SO42-/TiO2-SiO2 mixed oxide catalyst, 3. An eco-friendly catalyst for esterification of acetic acid

The effect of addition of titania to silica was examined by various characterization techniques such as FT-IR, BET surface area, surface acid strength/acid sites by the Hammett indicator method and Br?nsted/Lewis acid sites by pyridine adsorbed IR study. Ti-O-Si bond is formed in case of TiO₂-SiO₂ sample, as observed from FT-IR data. Acid strength, surface acid sites, and rate constant for esterification of acetic acid are increased with Ti-O-Si bonding and sulfate impregnation. Both Br?nsted and Lewis acid sites are responsible for catalysing the esterification reaction. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Photo-oxidation of phenol over titania pillared zirconium phosphate and titanium phosphate

The photodegradation of phenol was studied in the aqueous solutions over titania pillared zirconium phosphate and titanium phosphate under solar radiation and compared with that of the UV-radiation (6 W low pressure Hg vapor lamp). This reaction was studied by varying different parameters such as catalyst dose, initial phenol concentration, pH of solution and irradiation time. The degradation rate of phenol was favourable under neutral pH condition. The degradation process approximately obeyed first-order kinetics with apparent rate of degradation constant increasing with decreasing the initial phenol concentration.     

Supported aqueous-phase enzymatic catalysis in organic media

The use of partially hydrated porous silica particles has been studied as a support for cofactor-dependent enzymatic catalysis in organic solvents. At an optimal pore hydration corresponding to 70% pore volume, horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase catalyzes the oxidation and reduction of alcohols and aldehydes, respectively, with rates sixfold higher than with nonporous glass beads as the enzymatic support and with cofactor recycling numbers in excess of 10⁵. Thus, supported aqueous-phase enzymatic catalysis makes highly effective use of the enzyme and cofactor by coimmobilization and by providing a high interfacial area for reactions in organic media.     

Threshold effects in SUSY and non-SUSY GUTs

We discuss recent contributions on threshold effects in grand unfiied theories including minimal SUSY SU (5), non-SUSY modifications of the grand desert in SU(5) and SO(10), and SO(10) with single intermediate symmetires. Consequences of theorems on vanishing GUT-scale corrections to sin² θ_w in SO(10) with SU(2) _L XSU(2) _R XSU(4) _c (g_2l =g_2R ) intermediate symmetry are discussed and vanishing corrections on the inter-mediate scale are explicitly demonstrated where predictions are more precise. Threshold and higher dimensional operator effects in SUSY SU(5) recently derived by a number of authors are presented.     

Threshold and compactification effects in GUTS

We review general results on threshold effects and their implications on GUTs in the context of LEP data. Among the blooming grand-desert models, threshold effects are computed in the presence of a single real scalar ζ (3, 0, 8) with M_ζ?10¹⁰ GeV leading to experimentally testable predictions on the proton lifetimeτ _p in SU (5) and, in addition, small neutrino masses in SO (10) needed for the solar neutrino flux and the dark matter of the universe. The fine structure constant matching at M_Z is ensured by including threshold effects on the unification coupling. In the minimal SUSY SU (5) such effects at the GUT scale modify the prediction of the supersymmetric mass threshold near the TeV scale and the precision measurments of the Standard Model couplings at M_Z probe into the superheavy mass spectrum. Consequences of theorems proved very useful for threshold, compactification and multiloop effects are discussed. It is noted that in a class of GUTs the highest intermediate scale M_I above which G_224P becomes a good symmetry is not affected by the GUT threshold or compactification effects or multiloop contributions in the range M_I-M_U. But spontaneous compatification effects can decrease the intermediate scale drastically in models where parity and SU(2)_R breakings are decoupled. Low mass W_R-bsosns are permitted in models with decoupled parity and SU (2)_R breakings.