Cationic polymerization of hydrogenated bisphenol‐A glycidyl ether with cycloaliphatic epoxy resin and its thermal discoloration

One of the key issues associated with epoxy resin–based LED encapsulant is discoloration under operating conditions that caused a decrease in light output. In this article, thermal cationic polymerization of hydrogenated bisphenol‐A glycidyl ether using 3‐methyl‐2‐butenyltetramethylenesulfonium hexafluoroantimonate and its discoloration are reported. Polymerization was followed by thermal analysis, FT‐IR spectrum, and hardness measurements. Thermal discoloration was measured by yellowness index based on transmittance spectrum. Increased catalyst concentration causes acceleration in polymerization rates, but this also increased discoloration after thermal aging. In low catalyst concentration under 0.3 wt %, the hardness of plaque was low and required a high temperature to complete polymerization and this resulted in a highly colored plaque. Formulation with cycloaliphatic epoxy (3′‐4′‐epoxycyclohexane)methyl 3′‐4′‐epoxycyclohexyl‐carboxylate (CEL2021P) enhanced the polymerization even at low catalyst concentration and reduced thermal discoloration. With addition of di‐t‐butylphenol (BHT) as the oxidation inhibitor, the thermal discoloration was extremely improved but this also caused inhibition of polymerization as seen by thermal analysis. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 97: 1395–1400, 2005     

Treatment of Groundwater Contaminated with 1,4-Dioxane,Tetrahydrofuran, and Chlorinated Volatile Organic Compounds Using Advanced Oxidation Processes

Ozonation and four types of advanced oxidation processes, including O₃/H₂O₂, O₃/UV, O₃/H₂O₂/UV, and UV/H₂O₂, were evaluated for the treatment of contaminated groundwater at a Superfund site in Simpsonville, South Carolina using bench-scale, batch ozone and UV apparatuses. Although the contaminants of concern were 1,4-dioxane, 1,1-dichloroethene, and trichloroethene, several other chlorinated organics as well as tetrahydrofuran were found in the groundwater samples. The O₃/H₂O₂ treatment with O₃ and H₂O₂ doses of 6 and 1.5 mg/L, respectively, and the UV/H₂O₂ treatment with UV and H₂O₂ doses of 1,000 mJ/cm and 20 mg/L, respectively, were sufficient to degrade 200 µg/L of 1,4-dioxane, 110 µg/L of 1,1-dichloroethene, and 10 µg/L of trichloroethene below their performance standards of 10, 7, and 4 µg/L, respectively. Due to a high bromide concentration (0.35 mg/L) in the groundwater sample, bromate formation was found to be significant in ozone-based treatment, including O₃/H₂O₂.     

Self-Assembling Properties and Recovery Effects on Damaged Skin Cells of Chemically Synthesized Mannosylerythritol Lipids

Mannosylerythritol lipids (MELs), which are one of the representative sugar-based biosurfactants (BSs) produced by microorganisms, have attracted much attention in various fields in the sustainable development goals (SDGs) era. However, they are inseparable mixtures with respect to the chain length of the fatty acids. In this study, self-assembling properties and structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies of recovery effects on damaged skin cells using chemically synthesized MELs were investigated. It was revealed, for the first time, that synthetic and homogeneous MELs exhibited significant self-assembling properties to form droplets or giant vesicles. In addition, a small difference in the length of the fatty acid chains of the MELs significantly affected their recovery effects on the damaged skin cells. MELs with medium or longer length alkyl chains exhibited much higher recovery effects than that of C18-ceramide NP.     

Correlations of Hepatic Hemodynamics,Liver Function,and Fibrosis Markers in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Comparison with Chronic Hepatitis Related to Hepatitis C Virus

The progression of chronic liver disease differs by etiology. The aim of this study was to elucidate the difference in disease progression between chronic hepatitis C (CHC) and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) by means of fibrosis markers, liver function, and hepatic tissue blood flow (TBF). Xenon computed tomography (Xe-CT) was performed in 139 patients with NAFLD and 152 patients with CHC (including liver cirrhosis (LC)). The cutoff values for fibrosis markers were compared between NAFLD and CHC, and correlations between hepatic TBF and liver function tests were examined at each fibrosis stage. The cutoff values for detection of the advanced fibrosis stage were lower in NAFLD than in CHC. Although portal venous TBF (PVTBF) correlated with liver function tests, PVTBF in initial LC caused by nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH-LC) was significantly lower than that in hepatitis C virus (C-LC) (p = 0.014). Conversely, the liver function tests in NASH-LC were higher than those in C-LC (p < 0.05). It is important to recognize the difference between NAFLD and CHC. We concluded that changes in hepatic blood flow occurred during the earliest stage of hepatic fibrosis in patients with NAFLD; therefore, patients with NAFLD need to be followed carefully.     

Separation of Ru(III), Rh(III) and Pd(II) from nitric acid solutions using ion-exchange resins bearing carboxylic betaine

To understand the adsorption properties of a styrene–divinylbenzene copolymer functionalized with N,N,N-trimethylglycine, AMP03, the adsorption behaviours for platinoid ions (Ru(III), Rh(III) and Pd(II)) were examined. Furthermore, we performed adsorption experiments using sample solutions by adding triethylamine, thiourea and N,N,N-trimethylglycine. Based on the adsorption data obtained in this study, we performed chromatographic experiments. The results indicated that all platinoid ions in the feed solution completely adsorbed on AMP03, and almost 80% of the adsorbed platinoid ions were recovered. These results show that AMP03 has the potential to recover Ru(III), Rh(III) and Pd(II) from high-level liquid waste.     

Double-stimuli responsive O/W emulsion gel based on a novel amidoamine surfactant

A heat-induced O/W emulsion gel that undergoes a phase transition from sol to gel on heating was formed from the addition of aqueous HCl to a toluene solution of a long-chain amidoamine derivative (C18AA). The heat induced O/W emulsions are highly sensitive to temperature, and the sol-gel transition temperature could be simply controlled by adjusting the C18AA concentration. Interestingly, the sol-gel transition of the O/W emulsions was also very sensitive to pH. Thus, we have successfully prepared a novel double-stimuli responsive gel based on O/W emulsions consisting of C18AA and HCl.     

Germanium recovery using polyphenol microspheres prepared by horseradish peroxidase reaction

BACKGROUND: The formation of polyphenol microspheres by the polymerization of 3‐methylcatechol was performed in a methanol/phosphate buffer solution using horseradish peroxidase (HRP), without the use of a surfactant or a water/oil interface, to be used for germanium recovery. RESULTS: The polyphenol microspheres were of diameter 1 mm. The functional group density of phenol group in the polymer was approximately 15 mol kg^?1 determined by the Folin‐Denis method. In batchwise experiments, the amount of germanium adsorbed was 0.23 mol kg^?1. CONCLUSION: Because germanium is a rare metal, a system for its recovery is required. Using the proposed system, continuous recovery of germanium can be achieved using multilayered microspheres. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

N-Alkylation of chitin and some characteristics of the novel derivatives

Summary Introduction of simple alkyl groups at the C-2 nitrogen of chitin and some properties of the resulting N-alkyl-chitins have been examined. Chitosan was fully deacetylated and treated with three kinds of aldehydes, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and pentanal. The Schiff bases of chitosan, whose extents of substitution were dependent on the amount of aldehydes, were reduced with sodium cyanoborohydride to N-alkylated chitosans. The N-alkyl-chitosans were then transformed into the corresponding N-alkyl-chitins by acetylation with acetic anhydride followed by transesterification to remove partly formed O-acetyl groups. The resulting N-methyl-, ethyl-, and pentyl-chitins were amorphous and showed improved affinity for organic solvents. Received: 13 December 2001/Revised version: 11 January 2002/Accepted: 17 January 2002