Criticality of metal based functional materials – How multi-functional trans-technical metal based materials are mobilized and how they get lost by dissipation

The enormous diversity of chemical compounds now available is problematic for waste disposal and recovery of essential resources such as rare earth metals. Non-renewable resources are being depleted and need to be managed more effectively. To validate the potential of strategic metals, which often are multi-functional and thus find (competitive) applications in different technologies, a criticality concept is applied. This is based on qualitative and quantitative criteria characterizing the different transformations along supply chains: ranging from the resource deposit to the product and from there into the so-called re-phases or disposal and end-of-life. The trajectories of the resources in real space and time have to be transparent in order to optimize the resource efficiency and its long-ranging compatibility but also to minimize dissipation. This approach allows developing transparent narratives (“Stoffgeschichten”, “Stories of Stuff”) for a responsible and benign use of resources. Only then can re-integration of functional materials be achieved.     

二碘荧光素、荧光素稀土配合物的合成及性质的研究

本文报导了一种合成二碘荧光素、荧光素稀土配合物的新方法,得到了定组成的固体配合物,并对它们的一系列性质进行了研究。通过化学分析、元素分析确定了它们的组成。     

Polymer colloids in photonic materials

Exciting materials known as photonic band-gap materials have come upon the materials science scene and are being studied by many research groups around the world. These new materials operate on light in a way very analogous to the way semiconductors operate on electrons to produce very fast electronic switching and computing circuits. It is imagined that the successful fabrication of these materials will lead to computing machines operating on light and yielding the ultimate speeds in information processing, as electrons typically move only at about one tenth to one half the speed of light. Such devices will require much less heat dissipation and may lead to further miniaturization of computing circuits. New applications in diverse chemical and biochemical sensing are also emerging from these photonic materials. Separation and filtration materials and diverse mesoporous materials and composites are also being developed that rely on such photonic arrays and assemblies as fabrication templates. Polymer colloids in the size range of tens of nm to tens of microns are key components in such new materials and processes. A major limitation in the production of such new materials and devices is that fabrication of such arrays and assemblies is extremely slow and unsuitable for practical manufacturing. Crystallization of charged colloidal suspensions, annealing of core–shell particle arrays, epitaxial growth of crystals from two–dimensional templates, and annealing of thermoreversible gel particle arrays are being explored to ameliorate these limitations. To cite this article: J. Texter, C. R. Chimie 6 (2003).     

Highly routinely reproducible alignment of 1H NMR spectral peaks of metabolites in huge sets of urines

A method to obtain high reproducibility of (1)H NMR chemical shift of peaks of biofluid metabolites, by simple acidification with HCl is evaluated. Biofluid (1)H NMR analysis is indeed spoiled by a strong chemical shift dependence of metabolite peaks on parameters such as ionic strength, concentration of some earth alkali cations and, mostly, on pH of samples. The resulting chemical shift variations, as large as 0.1 ppm, generate misalignments of homogeneous peaks, artifacts and misinterpretations. Reproducible alignment is essential in (1)H NMR based metabonomics, where peak misalignments prevent even very wide bins (i.e., 0.04 ppm, as elsewhere proposed) from being used to integrate spectral data for multivariate statistical analysis. Here is demonstrated that routine acidification with HCl to 1.2≤pH≤2.0 ensures highly reproducible peak alignment of urine (1)H NMR spectra. In this respect, simple inspection of citrate peaks in the urine can be used to measure pH, as it will be extensively discussed, in that at such low pH they show no dependency on other urine components as reported at higher pH. Under these conditions, in as many as 493 urine samples, in which concentrations of Ca(2+), Mg(2+), K(+), Na(+), Cl(-), phosphate, and creatinine and ionic strength measured by means of well standardized conventional procedures, showed very wide ranges, peaks align within a SD always lower than 0.002 ppm, thus allowing the use of integration bins at least five times narrower than 0.04 ppm.     

European chemical industry's contribution to sustainable development

Chemical research and innovation is a key enabling factor in achieving a sustainable and equitable global society. The European chemical sector is a key player in the global chemical and pharmaceutical market and has been working to improve its own sustainability for many decades. Initiatives such as the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry are developing new solutions that will further reduce the environmental impact of the sector, while boosting its energy and resource efficiency, and introducing new materials and processes based on renewable resources for use by society. These innovative solutions catalyse sustainability in other sectors and value chains and will help realise concepts such as a truly circular economy. To effectively implement such solutions requires close cooperation between government, industry and research bodies.     

稀土催化材料的应用及研究进展

稀土元素具有未充满电子的4f轨道和镧系收缩等特征,当用作催化剂的活性组分或载体时常常表现出独特的催化性能. 稀土催化材料的研究和发展为La和Ce等高丰度轻稀土元素的高质、高效利用提供了有效的途径. 目前稀土催化材料在石油化工、化石燃料的催化燃烧、机动车尾气净化、工业废气治理和固体氧化物燃料电池等领域发挥着重要的作用. 本文综述了稀土催化材料的应用以及理论研究进展,重点讨论了稀土元素对所涉及催化剂的结构、活性和稳定性等的影响.     

Challenges for the Periodic Systems of Elements: Chemical,Historical and Mathematical Perspectives

We celebrate 150 years of periodic systems that reached their maturity in the 1860s. They began as pedagogical efforts to project corpuses of substances on the similarity and order relationships of the chemical elements. However, these elements are not the canned substances wrongly displayed in many periodic tables, but rather the abstract preserved entities in compound transformations. We celebrate the systems, rather than their tables or ultimate table. The periodic law, we argue, is not an all-encompassing achievement, as it does not apply to every property of all elements and compounds. Periodic systems have been generalised as ordered hypergraphs, which solves the long-lasting question on the mathematical structure of the systems. In this essay, it is shown that these hypergraphs may solve current issues such as order reversals in super-heavy elements and lack of system predictive power. We discuss research in extending the limits of the systems in the super-heavy-atom region and draw attention to other limits: the antimatter region and the limit arising from compounds under extreme conditions. As systems depend on the known chemical substances (chemical space) and such a space grows exponentially, we wonder whether systems still aim at projecting knowledge of compounds on the relationships among the elements. We claim that systems are not based on compounds anymore, rather on 20th century projections of the 1860s systems of elements on systems of atoms. These projections bring about oversimplifications based on entities far from being related to compounds. A linked oversimplification is the myth of vertical group similarity, which raises questions on the approaches to locate new elements in the system. Finally, we propose bringing back chemistry to the systems by exploring similarity and order relationships of elements using the current information of the chemical space. We ponder whether 19th century periodic systems are still there or whether they have faded away, leaving us with an empty 150^th celebration.     

In situ IR,NMR, EPR,and UV/Vis Spectroscopy: Tools for New Insight into the Mechanisms of Heterogeneous Catalysis

The development of new solid catalysts for use in industrial chemistry has hitherto been based to a large extent upon the empirical testing of a wide range of different materials. In only a few exceptional cases has success been achieved in understanding the overall, usually very complex mechanism of the chemical reaction through the elucidation of individual intermediate aspects of a heterogeneously catalyzed reaction. With the modern approach of combinatorial catalysis it is now possible to prepare and test much more rapidly a wide range of different materials within a short time and thus find suitable catalysts or optimize their chemical composition. Our understanding of the mechanisms of reactions catalyzed by these materials must be developed, however, by spectroscopic investigations on working catalysts under conditions that are as close as possible to practice (temperature, partial pressures of the reactants, space velocity). This demands the development and the application of new techniques of in situ spectroscopy. This review will show how this objective is being achieved. By the term in situ (Lat.: in the original position) is meant the investigation of the chemical reactions which are taking place as well as the changes in the working catalysts directly in the spectrometer.     

Aqueous solutions of nonelectrolytes

The liquid state is one of the three principal states of matter and arguably the most important one, the main reasons being the following: (I) the majority of chemical synthesis reactions are liquid-state reactions; (II) separation processes, such as distillation, extraction, and fractional crystallization, are based on vapor–liquid equilibria, liquid–liquid equilibria, and solid–liquid equilibria, respectively, all involving multicomponent mixtures/solutions; (III) when focusing on water as solvent, we note that it is the most abundant substance on the surface of the earth, and being the principal constituent (about 70% by weight) of all living organisms, it is essential for life as we know it. Thus, it is not surprising at all that experimental as well as theoretical work on nonelectrolyte solutions in general, and on aqueous solutions of nonelectrolytes in particular, have held prominent positions in (bio-)physical chemistry for more than a century. The insights thereby gained have contributed decisively to build the formal structure of chemical thermodynamics and have paved the way for the development of practically useful real-solution models needed in chemical engineering. In this review, first the thermodynamic formalism relevant for solubility studies as well as a critical discussion of some popular approximations will be presented concisely. Estimation methods for auxiliary quantities, such as virial coefficients and partial molar volumes at infinite dilution, will be briefly indicated, followed by a summary of rational strategies for data reduction and data correlation. Finally, a few eclectically chosen results obtained for dilute aqueous solutions of nonelectrolytes will be linked to hydrophobic effects, which are generally accepted to play an important role in a wide variety of biological processes.     

纤维素催化转化为高附加值化学品的研究进展

Currently,under huge pressure from energy demands and environmental problems,much attention is being paid to biomass conversion,which will play an important role in meeting the requirements for a sustainable society.As the most abundant biomass on earth, cellulose is usually used as the first research target for biomass conversion.In this review,the recalcitrant structure of cellulose is discussed and non-catalytic hydrolysis by hot-compressed water and catalytic hydrolysis using solid acids are then considered.We also review the catalytic conversion of cellulose into valuable chemicals including hexitols(sorbitol and mannitol),ethylene glycol,and related compounds using various heterogeneous catalysts.     

Synthesis of the rare earth compound nanosheets induced by lamellar liquid crystal

Synthesis of rare earth compound nanosheets with uniform thickness is of potential interest to the luminescent materials. Herein, whole series of rare earth hydrates and oxides nanosheets have been synthesized by using lamellar liquid crystal as a template, except Ce and Pm. Polarizing microscope images and transmission electron microscopy images show that the lamellar liquid crystal can prevent the rare earth hydrate nanosheets from curving to nanotubes in the processes of synthesis. The synthesized nanosheets have a uniform thickness of 10–15 nm and can retain morphology after being calcined at 650 °C. After facile chemical treatment, the functionalized rare earth compounds were obtained, which have unique luminescent property.     

The technological and economic management of the environmental variable in the pharmaceutical–chemical industry

Industrial risks increate with technological progress. The study of potential risks is routine in the pharmaceutical–chemical industry. Here, like in other industrial activities, a risk coefficient is introduced that varies within space time limits.A control system of environmental safety and health monitoring processes should be based on the data obtained from Hazard and Operability Studies (HAZOP).The space variable influences the chemical risk coefficient that applies to the whole the production cycle (including waste recycling). For the sake of prevention, many enterprises have adopted the integrated management system, which is now moving to an additional required feature: environment and health protection and safety assurance inside and outside the industrial area (in compliance with UNI, ISO 14000 and OHSAS 18001standards).Our goal is to examine the technological–scientific–environmental changes in the pharmaceutical–chemical sector in order to asses the new extent of chemical regarding management systems.This will entail a cultural change that will call for the necessary economic strategies for industries to implement the appropriate environmental–technological programs.     

稀土离子特性与稀土功能材料研究进展

稀土元素是一个包含了由钪、钇与镧系共17种元素的系列统称,它们既具有本质上的物理化学相似性,也具有各自独特和多样的电子结构。 从化学水平上讲,稀土离子的特性决定了稀土永磁、磁致冷、超导、热释电、光学制冷、非线性光学、催化等高新技术应用的本质;从材料水平上讲,稀土功能材料是实现这些技术应用的基础。 从科技发展要求来讲,稀土功能材料的研发是实现稀土资源高质量发展的最重要途径。 本文从稀土离子特性出发,利用轨道杂化模型构建稀土离子与稀土功能材料之间的基本关系,总结了近年来不同应用领域中稀土离子在稀土功能材料的组成设计与性能优化方面的研究进展。     

Highly routinely reproducible alignment of H NMR spectral peaks of metabolites in huge sets of urines

A method to obtain high reproducibility of ¹H NMR chemical shift of peaks of biofluid metabolites, by simple acidification with HCl is evaluated. Biofluid ¹H NMR analysis is indeed spoiled by a strong chemical shift dependence of metabolite peaks on parameters such as ionic strength, concentration of some earth alkali cations and, mostly, on pH of samples. The resulting chemical shift variations, as large as 0.1 ppm, generate misalignments of homogeneous peaks, artifacts and misinterpretations.Reproducible alignment is essential in ¹H NMR based metabonomics, where peak misalignments prevent even very wide bins (i.e., 0.04 ppm, as elsewhere proposed) from being used to integrate spectral data for multivariate statistical analysis. Here is demonstrated that routine acidification with HCl to 1.2 ≤ pH ≤ 2.0 ensures highly reproducible peak alignment of urine ¹H NMR spectra. In this respect, simple inspection of citrate peaks in the urine can be used to measure pH, as it will be extensively discussed, in that at such low pH they show no dependency on other urine components as reported at higher pH. Under these conditions, in as many as 493 urine samples, in which concentrations of Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, K⁺, Na⁺, Cl⁻, phosphate, and creatinine and ionic strength measured by means of well standardized conventional procedures, showed very wide ranges, peaks align within a SD always lower than 0.002 ppm, thus allowing the use of integration bins at least five times narrower than 0.04 ppm.     

Computer modelling of mixed metal fluorides for optical applications

This paper describes a new computational method for predicting the optical behaviour of doped inorganic materials. There is considerable interest in using inorganic materials in photonic devices, and in many cases, the optical properties of these materials depend on doping by ions such as those from the rare earth series. Among the inorganic materials of interest are the mixed metal fluorides (e.g. BaLiF(3), BaY(2)F(8), YLiF(4), LiCaAlF(6), LiSrAlF(6)), doped with trivalent rare earth ions. The paper describes the use of Mott-Littleton calculations to determine the optimum location for dopant ions, followed by crystal field calculations which make direct use of the output of the Mott-Littleton calculations to calculate the optical properties of the dopant ion taking into account its symmetry and the positions of the surrounding ions, including any vacancies or interstitial ions present by virtue of charge compensation. It is then possible to predict whether a given dopant ion at a particular site in a material will have favourable optical properties.     

Resting Study of Tracer Experiment on Catalytic Wet Oxidation Reactor under Micro-gravity and Earth Gravity Conditions

The International Space Station（ISS） employs catalytic wet oxidation carried out in a Volatile Reactor Assembly （VRA） for water recycling. Previous earth gravity experiments show that the VRA is very effective at removing polar, low molecular weight organics. To compare the reactor performance under micro-gravity and Earth gravity conditions, a tracer study was performed on a space shuttle in 1999 by using 0.2% potassium carbonate as the chemical tracer. In this paper, the experimental data were analyzed and it is indicated that the reactor can be considered as a plug flow one under both micro-gravity and earth gravity experimental conditions. It has also been proved that dispersion is not important in the VRA reactor under the experimental conditions. Tracer retardation was observed in the experiments and it is most likely caused by catalyst adsorption. It is concluded that the following reasons may also have influence on the retardation of mean residence time ： （1） the liquid can be held by appurtenances, which will retard the mean residence time; （2） the pores can hold the tracer, which can also retard the mean residence time.     

稀土萃取分离技术方法研究

稀土在工业诸多领域中发挥着关键作用,在增材制造材料和介电材料等高新技术领域均显示出可期的应用前景。稀土元素的分离是衔接稀土资源与高性能稀土功能材料的关键过程,所以高效提纯稀土元素变得尤为重要。本文梳理了化学沉淀法、离子交换与吸附法、萃取色层法、溶剂萃取法、液膜分离法这些经典方法和化学气相传输法、氧化还原法、萃取沉淀法、微生物法、非平衡溶剂萃取法这些新技术方法的优缺点和适用性,侧重分析了这些技术方法在节能减排方面的最新研究情况,并展望了稀土分离提纯领域的重点发展方向,以期为稀土资源的绿色高效开发利用提供依据和借鉴。     

协同发光效应及其分析应用研究

在研究共存元素对钐、铕、铽和镝配合物荧光发射的影响时,人们曾分别观察到这些配合物的荧光强度不但不随某些共存稀土和非稀土离子浓度的增加而降低;而是在一定浓度范围内随共存离子浓度的增加,配合物的荧光发射大大增强,利用这种效应可大大提高这类配合物的荧光分析灵敏度,我们采用自己组装的激光诱导荧光光谱测定装置,选取铕(钐)-     

New uses for the Burgess reagent in chemical synthesis: methods for the facile and stereoselective formation of sulfamidates, glycosylamines, and sulfamides

Although the Burgess reagent (methoxycarbonylsulfamoyltriethylammonium hydroxide, inner salt) has found significant use in chemical synthesis as a dehydrating agent, almost no work has been directed towards its potential in other synthetic applications. As this article will detail, we have found that the Burgess reagent is remarkably effective at accomplishing a number of non-dehydrative synthetic tasks when applied to appropriate substrates, such as the formation of sulfamidates from 1,2-diols or epoxyalcohols, alpha- and beta-glycosylamines from carbohydrates, and cyclic sulfamides from 1,2-aminoalcohols. Beyond delineating the power of these new reaction manifolds, we also describe the construction of a group of alternative Burgess-type reagents that extends the scope of these new reactions even further.