Highly Efficient Copper(II) Ion Sorbents Obtained by Calcium Carbonate Mineralization on Functionalized Cross‐Linked Copolymers

A new type of Cu^II ion sorbents is presented. These are obtained by CaCO₃ mineralization from supersaturated solutions on gel‐like cross‐linked polymeric beads as insoluble templates. A divinylbenzene–ethylacrylate–acrylonitrile cross‐linked copolymer functionalized with weakly acidic, basic, or amphoteric functional groups has been used, as well as different initial inorganic concentrations and addition procedures for CaCO₃ crystal growth. The morphology of the new composites was investigated by SEM and compared to that of the unmodified beads, and the polymorph content was established by X‐ray diffraction. The beads, before and after CaCO₃ mineralization, were tested as sorbents for Cu^II ions. The newly formed patterns on the bead surface after Cu^II sorption were observed by SEM, and the elemental distribution on the composites and the chemical structure of crystals after interaction with Cu^II were investigated by EDAX elemental mapping and by FTIR‐ATR spectroscopy, respectively. The sorption capacity increased significantly after CaCO₃ crystals growth on the weak anionic bead surface (up to 1041.5 mg Cu^II/g sample) compared to that of unmodified beads (491.5 mg Cu^II/g sample).     

Biomimetic growth of CaCO3 pancakes on the leaves of Epipremnum aureum

Rhombohedral, disk-like and pancake-like calcite crystals were synthesized in the different reaction condition via facial vegetal bio-templates, the leaves of Epipremnum aureum. The resultant crystals were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffractometry (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The results showed that disk-like and pancakes calcite were obtained on the surface of Epipremnum aureum leaves in 50 mM CaCl₂ solution at starting pH values of 9.7 and 11.7, respectively. The dynamic process of formation of multiple crystals was analyzed by monitoring the continuous morphological and structural evolution and components of crystals in different crystal stages. Moreover, it is found that the surface structure of the leave and starting pH value of reaction solution provide profound influence on the morphology of CaCO₃ crystals. This provides a facile and novel method to prepare hierarchical CaCO₃ crystals.     

Peanut-shaped aggregation of CaCO<Subscript>3</Subscript> crystallites in the presence of an amphiphilic derivative of carboxymethylchitosan

An amphiphilic derivative of carboxymethylchitosan (CMCS), (2-hydroxyl-3-butoxyl)propyl-CMCS (HBP-CMCS), was used as an organic additive in the precipitation process of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). HBP-CMCS molecules can interact with calcium ions, the functional groups of which act as active sites for the nucleation and crystallization of CaCO₃. Simultaneously, HBP-CMCS molecule also functionalizes as a colloidal stabilizer to prohibit the sedimentation of the grown CaCO₃ crystals, depending upon the molar ratio of the initial Ca²⁺ ions to the repeat units of HBP-CMCS molecules. The combination investigations of scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy on the precipitated CaCO₃ crystals proved that concentrations of HBP-CMCS and Ca²⁺ exert great influence on the crystallization habit of CaCO₃, such as the nucleation, growth, morphology, crystal form, etc. The formation of the peanut-shaped CaCO₃ particles suggests the template effect of HBP-CMCS molecules on the aggregation behavior of CaCO₃ nanocrystals.     

Effect of agar hydrogel and magnesium ions on the biomimetic mineralization of calcium carbonate

Here, agar hydrogel was selected as diffusion medium and template to control the biomimetic mineralization of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). Due to three dimensional network structures and abundant functional groups (such as, hydroxyl groups), Ca²⁺ ions were uniformly distributed in the network and electrostatically attracted. The diffusion speed and range of CO₃^2? ions were mediated by the concentration of hydrogel medium. Under the synergistic effect of Mg²⁺ ions, the crystal CaCO₃ was induced by gas phase diffusion method in the hydrogel system. The results showed that the concentrations of Mg²⁺ ions and agar hydrogel had no obvious effect on the calcite phase of CaCO₃, but the morphologies and sizes changed with concentrations of medium and Mg²⁺ ions. Attribute to template effect, the crystallization behavior and growth rate of CaCO₃ crystals were regulated. Since Mg²⁺ ions were easily adsorbed on the surfaces of unit cell, the unique structure of CaCO₃ was precisely controlled. This study provides a useful reference and inspiration for the understandings of the contributions of ion supply rate in bio-mineralization and hydrogel medium in biomimetic mineralization.     

Polyepoxysuccinic acid with hyper-branched structure as an environmentally friendly scale inhibitor and its scale inhibition mechanism

In order to improve the scale inhibition efficiency of existing polyepoxysuccinic acid (PESA) and to study the impact of their molecular structure on scale inhibition efficiency, a series of PESA with linear and hyper-branched structure have been designed and synthesized through co-polymerization reaction with glycidyl and epoxy succinate. The scale inhibition behavior of PESA with linear and hyper-branched structure against CaCO₃ and CaSO₄ scales was evaluated using static scale inhibition method, and their ability to retard deposition of CaCO₃ was also examined. The experimental results showed that, for CaCO₃ and CaSO₄, the PESA with hyper-branched structure provides a scale inhibiting efficiency as high as 95.9% and 94.3%, respectively, at an inhibitor concentration of 15?mg/L. In addition, the processes of crystal nucleation, growth and crystal morphology have been analyzed. The experimental results show that the PESA with hyper-branched structure not only prolongs the induction period of CaCO₃ crystal nucleation, but also reduces the number of crystal nuclei and changes the size and morphology of the CaCO₃ crystal. Moreover, the FTIR, SEM and XRD analyses showed that the PESA with hyper-branched structure can induce the irregularity of growing CaCO₃ crystal, destroy the formation of crystals and change the polymorphs of calcium scale crystal. This conclusion indicates that the prepared PESA with hyper-branched structure has great potential for applying in the treatment of industrial water.     

聚电解质膜PDAC/PSS诱导CaCO3结晶的研究

以模拟软体动物珍珠层的周期性基质控制形成过程制备仿生层状复合材料. 将聚苯乙烯磺酸钠(PSS)与聚二烯二甲基氯化铵(PDAC)用逐层浸渍的方法使其组装成多层膜, 用于诱导过饱和溶液中CaCO₃的结晶, 详细研究了膜紫外吸收随组装层数增加的线性变化. 扫描电镜和X射线衍射表征了晶体的形貌和结构. (PDAC/PSS)₁₅PDAC膜诱导获得的CaCO₃晶体为六面体结构, 晶体尺寸为30～40 μm; (PDAC/PSS)₁₅膜诱导CaCO₃结晶, 可以在膜表面获得形貌与珍珠层非常相似的CaCO₃晶体, 结晶10 h获得的晶片结构呈规则的六边形, 片尺寸约为10～20 μm. X射线衍射结果表明两种晶体的晶格结构与天然珍珠层差异明显, 说明静电作用为晶体形貌的主控因素之一, 但不是晶格结构的决定因素. 复合材料断面电镜照片表明其为层状结构.     

Crystal structure of CsNbMoO<Subscript>6</Subscript>

Single crystals of CsNbMoO₆ were grown from solution in melt, and their crystal structure was solved by X-ray diffraction (R[I > 2σ(I)]₁ = 0.0386). Crystals were cubic, а = 10.41039(8) Å, Z = 8, space group \(F\bar 43m\). The synthesized crystals were shown to exhibit the second harmonic generation effect, which confirmed the absence of an inversion center in the structure. The structure was built of MO₆ (M = Nb, Mo) octahedra, which share all vertices to form a three-dimensional framework where niobium and molybdenum atoms are randomly distributed. Framework interstices accommodate cesium ions. Crystals of CsNbMoO6 can be considered as pseudo-symmetric with respect to space group \(Fd\bar 3m\) due to a small shift of some oxygen atoms relative to the regular system of points in this group.     

Effect of the preparation method on the catalytic performance of Ca<Subscript>3</Subscript>Co<Subscript>4</Subscript>O<Subscript>9</Subscript> for methane oxidation

The layered structure oxide Ca₃Co₄O₉ particle was synthesized by two routes of citrate sol–gel method. The structure, morphology and surface property of Ca₃Co₄O₉ was characterized by XRD, SEM and XPS, respectively. The catalytic activity of Ca₃Co₄O₉ for methane combustion was tested in a fixed bed quartz tubular microreactor. The catalysis results reveal that the catalytic activity is sensitive to the texture of Ca₃Co₄O₉ by different route. TG measures confirm that the small particle size of Ca₃Co₄O₉ favors the oxygen transformation on the surface, which can be ascribed the random distribution of the crystal axes in irregular Ca₃Co₄O₉ particle.     

Controlled synthesis of calcium carbonate in a mixed aqueous solution of PSMA and CTAB

A mixed system of poly (styrene-alt-maleic acid) (PSMA) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was used as a very effective crystal growth modifier to direct the controlled synthesis of CaCO₃ crystals with various morphologies and polymorphs. The as-prepared products were characterized with scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. It was found that the concentrations and relative ratios of PSMA and CTAB in the mixed aqueous solution were turned out to be important parameters for the morphology and polymorph of CaCO₃ crystals. Various morphologies of CaCO₃ crystals, such as hollow microsphere, peanut and so on, were produced depending on the concentrations and relative ratios of PSMA and CTAB. Moreover, the formation mechanisms of CaCO₃ crystals with different morphologies were discussed.     

Synthetic TRPO<Subscript>4</Subscript> crystals as reference samples in the quantitative X-ray electron probe microanalysis of rare-earth elements

Crystals of 15 rare-earth element phosphates, which provide a set of standard reference samples in X-ray electron probe microanalysis, were synthesized and tested for homogeneity and stoichiometry. The phosphates were synthesized in two stages, the preparation of aqueous phosphates and crystal growth in a solution of potassium polymolybdate K₂Mo₃O₁₀. The tests of the synthesized crystals confirmed their reliability as reference samples.     

The effect of PVP-<Emphasis Type="Italic">b</Emphasis>-PMAA block copolymer on morphologies control of calcium carbonate

A novel double-hydrophilic block copolymer (DHBC) poly(vinyl pyrrolidone)–block–poly(methacrylic acid) (PVP-b-PMAA) was synthesized via reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer polymerization. The structure of the resulting copolymer was characterized by ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance, and the molecular weight of the block copolymer was determined by gel permeation chromatography. The study of morphological control of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) has been performed in the presence of the PVP-b-PMAA block copolymer. Various morphologies of CaCO₃ particles such as rhombohedral, multilayered, and aggregated with cavities can be produced by varying the copolymer concentrations. The all-obtained CaCO₃ particles were calcite, which was confirmed by either X-ray diffraction or Fourier transform infrared spectra. Such calcium carbonate/polymer hybrids with complex morphologies may find valuable applications in biomimic mineralization.     

Preparation and characterization of Pb<Subscript>0.56</Subscript>Sr<Subscript>0.44</Subscript>Zr<Subscript>0.52</Subscript>Ti<Subscript>0.48</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> inverse opal

Pb_0.56Sr_0.44Zr_0.52Ti_0.48O₃ (PSZT) inverse opal photonic crystals (PCs) have been synthesized by a process of self-assembly in combination with a sol–gel procedure. PSZT inverse opals show pure perovskite structure with good orders in three dimensions. The evident photonic band gaps have been observed in the transmittance spectra with a blue-shift phenomenon due to the decrease of opal template periods. PSZT inverse opals also exhibit the reflection peaks in basic agreement with the calculated results. This three-dimensional (3D) ordered PSZT inverse opals have shown interesting optical characteristics and potential applications in optoelectronic and photonic devices.     

Biomimetic Nucleation and Morphology Control of CaCO_3 in PAAm Hydrogels Synthesized from Lyotropic Liquid Crystalline Templates

Hydrogels have been thought to be the material which can provide appealing replacements of biological organisms. Pores of hydrogels synthesized from lyotropic liquid crystalline (LLC) templates were smaller in size and more uniform than those of traditional hydrogels. LLC poly‐acrylamide (PAAm) hydrogels were used as the growth media of CaCO₃. After copolymerized with acrylic acid and 2‐acrylamido‐2‐methylpropanesulfonic acid (AMPS), LLC hydrogels were modified with COOH and SO₃H, respectively. The effect of functional groups on the biomimetic mineralization of CaCO₃ was studied. Most of crystals from traditional hydrogels are rhombohedral and could not form aggregates. Only a few could aggregate and have a particular morphology with irregular orientation of subcrystal. Compared with crystals separated from traditional hydrogels, crystals growing in the LLC hydrogels were much more regulated and could form aggregates with particular morphology and regular orientation, that is, face (104) of rhombohedral subcrystals parallel to the surface of the macrocrystals. Modification of COOH and SO₃H groups made CaCO₃ subcrystal align more tightly. COOH had minor influences on the crystal orientation and small modification to the aggregate morphology. SO₃H groups could change the crystal orientation and morphology effectively. The aggregates are pseudo‐spherical and the face perpendicularity to the face (104) parallels to the surface of the aggregates.     

Synthesis,structure, and properties of the [RuNO(NH<Subscript>3</Subscript>)<Subscript>5</Subscript>][Co(CN)<Subscript>6</Subscript>] complex containing a photochromic cation

The salt of cobalt hexacyanide with the photochromic mononitrosyl cation [RuNO(NH₃)₅]³⁺ with the composition [RuNO(NH₃)₅][Co(CN)₆] was synthesized. Single crystals of the salt were grown, and the crystal structure was solved. The photochromic properties were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 3, pp. 545–548, March, 2008.     

Preparation and X-ray diffraction study of phosphate sulfates M<Subscript>2</Subscript>MgTi(SO<Subscript>4</Subscript>)(PO<Subscript>4</Subscript>)<Subscript>2</Subscript>

Phosphate sulfates M₂MgTi(SO₄)(PO₄)₂ (M = alkali metal) prepared by the sol–gel technique with ethanol as salting-out agent were characterized by differential thermal analysis, electron probe microanalysis, and X-ray phase analysis. The crystal structure of the compounds synthesized (M = Na, K) was refined by powder X-ray diffraction. The phase stability of the phosphate sulfates under heating was examined.     

Fabrication of Thermo‐Responsive Hybrid Hydrogels by In‐Situ Mineralization and Self‐Assembly of Microgel Particles

Summary: An in‐situ mineralization process in the presence of thermo‐responsive microgels leads to the formation of well‐defined hybrid materials. Experimental data suggest that control of the mineralization process in the presence of the microgels offers the possibility to obtain sub‐micrometer‐sized hybrid particles or macroscopic hybrid hydrogels. The rapid formation of CaCO₃ crystals in the microgel structure favors the preparation of the hybrid particles wherein inorganic crystals cover the shell layer of the microgel. The slow formation of CaCO₃ crystals leads to the simultaneous self‐assembly of the microgel particles on the bottom of the reaction vessel, and the formation of a physical network. It has been demonstrated that hybrid hydrogel materials with different calcium carbonate contents and temperature‐dependent swelling‐deswelling properties can be prepared.

Formation of a hybrid hydrogel by the vapor diffusion method.     

Synthesis and crystal structure of new double mercury silver phosphide iodide Hg<Subscript>12</Subscript>Ag<Subscript>41</Subscript>P<Subscript>88</Subscript>I<Subscript>41</Subscript>

New double mercury silver phosphide iodide Hg₁₂Ag₄₁P₈₈I₄₁ (1) was synthesized and its crystal structure was established. Compound 1 crystallizes in the cubic system. The characteristic feature of the crystal structure 1 is the presence of the anionic cage clusters P₁₁ ³⁻, which have been previously found in alkali metal compounds only. The well-ordered P₁₁ ³⁻ clusters form a system of polyhedra, which encapsulate various disordered α-AgI-type fragments. Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 10, pp. 1882–1886, October, 2007.     

P123 / SDS水溶液中碳酸钙结晶及形貌的研究

仿生合成是模拟生物矿化合成人工晶体的一种方法。在生物矿化中的无机矿物往住是在有机基质的参与下形成的,它们在有机基质上成核,并且在整个结晶过程中受到有机基质及其他生命活动的调控,因而在晶体的形态、尺寸、以及取向上都具有高度的统一性和有序性[1],     

Oxygen redistribution in ZrO<Subscript>2</Subscript>-Y<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> system

This work represents the results of oxygen redistribution studies at quantitative and isotopic levels in synthesis and thermal treatment of ZrO - (0 to 35 mol %) Y₂O₃ solid solution crystals. The crystals were grown by directed melt crystallization method in a cold container using direct high-frequency heating. The crystal oxygen content and isotopic composition data was collected with respect to stabilizer concentration and technological conditions of synthesis. The temperature and frequency relationships of crystal electroconductivity were also studied. Some strength and tribological characteristics of the given materials were represented. The solid state formation by directional melt crystallization was shown to involve oxygen isotopic exchange interaction between the melt, growing crystal, and gas phase.     

Organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite (C<Subscript>6</Subscript>H<Subscript>5</Subscript>(CH<Subscript>2</Subscript>)<Subscript>2</Subscript>NH<Subscript>3</Subscript>)<Subscript>2</Subscript>CdCl<Subscript>4</Subscript>: Synthesis,structural and thermal properties

The present research work reports the study on crystal structure, vibrational spectroscopy and thermal analysis of organic-inorganic hybrid compound (C₆H₅(CH₂)₂NH₃)₂CdCl₄. Single crystals of bis(phenethylammonium)tetrachlorocadmate (C₆H₅(CH₂)₂NH₃)₂CdCl₄ (PEA–Cd) were obtained by diffusion at room temperature. This compound crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group C2cb with unit cell parameters a = 7.4444(2) Å, b = 38.8965(3) Å, c = 7.3737(2) Å and Z = 4. Single crystal structure has been solved and refined to R = 0.036 and wR = 0.092. The structure consists of an extended [CdCl₄]^2– network and two [C₆H₅(CH₂)₂NH₃]⁺ cations to form a two-dimensional perovskite system. The infrared (IR) spectrum of the title compound was recorded at room temperature. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to investigate the phase transition; this compound exhibits a reversible single solid-solid phase transition.