Characterization of Physical and Thermal Properties of Biofield Treated Neopentyl glycol

What is it about?

Neopentyl glycol (NPG) has been extensively used as solid-solid phase change materials (PCMs) for thermal energy storage applications. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the impact of biofield treatment on physical, spectral and thermal properties of NPG. The study was performed in two groups (control and treated). The control group remained as untreated, and treatment group was subjected to Mr. Trivedi’s biofield treatment. The control and treated NPG were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. XRD study revealed the decrease in crystallite size of treated NPG by 21.97% as compared to control sample. DSC studies showed slight change in melting temperature of treated NPG as compared to control sample. TGA analysis showed 55.66% weight loss in control NPG however, the treated sample showed reduction in weight loss (44.81%). Additionally, the maximum thermal decomposition temperature (Tmax) of treated NPG (160.40°C) was minimally increased with respect to control sample (159.72°C). This can be inferred as good thermal stability of biofield treated NPG with respect to control. FT-IR spectroscopy showed no structural changes in treated NPG with respect to control sample. The overall results showed that biofield treatment has affected the physical and thermal properties of treated NPG. Moreover, good thermal stability of treated NPG showed that it could be used as phase change materials for thermal energy storage applications.

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Why is it important?

The global price rise of petroleum products and fossil fuel has led scientists to design new strategies for thermal energy regeneration and conservation. The latent heat storage devices (LTHS) prepared from phase change materials (PCMs) are interesting choice for thermal energy storage applications. The LTHS are widely used in several applications such as condensation heat recovery, building energy conservation, temperature regulating textiles and solar energy systems [1-4]. Many compounds have been used recently for fabricating the LTHS i.e., fatty acids, poly ethylene glycol (PEG), alcohols and mixture of them. Several types of PCMs are available these days such as solid liquid PCMs, solid-solid PCMs and liquid-gas PCMs [5,6]. Recently polyalcohols have gained significant attention as PCMs. PEG is commonly used as solid liquid PCM owing to its excellent properties such as, high latent heat of fusion, suitable melting point, and being chemically inert and stable [7-9]. Feng et al. had prepared polyethylene glycol/active carbon composites as shape stabilized PCMs [10]. Similarly neopentyl glycol (NPG) was also investigated as potential material for solid-solid PCMs [11]. Hence, by considering the phase change property of NPG, authors decided to investigate the influence of biofield treatment on its physical, spectral and thermal properties which could be further utilized for thermal storage applications. It has been stated that energy exist in various forms such as kinetic, potential, electrical, magnetic, nuclear etc. which have been generated from different sources. Similarly, neurons which are present in human brain have the ability to transmit the information in the form of electrical signals [12-15]. Thus, human has the ability to harness the energy from environment/Universe and can transmit into any object (living or non-living) around the Globe. The object(s) always receive the energy and responded into a useful manner that is called biofield energy. This whole process is known as biofield treatment. Mr. Trivedi’s biofield treatment (The Trivedi Effect®) is known to transform the characteristics of various living and nonliving things. The biofield treatment has altered the physical and thermal properties in metals [16-19], improved the growth and production of agriculture crops [20-23] and significantly altered the phenotypic characteristics of various pathogenic microbes [24-26]. Additionally, biofield treatment has substantially altered the medicinal, growth and anatomical properties of ashwagandha [27]. Based on excellent outcome from biofield treatment and phase change property of NPG, the present work was undertaken to investigate the impact of biofield on physical, spectroscopic and thermal properties of NPG.

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