make green tea a Miracle?
Green Tea, is undoubtedly the natural secret to a healthier life!
It benefits you million times than its side effects.

Look, he just cant wait to pour the whole Giant bottle of green tea in to his mouth :)

So, start from today, invite positive charges into your life by drinking green tea , would you?