Impact of non‐solvent on regeneration of cellulose dissolved in 1‐(carboxymethyl)pyridinium chloride ionic liquid

Cellulose dissolved in ionic liquid (1‐(carboxymethyl)pyridinium chloride)/water (60/40 w/w) mixture is regenerated in various non‐solvents, namely water, ethanol, methanol and acetone, to gain more insight into the contribution of non‐solvent medium to the morphology of regenerated cellulose. To this end, the initial and regenerated celluloses were characterized with respect to crystallinity, thermal stability, chemical structure and surface morphology using wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. According to the results, regardless of non‐solvent type, all regenerated samples have the same chemical structure and lower crystallinity in comparison to the initial cellulose, making them a promising candidate for efficient biofuel production based on enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose. The reduction in crystallinity of regenerated samples is explained based on the potential of the non‐solvent to break the hydrogen bonds between cellulose chains and ionic liquid molecules as well as the affinity of water and non‐solvent which can be evaluated based on Hansen solubility parameter. The latter also determines the phase‐separation mechanism during the regeneration process, which in turn affects surface morphology of the regenerated cellulose. The pivotal effect of regenerated cellulose crystallinity on its thermal stability is also demonstrated. Regenerated cellulose with lower crystallinity is more susceptible to molecular rearrangement during heating and hence exhibits enhanced thermal stability. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry     

Study on morphology,thermal, mechanical and Cd(II) adsorption properties of PVC/α-MnO<Subscript>2</Subscript>-stearic acid nanocomposites: production and application

Alpha manganese dioxide nanorods (α-MnO₂) were successfully functionalized with stearic acid (SA) by solvothermal method to prevent agglomeration. The α-MnO₂-SA nanorods were employed as a filler for the preparation of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) nanocomposite (NC) films with different percentages (1, 3 and 5 wt%). The morphology, mechanical and thermal properties of the obtained NCs were investigated. The results showed that α-MnO₂-SA can effectively improve the properties of PVC. The enhancement in properties of the NCs was attributed to the improved interfacial bonding by modification. Also, these NCs were used as adsorbent for removal of cadmium ions. Our finding suggests that the PVC/α-MnO₂-SA NCs are good candidates for efficient Cd(??) removal from the wastewater.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Co Nanocomposite Based on Poly(benzimidazole-amide) Matrix and Their Behavior as Catalyst in Oxidation Reaction

2,6-Bis(5-amino-1H-benzimidazol-2-yl)pyridine was prepared and characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, elemental analysis, ¹H-NMR, and ¹³C-NMR spectroscopic methods. Then a new poly(benzimidazole-amide) was synthesized by polymerization of the corresponding diamine and isophthalic acid. The obtained poly(benzimidazole-amide) exhibited good yield and high thermal stability. Due to the existence of benzimidazole moieties in polymer’s structure, it has the tendency to form complexes with metal ions. So, a new poly(benzimidazole-amide)/Co nanocomposite was prepared. Morphological studies revealed that metal nanoparticles were dispersed in the polymer matrix without any aggregation. poly(benzimidazole-amide)/Co nanocomposite was used as a catalyst in the oxidation of ethyl benzene to acetophenone with tert-butyl hydroperoxide.     

The Role of Oil Phase in the Stability and Physicochemical Properties of Oil-in-Water Emulsions in the Presence of Gum Tragacanth

Different emulsions based on six types of vegetable oils (sunflower, canola, sesame, olive, coconut, and palm olein) were studied to investigate the role of the oil phase in the stability and physicochemical characteristics of oil-in-water emulsions prepared with gum tragacanth. The results indicated that the stability, rheological parameters, and size distribution of emulsions were dependent on the oil type. Based on the interfacial tension value, the type of oil did not have a significant effect on the gum tragacanth-emulsifying properties. The formulation based on sunflower and coconut oil led to producing more stable emulsion and a sample containing palm olein resulted in an unstable emulsion. Rheological analysis revealed that the sample based on palm olein showed the lowest consistency coefficient (2.10 ± 0.05 Pas ⁿ), elastic modulus (3.90 ± 0.21 Pa), and energy of cohesion (80.87 ± 1.1 J m⁻³). This study revealed that using oils with lower viscosity and higher density led to the higher stability of the emulsion samples.     

Recent Advancements in Polythiophene-Based Materials and their Biomedical,Geno Sensor and DNA Detection

In this review, the unique properties of intrinsically conducting polymer (ICP) in biomedical engineering fields are summarized. Polythiophene and its valuable derivatives are known as potent materials that can broadly be applied in biosensors, DNA, and gene delivery applications. Moreover, this material plays a basic role in curing and promoting anti-HIV drugs. Some of the thiophene’s derivatives were chosen for different experiments and investigations to study their behavior and effects while binding with different materials and establishing new compounds. Many methods were considered for electrode coating and the conversion of thiophene to different monomers to improve their functions and to use them for a new generation of novel medical usages. It is believed that polythiophenes and their derivatives can be used in the future as a substitute for many old-fashioned ways of creating chemical biosensors polymeric materials and also drugs with lower side effects yet having a more effective response. It can be noted that syncing biochemistry with biomedical engineering will lead to a new generation of science, especially one that involves high-efficiency polymers. Therefore, since polythiophene can be customized with many derivatives, some of the novel combinations are covered in this review.     

Photocrosslinking of styrene–isoprene–styrene; effect of benzoin and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate on physical properties

Crosslinking reaction of polymer by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation has been important in industries. In this work, photocrosslinking of styrene–isoprene–styrene (SIS) triblock copolymer in the presence of benzoin photoinitiator and a dimethacrylate monomer as crosslinking agent was investigated. Curing of samples was initiated under UV irradiation. Benzoin was used as photoinitiator because it contains chromophore group that could absorb UV irradiation. Ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) was used as crosslinking agent, since it has alkene functional groups that could react with the alkene group of SIS. ATR-FTIR spectra of samples show that absorption band of double bond at 1500–1600?cm^?1 decreases after UV exposure. Increasing the concentration of benzoin (0.1–1?phr) and EGDMA (1–10?phr) leads to an increase in gel content and hardness, while swelling ratio decreases. After 5?min heating at 150?°C, about 20%wt of the unirradiated compound became insoluble, because heating of compound at 150?°C causes crosslinking reaction without any irradiation.     

Contextual Policy Search for Linear and Nonlinear Generalization of a Humanoid Walking Controller

We investigate learning of flexible robot locomotion controllers, i.e., the controllers should be applicable for multiple contexts, for example different walking speeds, various slopes of the terrain or other physical properties of the robot. In our experiments, contexts are desired walking linear speed of the gait. Current approaches for learning control parameters of biped locomotion controllers are typically only applicable for a single context. They can be used for a particular context, for example to learn a gait with highest speed, lowest energy consumption or a combination of both. The question of our research is, how can we obtain a flexible walking controller that controls the robot (near) optimally for many different contexts? We achieve the desired flexibility of the controller by applying the recently developed contextual relative entropy policy search(REPS) method which generalizes the robot walking controller for different contexts, where a context is described by a real valued vector. In this paper we also extend the contextual REPS algorithm to learn a non-linear policy instead of a linear policy over the contexts which call it RBF-REPS as it uses Radial Basis Functions. In order to validate our method, we perform three simulation experiments including a walking experiment using a simulated NAO humanoid robot. The robot learns a policy to choose the controller parameters for a continuous set of forward walking speeds.     

Porous Co/Co–Ni–Pt nanostructures prepared by galvanic replacement towards methanol electro-oxidation

The nanostructured Co/Co–Ni–Pt catalyst were synthesized by electrodeposition process and galvanic replacement reaction. The alloy prepared on a copper electrode (Cu/Co/Co–Ni–Zn) was dipped in platinum containing alkaline solution to produce a porous Cu/Co/Co–Ni–Pt catalyst. The catalyst was characterized by energy dispersive X-ray and scanning electron microscopy techniques and its electrocatalytic properties were evaluated using cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and chronoamperometry techniques. The results showed that the Co/Co–Ni–Pt coatings are porous, and composed of discrete Pt nanoparticles with the crystallite size of about 66 nm. It was shown from cyclic voltammograms in alkaline solutions that the oxidation current of methanol on the nanostructured Cu/Co/Co–Ni–Pt electrode was much higher than that on flat platinum. Electrochemical impedance spectra on the Co/Co–Ni–Pt electrode reveal that the charge transfer resistance decreases with the increase of anodic potentials. All results show that the Co/Co–Ni–Pt catalysts can be potential anode catalysts for the direct methanol fuel cell.     

Saturated observer-based adaptive neural network leader-following control of N tractors with n-trailers with a guaranteed performance

This article addresses the leader-following neural network adaptive observer-based control of N tractors connected to n trailers with the prescribed performance specifications. To propose the controller, a change of coordinates and a nonlinear error transformation are used to transform the constrained error dynamics to a new second-order Euler-Lagrange unconstrained error dynamics which inherits all structural properties of ith vehicle dynamic model. By combining a projection-type neural network and an adaptive robust technique, a novel leader-following saturated output-feedback controller is proposed to force that ith vehicle tracks a virtual leader trajectory with the prescribed transient and steady-state characteristics while reducing the actuator saturation risk and compensating all unknown dynamic model parameters, external disturbances, unmolded dynamics, and NN approximation errors. A saturated velocity observer is heuristically proposed to obviate the requirement for the velocity measurements of ith vehicle without any unwanted peaking. A Lyapunov-based stability analysis is utilized to prove that all the tracking and state observation errors are semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded (SGUUB) and they converge to small bounds including the origin with a prescribed performance. At the end, computer simulations will be shown to validate the efficacy of the proposed controller in practice.