Atomistic insight into the lubrication of glycerol aqueous solution: The role of the solid interface-induced microstructure of fluid molecules

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to investigate the solid surface-induced microstructure and friction coefficient of glycerol aqueous solutions with different water contents confined in graphene and FeO nanoslits. Results show that the friction coefficient of glycerol aqueous solutions confined in both nanoslits presents similar nonlinear variation tendencies with increasing water content, but their lowest value and the corresponding water contents differ. Distinctive microstructures of the near-surface liquid layer induced by surfaces with different hydrophilicity are responsible for their difference in lubrication. The sliding primarily occurs at the solid–liquid interface for the hydrophobic graphene nanoslit owing to almost the same velocity difference in fluid molecules. By contrast, the sliding mainly occurs at the liquid–liquid interface for the hydrophilic FeO nanoslit because of the large velocity difference in fluid molecules. The weaker the interaction force at the sliding position, the lower the friction coefficient.     

甘油预处理蔗渣的木质素分离提取及结构表征

以甘油分别对甘蔗渣进行常压甘油自催化（AGO）预处理和常压甘油碱催化（al-AGO）预处理。利用酸沉法分别从预处理液中得到自催化甘油木质素（AGOL）和碱催化甘油木质素（al-AGOL）。利用单因素实验和正交实验得到最佳木质素提取工艺为转速8000r/min、离心时间15min、甘油混合液pH为3、甘油混合液浓度10%，在该条件下木质素AGOL和al-AGOL提取率分别达到72%和76%。采用扫描电镜（SEM）、元素分析、紫外光谱（UV）、凝胶色谱（GPC）、核磁共振¹H谱、热重分析以及抗氧化活性分析等技术手段对提取得到的木质素进行结构表征。结果表明：从甘蔗渣中提取的球磨甘蔗木质素（MBL）、AGOL和al-AGOL主要呈现出球形特征；AGOL和al-AGOL具有相似的活性特点，与MBL相比，AGOL和al-AGOL的分子量更小、分布更窄、均一性更好，热稳定性和抗氧化活性更高，有望成为重要的工业原料。     

甘油直接制备丙烯醇的催化剂和反应工艺研究进展

丙烯醇是一种十分重要的中间体和化学原料。近年来，以甘油为原料直接制备丙烯醇的研究引起了许多科学家的关注。本文参考了最近十年来发表的文献，详细介绍了均相甲酸诱导的甘油脱氧脱水反应、催化剂作用下的甘油脱氧脱水反应、液固相甘油氢解反应和气固相甘油氢转移反应等过程制备丙烯醇的相关工艺、反应机理和催化剂的研究进展及发展趋势，并对比了上述工艺的优缺点。其中，均相甲酸诱导的甘油脱氧脱水工艺比较成熟，已经在实验室中得到验证和应用，但是甲酸的消耗量大，整个过程的原子经济性很差。 甘油脱氧脱水反应和液固相甘油氢解反应不仅需要采用价格昂贵的铼基催化剂，而且丙烯醇的选择性较低。 铁基催化剂作用下的气固相甘油氢转移反应制备丙烯醇，由于催化剂的价格低廉、制备工艺简单、产品分离容易等优势而备受关注，是最近五年的研究热点。在文献基础上，认为今后研究应该重点关注催化剂的酸碱性、氢转移能力及其与速率控制步骤的匹配，并有针对性地对催化剂进行优化和改进。     

The growth of oleaginous Rhodotorula glutinis in an internal-loop airlift bioreactor by using mixture substrates of rice straw hydrolysate and crude glycerol

The conversion of lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) to microbial oils is attracting a growing amount of attention. However, the growth of the oleaginous yeast Rhodotorula glutinis on LCB hydrolysate (mainly rice straw) only will lead to a low lipid mass fraction, in the range of 10–20%. This study shows that the addition of crude glycerol to the LCB hydrolysate medium can efficiently raise the lipid mass fraction to the range of 30–40%. Crude glycerol is a by-product in the biodiesel production process. The use of renewable LCB hydrolysate and crude glycerol would greatly reduce the substrate cost for microbial oil production using R. glutinis. In addition, the results of experiments show that a low-cost airlift bioreactor is a more suitable fermentation process for the growth of R. glutinis than the use of a conventional agitation tank. When using mixed carbon sources of LCB hydrolysate with 30 kg m⁻³ of reducing sugars and 30 kg m⁻³ of crude glycerol, a maximal cell mass of 21.4 kg m⁻³ and lipid mass fraction of 58.5 ± 6.2 were achieved in an internal loop airlift bioreactor, and this process may have the potential to be applied in scale-up production.     

Preparation and characterisation of films from xylose‐glycosylated peanut protein isolate powder

This work aimed at producing and characterising xylose‐glycosylated peanut protein isolate (PPI‐X) films by dissolving PPI‐X powder in water at ambient temperature and further plasticising with glycerol. The effect of powder dissolution temperature (20–100 °C) and glycerol concentration (15.0–45.0%, w/w) on mechanical properties and integrity of these films was quantified. The results showed that the powder dissolution temperature had no significant effect on the mechanical and water resistance properties of PPI‐X films within the temperature range tested. With increasing concentration of glycerol, the tensile strength and water resistance of PPI‐X films decreased and elongation increased. The films produced by dissolving the PPI‐X powder at 20 °C and plasticising with 25.0% glycerol had comparable mechanical properties and better water resistance compared to some other plant protein films plasticising with glycerol. The results suggested that PPI‐X films could potentially be used as biodegradable packaging materials.