Two types of lignin-based carbon fibers were prepared by electrospinning method. The first was activated with Fe3O4 (LCF-Fe), and the second was not activated with Fe3O4 (LCF). Gas phase adsorption isotherms for toluene on LCF-Fe and LCF were studied. The gas phase adsorption isotherm for 0% RH showed LCF-Fe have about 439 mg/g adsorption capacity which was close to that of commercially available activated carbon (500 mg/g). The Dubinin-Radushkevich equation described the isotherm data very well. Competitive adsorption isotherms between water vapor and toluene were measured for their RH from 0 to 80%. The effect of humidity on toluene gas-phase adsorption was predicted by using the Okazaki et al. model. In addition, a constant pattern homogeneous surface diffusion model (CPHSDM) was used to predict the toluene breakthrough curve of continuous flow-packed columns containing LCF-Fe, and its capacity was 412 mg/g. Our study, which included material characterization, adsorption isotherms, kinetics, the impact of humidity and fixed bed performance modeling, demonstrated the suitability of lignin-based carbon fiber for volatile organic compound removal from gas streams.
Poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) was tethered with a 1,5-disubstituted tetrazole through a quaternary ammonium linkage. The formation of a tetrazole-ion network in the resulting polymers was found to promote the hydroxide ion transport through the Grotthus-type mechanism.
Leaching selectivity during metal recovery from complex electronic waste using a hydrochemical process is always one of the generic issues. It was recently improved by using ammonia-based leaching process, specifically for electronic waste enriched with copper. This research proposes electrodeposition as the subsequent approach to effectively recover copper from the solutions after selective leaching of the electronic waste and focuses on recognising the electrochemical features of copper recovery. The electrochemical reactions were investigated by considering the effects of copper concentration, scan rate and ammonium salts. The diffusion coefficient, charge transfer coefficient and heterogeneous reaction constant of the electrodeposition process were evaluated in accordance with different solution conditions. The results have shown that electrochemical recovery of copper from ammoniabased solution under the conditions of selective electronic waste treatment is charge transfer controlled and provide bases to correlate the kinetic parameters with further optimisation of the selective recovery of metals from electronic waste.
A mild and efficient synthesis for the biaryl acids via rhodium-catalyzed cross-dehydrogenative coupling reaction has been developed. This novel protocol with sodium chlorite as an oxidant featured many advantages such as mild reaction conditions, high regioselectivity, tolerance of various functional groups, and good to excellent yields.
X-ray crystallography is a powerful strategy for 3-D structure determination of macromolecules, such as nucleic acids and protein-nucleic acid complexes. However, the crystallization and phase determination are the major bottle-neck problems in crystallography. Recently we have successfully developed synthesis and strategy of selenium-derivatized nucleic acids (SeNA) for nucleic acid crystallography. SeNA might not only provide the rational strategies to solve the phase determination problem, but also offer a potential strategy to explore crystallization solutions.
Cyanobacteria can produce useful renewable fuels and high-value chemicals using sunlight and atmospheric carbon dioxide by photosynthesis. Genetic manipulation has increased the variety of chemicals that cyanobacteria can produce. However, their uniquely abundant NADPH-pool, in other words insufficient supply of NADH, tends to limit their production yields in case of utilizing NADH-dependent enzyme, which is quite common in heterotrophic microbes. To overcome this cofactor imbalance and enhance cyanobacterial fuel and chemical production, various approaches for cofactor engineering have been employed. In this review, we focus on three approaches: (1) utilization of NADPH-dependent enzymes, (2) increasing NADH production, and (3) changing cofactor specificity of NADH-dependent enzymes from NADH to NADPH.
The slag samples taken from landfill, which originated from different metallurgical processes, have been characterized in this study. The slags were categorized as electric arc furnace (EAF) slag, argon oxygen decarburization/metal refining process slag and vacuum oxygen decarburization slag based on chromium content and basicity. EAF slags have higher potential in metal recovery than the other two slags due to its higher iron and chromium contents. The size of the iron-chromium-nickel alloy particles varies from a few μm up to several cm. The recoveries of large metal particles and metal-spinel aggregates have potential to make the metal recovery from landfilled slags economically viable.
The synthesis of new Schiff base-like ligands with asymmetric substituents pattern and their iron complexes with pyridine as axial ligand is described. Two of the ligands and one of the iron(II) complexes were characterized by single crystal X-ray structure analysis. One of the the iron(II) complexes shows spin crossover behavior while the others remain in the high spin state. The influence of the reduced symmetry of the ligand on the properties of the complexes is discussed.
This study described a template-free method for the synthesis of hierarchically macro-mesoporous Mn-TiO2 catalysts. The promoting effect of Mn doping and the hierarchically macro-mesoporous architecture on TiO2 based catalysts was also investigated for the selective reduction of NO with NH3. The results show that the catalytic performance of TiO2 based catalysts was improved greatly after Mn doping. Meanwhile, the Mn-TiO2 catalyst with the hierarchically macro-mesoporous architecture has a better catalytic activity than that without such an architecture.
There is currently a growing interest in the realisation and optimization of hybrid plasma/catalyst systems for a multitude of applications, ranging from nanotechnology to environmental chemistry. In spite of this interest, there is, however, a lack in fundamental understanding of the underlying processes in such systems. While a lot of experimental research is already being carried out to gain this understanding, only recently the first simulations have appeared in the literature. In this contribution, an overview is presented on atomic scale simulations of plasma catalytic processes as carried out in our group. In particular, this contribution focusses on plasma-assisted catalyzed carbon nanostructure growth, and plasma catalysis for greenhouse gas conversion. Attention is paid to what can routinely be done, and where challenges persist.
Cardanol is a biobased raw material derived from cashew nut shell liquid. In order to extend its utility, new derivatives and additional applications are useful. In this work cardanol was first epoxidized, and a novel aniline derivative prepared from it under mild reaction conditions with the help of an ionic liquid catalyst. The reaction chemistry was studied by using nuclear magnetic resonance. The resulting aminohydrin adduct showed antioxidant property and should also be a useful synthon for further reactions. As an example, the aminohydrin was shown to undergo a condensation reaction with formaldehyde to form a prepolymer, which could be further reacted to form thermosetting resins.
Copper nanoparticles-decorated polyaniline-derived mesoporous carbon that can serve as noble metal-free electrocatalyst for the hydrazine oxidation reaction (HzOR) is synthesized via a facile synthetic route. The material exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity toward HzOR with low overpotential and high current density. The material also remains stable during the electrocatalytic reaction for long time. Its good electrocatalytic performance makes this material a promising alternative to conventional noble metal-based catalysts (e.g., Pt) that are commonly used in HzOR-based fuel cells.
A review of recent research related to microporous polymeric membranes formed via thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) and the morphologies of these membranes is presented. A summary of polymers and suitable diluents that can be used to prepare these microporous membranes via TIPS are summarized. The effects of different kinds of polymer materials, diluent types, cooling conditions, extractants and additive agents on the morphology and performance of TIPS membranes are also discussed. Finally new developments in TIPS technology are summarized.
A palladium catalyst supported on 2-aminopyridine functionalized cellulose was synthesized and fully characterized by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy, transmission electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry. This catalyst can be applied in the Suzuki cross-coupling reaction of aryl halides with arylboronic acids in 50% ethanol to afford biaryls in good yields, and easily recycled by simple filtration after reaction without the loss of metal Pd.
Great interests have arisen over the last decade in the development of hierarchically porous materials. The hierarchical structure enables materials to have maximum structural functions owing to enhanced accessibility and mass transport properties, leading to improved performances in various applications. Hierarchical porous materials are in high demand for applications in catalysis, adsorption, separation, energy and biochemistry. In the present review, recent advances in synthesis routes to hierarchically porous materials are reviewed together with their catalytic contributions.
Establishment of the regeneratable whole-cell catalyst platform for the production of biobased polymeric materials is a typical topic of synthetic biology. In this commentary, discovery story of a “lactate-polymerizing enzyme” (LPE) and LPE-based achievements for creating a new variety of polyesters with incorporated unnatural monomers are presented. Besides the importance of microbial platform itself is discussed referring to the “ballooning”-Escherichia coli.
Polysulfone (PSf) membranes were modified by either a new organic modifier (sulfonated poly(ether sulfide sulfone), SPESS) or a traditional modifier (rice hulk). These membranes were further reinforced with either multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) or silica nanoparticles. Having a dye rejection of 98.46%, the reinforced membranes increased more than 50% in strength but no change in solution flux was observed. The morphological and roughness studies were conducted using scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Moreover, the PSF membranes were also characterized by differential scanning calorimetry. Modifying the membranes with organic modifier or nanofiller increases the glass transition temperature (Tg). The highest Tg and strength were observed for the PSf-SPESSMWCNT membrane. SPESS decreases surface roughness but MWCNT increases roughness on the nanoscale. All membranes show a bimodal pore size distribution, whereas the PSf-SPESS-MWCNT membrane exhibits a relatively uniform distribution of macroscopic and microscopic pores.
A simple nitrobenzyl-umbelliferone (NCOU1) was synthesised containing a nitroreductase (NTR) trigger moiety. The presence of NTR, resulted in the fragmentation of the parent molecule and release of the highly emissive fluorophore umbelliferone via an NTR-catalyzed reduction of the nitro group. In the presence of the NTR enzyme, NCOU1 gave rise to a 5-fold increase in fluorescence intensity at 455 nm and was selective for NTR over other reductive enzymes. These results indicate that NCOU1 can be used as a simple assay for the detection of NTR.
Modeling structural and thermodynamic properties of nucleic acids has long been a challenge in the development of force fields. Polarizable force fields are a new generation of potential functions to take charge redistribution and induced dipole into account, and have been proved to be reliable to model small molecules, polypeptides and proteins, but their use on nucleic acids is still rather limited. In this article, the interactions between nucleic acids and a small molecule or ion were modeled by AMOEBAbio09, a modern polarizable force field, and conventional non-polarizable AMBER99sb and CHARMM36 force fields. The resulting intermolecular interaction energies were compared with those calculated by ab initio quantum mechanics methods. Although the test is not sufficient to prove the reliability of the polarizable force field, the results at least validate its capability in modeling energetics of static configurations, which is one basic component in force field parameterization.
