Electrochemical behaviour of cationic polyelectrolytes at a polarized liquid/liquid interface

The behaviours of several cationic polyelectrolytes (chitosan; polyquaternium-4; diethylaminoethyl dextran; polyquaternium-10, and aminoacrylmethacrylate copolymer, Eudragit^® E100) at a polarised liquid/liquid interface are analysed and compared in the present paper. Based on the analysis of the voltammetric results, it was possible to determine some of the relationships between polymer structure and the tendency to adsorb at the interface. It was also possible to determine the substitution degree of a polymer comprising a chitosan main chain modified with glycidyltrimethylammonium chloride, and the values obtained are in agreement with those calculated using other methodologies. Finally, we report a comparative study concerning the effect of cationic (chitosan) and anionic (dextran sulphate) polyelectrolytes on the compactness of a phospholipid film.     

Modeling of the geometry built-up by coaxial laser material deposition process

Coaxial laser material deposition (also known as laser-cladding process) is being used for selective material deposition on complex parts since the 1990s. Its main applications include coatings, rapid manufacturing, or high added value part repairing. The main advantages of the coaxial laser-cladding process are the high-quality bonding interface between added and substrate material, excellent mechanical behavior, and high precision of the resulting geometry in comparison with conventional welding processes. Moreover, the laser-cladding process involves low-heat input, which leads on minimum thermal distortions and reduced heat-affected zone. Thus, high responsibility components like aeronautic turbine parts, tooling for die and mold industry or medical implants, among others, can be processed with laser cladding. This paper presents a laser material deposition process model for the estimation of the geometric characteristics of added material layers, including the prediction of the 3D shape of single and multiple clads and considering overlapping effect, which is the common situation on industrial applications. The model only needs the typical process parameters as the laser power, substrate material, powder material and size, etc. The model has been applied to different laser material deposition strategies and validated for two different materials (AISI D2 and Inconel 718) by experimental testing, obtaining good agreement between estimated and measured values. Finally, a case study for a turbine engine fixture is presented as a possible application. Therefore, the proposed algorithm can be applied for estimating the resulting geometry of the laser-cladding process and predict the optimum laser-cladding strategy, number of layers, and distance between layers before programming the operation.     

Role of elicitation on the health-promoting properties of kidney bean sprouts

The influence of germination of kidney beans for 4, 6 and 8 days in different elicitors (ascorbic acid, folic acid, glutamic acid, glutamic acid/chitosan and lactic acid/chitosan) on the production of health-promoting ingredients was studied. Sprouts were characterized according to their protein profile, soluble phenolic compounds (SPC) and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) content. Additionally, the antioxidant and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition activities of aqueous extracts from kidney bean elicited sprouts were determined. Elicitation by glutamic acid for 8 days led to the highest SPC and GABA accumulation in kidney bean sprouts and their extracts were selected based on their highest phytochemical content. These extracts also showed remarkable antioxidant and ACE-inhibitory activities. The IC₅₀ for ACE inhibition of glutamic acid-extracts increases 89-fold after the in-vitro gastrointestinal digestion. These results will contribute not only to improving the health-promoting potential of kidney bean sprouts but also to obtaining ingredients which might reduce oxidative stress and hypertension.