Copolymerization of aniline and m-chloroaniline. Chlorine addition and structure of the resulting material

The copolymerization of aniline (Ani) and m-chloroaniline (mClA) in variable ratios was performed by chemical oxidation in HCl medium. The resulting copolymer composition was determined by elemental analysis and XPS. The results show the incorporation of additional Cl substituents in the polymer backbone when m-chloroaniline is present in the polymerization medium with a high mClA:Ani ratio. IR and NMR characterization confirms that finding. Conductivity measurements of the copolymers in salt form were also performed. UV–vis spectra for high mClA:Ani ratios show a main band centred ca. 380 nm. PM3-ZINDO/S spectra calculations suggest that the Cl substituents stabilize spinless semiquinone structures in the polymer chain which are responsible for the 380 nm band. Photoluminescence spectra are recorded and analyzed. The addition of chlorine is attributed to the lower reaction rate in high mClA:Ani ratio. Copolymers with high mClA:Ani ratio appear as materials very different from polyaniline, thus these differences should be considered regarding possible applications.     

Development of Low-Cost Remote-Control Generators Based on BiTe Thermoelectric Modules

This paper presents a new thermogenerator based on moderate-temperature (up to 175°C) BiTe modules available on the open market. Despite this handicap relative to commercial thermogenerators based on high-temperature proprietary-technology PbBi modules (up to 560°C), this new design may become economically competitive due to its innovative thermal sink. Our thermal sink is based on a free-convection water loop built with standard tubing and household hot-water radiators, leading to a more practical, modular design. So, the specific cost of about 55,000 USD/kW obtained for this 120-W prototype is improved to 33,000 USD/kW for a 1-kW unit, which represents about half the price of commercial thermogenerators. Moreover, considering recently launched BiTe modules (that withstand up to 320°C), our proposition could have an even more favorable outlook.     

Simulation of a LHP-based thermal control system under orbital environment

In this paper, a thermal control system, using loop heat pipe as basic heat transfer elements, was designed for Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. A system level model, which is integrated with the International Space Station model, was built, optimized and used to analyze several typical cases representing the orbital environment, to understand the operation of the LHP-based thermal control system during the mission time. The LHP system was proved to be able to maintain the Cryocooler within the required temperature range in most cases, while under some worst cold environments, the bypass valve needs to be activated.     

High-Stable Mesoporous Ni-Ce/Clay Catalysts for Syngas Production

Abstract  

A mesoporous-type catalytic support was synthesized through the modification of a smectite with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and microwaves. Texture and micro-morphology of the support was determined. Several techniques were employed in order to describe the chemical environment of active species on the surface. Ni⁰ particle sizes were dependent on the structural site of reducible species. High stable Ni-Ce catalysts (calcined at 800 °C) were evaluated in the CO₂ reforming of methane reaction at 700 °C (WHSV = 96 L g⁻¹ h⁻¹, without dilution gas and pre-reduction). The catalysts have presented CH₄ conversions between 40 and 65%, CO₂ conversion between 35 and 65% and H₂/CO ratios between 0.2 and 0.4.     

Removal of sulfamethoxazole from waters and wastewaters by conductive‐diamond electrochemical oxidation

BACKGROUND: Sulfamethoxazole (SMX, used as a model bacteriostatic antibiotic) is persistent to conventional biological treatments of wastewaters. In this work, conductive‐diamond electrochemical oxidation (CDEO) was found to be an effective technology for its removal from the effluents of conventional wastewater treatment plants. RESULTS: The use of CDEO has been evaluated for the removal of the antibiotic SMX from water and wastewaters. The results show that CDEO can reduce the concentration of this organic pollutant to values below 0.1 µg dm^?3. The variation of the SMX concentration during electrolysis shows a complex shape with a plateau zone that increases in size with the initial concentration of SMX. This complex trend is not observed in the changes of TOC, which seems to indicate that the CDEO of SMX solutions does not lead directly to the generation of carbon dioxide as a final product. A tentative reaction pathway has been proposed based on a thorough analysis of the reaction mixture, in which the main intermediate products were identified. The use of liquid chromatography time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (LC‐TOFMS) allowed the identification of nine organic intermediates (with M_w 98, 108, 172, 173, 197, 203, 227, 269 and 287) during the electrolysis and the concentration of these compounds depends on the initial SMX concentration and on the current density applied. CONCLUSIONS: CDEO is able to reduce the concentration of the organic pollutant below 0.1 mg dm^?3. SMX removal is faster than that of TOC. This fact indicates the formation of reaction intermediates. Analytical techniques show that nine reaction intermediates are generated in the system, and that their concentration depends on the initial SMX concentration and on the current density used. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry     

A Bayesian approach for the estimation and transmission ofregularization parameters for reducing blocking artifacts

With block-based compression approaches for both still images and sequences of images annoying blocking artifacts are exhibited, primarily at high compression ratios. They are due to the independent processing (quantization) of the block transformed values of the intensity or the displaced frame difference. We propose the application of the hierarchical Bayesian paradigm to the reconstruction of block discrete cosine transform (BDCT) compressed images and the estimation of the required parameters. We derive expressions for the iterative evaluation of these parameters applying the evidence analysis within the hierarchical Bayesian paradigm. The proposed method allows for the combination of parameters estimated at the coder and decoder. The performance of the proposed algorithms is demonstrated experimentally.     

Study of charge transfer processes in a surface confined redox system by means of differential staircase voltacoulommetry

A new multipotential pulse technique called differential staircase voltacoulommetry (DSVC) is developed to study charge transfer processes which take place in an electroactive monolayer. We have demonstrated that the faradaic capacitances obtained from DSVC ((ΔQ/ΔE)-E curves) are identical to those obtained in cyclic voltammetry ((I/v)-E curves) when the pulse amplitude fulfils ΔE ? RT/(nF), independently of the reversibility of the electrode process.DSVC presents the advantage of allowing a simpler and more effective correction of the non-faradaic components of the response than does cyclic voltammetry (CV), even considering that the non-faradaic interfacial capacitance changes with the redox state of the adsorbed species.Moreover, DSVC leads to a peak shaped response which is easily characterisable for reversible processes whereas other multipulse techniques lead to null currents in such a way that it is necessary to use short time pulses in order to transform the response to quasi-reversible, which is much more difficult to analyse and which will present a greater distortion, due to non-faradaic effects.Methods for calculating the surface excess and the thermodynamic and kinetic parameters of the electroactive adsorbates are proposed, experimentally tested and compared with those of CV.     

Mechanisms of Malt Extract Development in Barleys from Different European Regions: I. Effect of Environment and Grain Protein Content on Malt Extract Yield

Malt extract yield (EXT) and barley protein content (BPROT) data from 346 EBC trials located across all the EBC countries, and composed of many different varieties, from the years 1980, 1982 to 1990, inclusive, and 1993 to 1995, thus covering 13 seasons, were used to detect regional trends affecting the negative correlation between these two variables. Quadratic curves were fitted to data from each European region (North, Central, West and South), all of which showed very high coefficients of determination (r²). A common trend in all regions, and also in the overall European analysis, was of EXT decreasing when BPROT increased, although the extent of decrease varied among the regions. Two different geographical patterns of variation in EXT with changes in BPROT have been observed, on the one hand those of the Iberian Peninsula and West region, and on the other, those of the North and Central regions. In the first case, the rate of decrease in EXT was almost constant across the full range of variation of BPROT, whereas, in the second case, the decrease in EXT grew progressively with increases in BPROT. Therefore, although “Bishop's law” on EXT decrease with BPROT increase holds true as a general statement, it would be necessary to take climatic differences into account when estimating EXT values from BPROT data.