Arylidene polymers. XVIII. Synthesis and thermal behavior of organometallic arylidene polyesters containing ferrocene derivatives in the main chain

A new interesting category of organometallic polyesters based on diarylidenecycloalkanones containing ferrocene derivatives in the polymer main chain has been prepared by interfacial polycondensation of 1,1′-dichlorocarbonyl ferrocene or 1,1′-dichlorocarbonyl-4,4′-diiodoferrocene with 2,5-bis(p-hydroxybenzylidene)cyclopentanone, 2,5-divanillylidenecyclopentanone, 2,6-bis(p-hydroxybenzylidene)cyclohexanone, 2,6-divanillylidenecyclohexanone, and 2,7-bis(p-hydroxybenzylidene) cycloheptanone. The resulting polyesters were characterized by elemental analyses, infrared spectroscopy, solubility, and viscometry measurements. The thermal behavior of the synthesized polymers was evaluated by thermal gravimetric analysis and correlated with their structures. The crystallinity of all polymers were examined by x-ray diffraction analysis. Moreover, the electrical conductivity of a selected example of polymer was investigated above the temperature range (300–500 K) and showed that it followed an Arrhenius-type equation with activation energy 2.09 eV. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Numerical and experimental study on the biofiltration of toluene vapor

We have solved both steady state and transient problems on the biofiltration of toluene vapor. The effect of inlet toluene concentration and inlet gas-flow rate on the removal rate of toluene and the elimination capacity of a lab-scale biofilter has been investigated. In this study, the effectiveness factor was a function of pollutant concentration. The dynamic solutions show good agreement with experimental results. At an inlet toluene concentration of 100 ppm, the diffusion of toluene into biofilm was obviously a rate determining step. Above 200 ppm, however, biofilm already showed full activity. The steady-state simulation confirmed that the change of elimination capacity obtained by increasing only inlet toluene concentration was the same as that obtained by increasing only flow rate of contaminated air. The maximum possible performance is about 20 g/m³h with no addition of nutrients.     

Development of modified stokes expression to model the behavior of expanded beds containing polydisperse resins for protein adsorption

Expanded bed behavior was modeled by using the Richardson-Zaki correlation between the superficial velocity of the feed stream and the void fraction of the bed. A polydisperse material, Chelating excellose® (70-210 Μm in diameter, 1.21 g/cm³ in density), which has Ni²⁺ ions for the selective binding of histidine-tagged proteins, was used as the resin. A method to modify the Stokes expression to express the terminal settling velocity of the resins by introducing two empirical parameters, the effective diameter of the resins and an exponent for(ρ _p -ρ)/Μ term, was developed. Combined use of the Richardson-Zaki correlation and the modified Stokes expression was successful in modeling the bed expansion by incorporating physical properties of feed streams and the resins.     

Solid extraction of caffeine and theophylline from green tea by molecular imprinted polymers

This paper involves a feasibility study on using molecular imprinted polymers as the sorbent materials in solid phase extraction for caffeine and theophylline from green tea. Two kinds of MIPs, with caffeine-theophylline mixture and pentoxifylline-theophylline mixture as the templates respectively, MAA as the monomer, EDMA as the crosslinker and ATBN as the initiator, were applied to this purpose. Mixture solution of caffeine and theophylline (1 Μg/ ml in acetonitrile) was applied to the solid extraction cartridges following a load, wash and elute procedure with acetonitrile, methanol, methanol-acetic acid (90/10, v/v) as the solvents, respectively. This solid phase extraction protocol was applied for extraction of caffeine and theophylline from green tea. Comparison between the results obtained with the MIPs cartridges and a traditional C₁₈ reversed-phase cartridge was made. It showed that the MIP-based sorbent on the solid phase extraction was comparable with that of C₁₈ material. HPLC analysis using a C₁₈ column (5 Μm, 250× 4.6 mm from Rstech corporation), methanol: water (60 :40, v/v) as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.6 ml/min was applied for the quantitative determination.     

Synthesis and characterization of dehydroabietic acid derivatives suitable for surfactant synthesis

The syntheses of derivatives of dehydroabietic acid suitable for further manipulation into surfactants are presented. The compounds are produced at very high yields and purity. They contain several different functional groups, e.g., carboxylic acid, amine, ester, alcohol, and an aromatic group. The functional groups are useful as the linking unit to the hydrophilic part in synthesizing surfactants.     

Mobile phase composition for resolving whey proteins in reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography

Reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography was successfully developed for the simultaneous and rapid separation for the main whey proteins, α-Lactalbumin and β-Lactoglobulin. This method consisted of a linear gradient of the two mobile phases of 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid in water and 0.1% trifluoroacetic acid in acetonitrile. The total run time for this separation was approximately 30 min, and α-Lactalbumin was eluted followed byβ- Lactoglobulin. The injection volume was fixed at 20 μl and the flow rate was 1 ml 1/min. The optimum mobile phase composition and gradient conditions to separate α-Lactalbumin and β-Lactoglobulin (A+B) were experimentally obtained at the 15 μm particle with a pore size of 300 Å on the linear-gradient mode.     

Dietary stearic acid and risk of cardiovascular disease: Intake,sources, digestion,and absorption

Individual FA have diverse biological effects, some of which affect the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). In the context of food-based dietary guidance designed to reduce CVD risk, fat and FA recommendations focus on reducing saturated FA (SFA) and trans FA (TFA), and ensuring an adequate intake of unsaturated FA. Because stearic acid shares many physical properties with the other long-chain SFA but has different physiological effects, it is being evaluated as a substitute for TFA in food manufacturing. For stearic acid to become the primary replacement for TFA, it is essential that its physical properties and biological effects be well understood.     

Enzymatic production of alkyl esters through alcoholysis: A critical evaluation of lipases and alcohols

This paper focuses on a detailed evaluation of commercially available immobilized lipases and simple monohydric alcohols for the production of alkyl esters from sunflower oil by enzymatic alcoholysis. Six lipases were tested with seven alcohols, including straight and branched-chain primary and secondary alcohols. The reactions were conducted in a batch stirred reaction vessel using stoichiometric amounts of substrates under solvent-free conditions. Dramatic differences in alcoholysis performance were observed among the different lipases. For most of the alcohols, Novozym 435 produced the highest yield of FA alkyl esters, with yields well over 90% for methanol, absolute ethanol, and 1-propanol. Overall, 96% ethanol was the preferred alcohol for all lipases except Novozym 435, and ethanolysis reactions reached the maximal conversion efficiency. Increasing the water content in the system resulted in an increased degree of conversion for all lipases except Novozym 435. The secondary alcohol 2-propanol significantly reduced the alcoholysis reaction with all lipases; however, the branch-chain isobutanol was more advantageous than linear 1-butanol for Novozym 435, Lipozyme RMIM, and Lipase PS-C. Many commercial immobilized lipases are highly efficient and promising for the production of alkyl esters, offering high reaction yields and a simple operation process.     

Removal of phosphate from wastewaters

Gas concrete waste was used to remove phosphate from aqueous solutions in this study. The influence of suspension pH, temperature, mixing rate, and gas concrete dosage on phosphate removal was investigated by conducting a series of batch adsorption experiments. In addition, the yield and mechanisms of phosphate removal were explained on the basis of the results of X-ray spectroscopy, measurements of zeta potential of particles, both values of BET-N₂ specific surface area, and images of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the particles before and after adsorption. In this study, phosphate removal in excess of 99% was obtained and it was concluded that wastes of gas concrete are an efficient adsorbent for the removal of phosphate. The removal of phosphate predominantly takes place by precipitation mechanism and the weak physical interactions between the surface of adsorbent and the metallic salts of phosphate.     

Graft Copolymerization of Acrylamide onto Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) Fiber

Grafting of acrylamide (AAm) onto oil palm empty fruits bunch fiber using hydrogen peroxide as initiator and methyl acrylate as comonomer was investigated. The amount of comonomer needed to make grafting of acrylamide possible was determined. The percentage of poly(acrylamide) and the comonomer in the final graft copolymer was estimated by elemental analysis. Results obtained indicated that methyl acrylate facilitated the incorporation of acrylamide monomer onto OPEFB. The reactivity ratios for both monomers were determined by using Fineman–Ross plot. The effects of reaction temperature and period as well as amount of the initiator, solvent, monomer and comonomer on the percentage of grafting at fixed amount of comonomer (11 mmol) were studied. Maximum percentage of grafting was achieved when the amount of initiator and solvent 3.98×10⁻³ mol and 50 mL respectively. The optimum reaction temperature was 50 ^○C and the reaction period was 90 min. Highest percentage of grafting was 232% when 25.6 mmol of acrylamide was used under these optimum conditions. The presence of functional group in the grafted polymer is characterized by infrared spectroscopy and the surface morphology is observed by scanning electron microscopy. Thermoanalytic investigation on OPEFB and OPEFB-g-PAAM were carried out to evaluate the thermal stability and respective activation energy of the materials.