Catalytic Hydrocracking of a Bitumen‐Derived Asphaltene over NiMo/γ‐Al2O3 at Various Temperatures

Hydrocracking of a bitumen‐derived asphaltene over NiMo/γ‐Al₂O₃ was investigated in a microbatch reactor at varying temperatures. The molar kinetics of asphaltene cracking reaction was examined by fitting the experimental data. Below a defined temperature, the molar reaction showed the first‐order kinetic feature while at higher temperatures secondary reactions such as coke formation became significant, causing deviation of the reaction behavior from the proposed first‐order kinetic model. Selectivity analysis proved that dominant products varied from gases to liquids to gases with increasing temperature, shifting the dominant reaction from C–S bonds cleavage to C–C bonds cleavage.     

High‐performance thermosets with tailored properties derived from methacrylated eugenol and epoxy‐based vinyl ester

A renewable chemical, eugenol, is methacrylated to produce methacrylated eugenol (ME) employing the Steglich esterification reaction without any solvent. The resulting ME is used as a low‐viscosity co‐monomer to replace styrene in a commercial epoxy‐based vinyl ester resin (VE). The volatility and viscosity of ME and styrene are compared. The effect of ME loading and temperature on the viscosity of the VE–ME resin is investigated. Moreover, the thermomechanical properties, curing extent and thermal stability of the fully cured VE–ME thermosets are systematically examined. The results indicate that ME is a monomer with low volatility and low viscosity, and therefore the incorporation of ME monomer in VE resins allows significant reduction of viscosity. Moreover, the viscosity of the VE–ME resin can be tailored by adjusting the ME loadings and processing temperature to meet commercial liquid molding technology requirements. The glass transition temperatures of VE–ME thermosets range from 139 to 199 °C. In addition, more than 95% of the monomer is incorporated and fixed in the crosslinked network structure of VE–ME thermosets. Overall, the developed ME monomer exhibits promising potential for replacing styrene as an effective low‐viscosity co‐monomer. The VE–ME resins show great advantages for use in polymer matrices for high‐performance fiber‐reinforced composites. This work is of great significance to the vinyl ester industry by providing detailed experimental support. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry     

Modeling and analysis of passive worm propagation in the P2P file-sharing network

A number of worms, named P2P (peer-to-peer) passive worms, have recently surfaced, which propagate in P2P file-sharing networks and have posed heavy threats to these networks. In contrast to the majority of Internet worms, it is by exploiting users’ legitimate activities instead of vulnerabilities of networks in which P2P passive worms propagate. This feature evidently slows down their propagation, which results in them not attracting an adequate amount of attention in literature. Meanwhile, this feature visibly increases the difficulty of detecting them, which makes it very possible for them to become epidemic. In this paper, we propose an analytical model for P2P passive worm propagation by adopting epidemiological approaches so as to identify their behaviors and predict the tendency of their propagation accurately. Compared with a few existing models, dynamic characteristics of P2P networks are taken into account. Based on this proposed model, the sufficient condition for the global stability of the worm free equilibrium is derived by applying epidemiological theories. Large scale simulation experiments have validated both the proposed model and the condition.     

Aqueous One-pot Synthesis of Glycopolymers by Glycosidase-catalyzed Glycomonomer Synthesis Using 4,6-Dimetoxy Triazinyl Glycoside Followed by Radical Polymerization

Glycopolymers have attracted increased attention as functional polymeric materials, and simple methods for synthesizing glycopolymers remain needed. This paper reports the aqueous one-pot and chemoenzymatic synthesis of four types of glycopolymers via two reactions: the β-galactosidase-catalyzed glycomonomer synthesis using 4,6-dimetoxy triazinyl β-D-galactopyranoside and hydroxy group-containing (meth)acrylamide and (meth)acrylate derivatives as the activated glycosyl donor substrate and as the glycomonomer precursors, respectively, followed by radical copolymerization of the resulting glycomonomer and excess glycomonomer precursor without isolating the glycomonomers. The resulting glycopolymers bearing galactose moieties exhibited specific and strong interactions with the lectin peanut agglutinin as glycoclusters.     

Microwave dielectric properties of SrLa[Ga1−x(Mg0.5Ti0.5)x]O4 and SrLa[Ga1−x(Zn0.5Ti0.5)x]O4 (x = 0.2-0.8) ceramics

SrLa[Ga_1−x(R_0.5Ti_0.5)_x]O₄ (R = Mg, Zn) ceramics were prepared by a standard solid state sintering method. The single-phase ceramics with K₂NiF₄-type layered perovskite structure and I4/mmm space group were obtained, indicating that SrLa(R_0.5Ti_0.5) and SrLaGaO₄ can form the unlimited solid solutions. With increasing x for R = Mg and Zn, ε_r increases monotonously, the Qf value first increases and then decreases, while τ_f increases from a negative to a positive value. The optimized microwave dielectric properties were obtained as following: ε_r = 23.3, Qf = 89 400 GHz, τ_f = −0.8 ppm/°C for SrLa[Ga_0.6(Mg_0.5Ti_0.5)_0.4]O₄ and ε_r = 23.3, Qf = 76 200 GHz, τ_f = 0.2 ppm/°C for SrLa[Ga_0.7(Zn_0.5Ti_0.5)_0.3]O₄, indicating that the present solid solution ceramics are the promising candidates as microwave resonator materials for the telecommunication applications.     

One-step scalable preparation of graphene nanosheets and high-thermal-conductivity flexible graphene films

It is well known that graphene nanosheets (GNSs) have many excellent properties. However, it has been a difficult thing to exfoliate graphite into GNSs in a controllable and scalable manner. In this research, a new strategy named xylitol-assisted ball milling exfoliation (XABME) was developed for the scalable preparation of GNSs. The experimental results characterized by a series of measurements showed that GNSs were successfully exfoliated by the XABME strategy. The structure of the prepared nanosheets was featured by large lateral size and ultra-small thickness. Furthermore, the prepared GNSs easily achieved high production yield (≈54%). Lastly, the as-obtained GNSs and cellulose nanofibers (CNF) were compounded to form some nanomaterial films. The prepared films exhibited excellent flexibility and higher thermal conductivity, with the in-plane thermal conductivity of 90 wt% GNS film (8.0 W/(m·K)) being 11.4 times higher than that of the film without GNSs. This shows that GNSs could effectively enhance the thermal conductivity of the CNF matrix and indicate that these prepared films have great potentials in the thermal management of portable mobile devices.