Recent advances in sodium alginate-based membranes for dehydration of aqueous ethanol through pervaporation

Sodium alginate (SA) is a progressive material for membrane fabrication. The technological development of SA-based membranes has made a significant contribution to the separation techniques, especially in aqueous organic solutions. The outstanding performance of SA is attributed to its outstanding structural flexibility and hydrophilicity. In view of structural characteristics, SA membranes have immense utilization in the pervaporation separation of organics. Among various organics, dehydration of aqueous ethanol is employed as a standard to check the success of pervaporation (PV) membrane. Because ethanol and water have comparable molecular sizes, thus difficult to extract water from aqueous ethanol mixtures than it is for other organics. A literature survey shows that wide-ranging data are available on the PV performance of SA and its modified membranes. In this context, the present review addresses the recent advances made in SA membranes for enhanced ethanol dehydration performance during the last decade. Available data since 2010 has been compiled for grafted, crosslinked, blend, mixed matrix, and composite hybrid sodium alginate membranes in terms of separation factor, permeation flux, and pervaporation separation index PSI. The data are assessed with reference to the effect of feed composition, membrane selectivity, flux, and swelling behavior.     

Kinetic and Thermodynamic Studies for the Removal of Nickel Ions from an Aqueous Solution by Adsorption Technique

The kinetics and dynamics of nickel ions adsorption on activated carbon and bentonite were studied. The influence of parameters (pH, amount of adsorbent, adsorbate concentration, solution volume, rotation speed, and temperature) were investigated. Kinetic models of pseudo-first, pseudo-second and Weber-Morris models were applied. The data was better reported by the pseudo-second order model. Freundlich, Langmuir, and D-R models were utilized for the analysis of adsorption equilibrium. Evaluation of thermodynamic parameters reveal that adsorption is spontaneous and endothermic in nature. From the experimental data, it was concluded that bentonite has more efficiency for the adsorption of nickel ions than activated carbon.     

Thermally Stimulated Depolarization Current and Thermal Analysis Studies of Gamma Irradiated Lithium‐Salt/Polymer Electrolyte Blends

Thermally stimulated depolarization current (TSDC) and thermal analysis studies of gamma irradiated LiOH/PVA blends were done. To study the mechanisms of conduction and TSDC in poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and LiOH/PVA blends, short circuit TSDC at a polarizing temperature 353 K with a polarizing field of 3 kV cm^?1 have been analyzed in the temperature range 300–410 K. Two peaks are evident from the global TSDC measurements on the pure PVA homopolymer. Meanwhile, in all blended samples; there is only one broad peak with a shoulder on the high temperature side due to the relaxation of the poly‐blend system. The temperature dependence, 300–408 K, of the current density (J) for pure PVA and its blended samples has been studied. It was observed that J values increase dramatically with increasing temperature (in the low temperature region from 300–340 K) owing to the formation of local ordered regions in the otherwise disordered amorphous matrix of PVA. Further increase in the temperature caused a marginal increase in J values. The temperature dependence of the specific heat for all samples was measured. A linear increase of C _p was observed with an increase in temperature, which is ascribed to the increase in lattice vibration of linear macromolecules and consequently, increases in the number of internal degree of freedom of phonons.     

Synthesis and characterization of xylan-graft-poly(L-lactide)

In this study, xylan extracted from chestnut sawdust was used to synthesize the copolymers of xylan-graft-poly(L-lactide) (xylan-g-PLLA) by grafting L-lactide monomer onto xylan and using 4-dimethylaminopyridine as a catalyst at 80°C. Depending on the synthesis conditions and parameters, synthesized xylan-g-PLLAs were either water-soluble which form homogeneous plastic films after drying at room temperature or water-insoluble ones which do not form films at all. A Graeco-Latin design of experiments was used to determine the effects of three factors (reaction time, amount of L-lactide, and amount of the catalyst) on the results of the grafting reaction: the degree of substitution (DS) and the degree of polymerization (DP) of the copolymers. The DS and DP determined by ¹HNMR showed that they increase according to the amount of L-lactide and decrease according to the reaction time while the catalyst had no influence on the copolymerization reaction. Grafting of PLLA onto xylan was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and ¹HNMR analyzes. FT-IR spectra showed absorption bands at 1,784?cm^?1 characteristic of the ester functions (C?O) and ¹HNMR spectra revealed signals between 1 and 2.5?ppm corresponding to the protons of the aliphatic chains. Thermal properties show that the temperatures of start of degradation of copolymers are lower than those of PLLA and xylan. The N,N-dimethylacetamide results showed that the glass transition temperature of xylan-g-PLLA film was 147°C. We found that the Young’s modulus of this film is close to that of polypropylene.     

Skeletal Isomerism in Mixed Transition-Metal (M)/Main-Group (E) Clusters Exhibiting an Octahedral M4E2 Core

DFT calculations have been carried out on a series of isoelectronic M₄E₂(CO)₁₂ (M=Os, Ru, Fe; E=Bi, As, P, N, CH, SiH) clusters which exhibit an octahedral M₄E₂ core. For these clusters two different octahedral topologies are possible, one in which the E atoms are bonded together and one in which they occupy opposite vertices. Calculations show that the energy difference between both skeletal isomers is dominated by the strength of the E–E bonding and that it tends to decrease significantly when M is a 4d or 5d metal. These results are discussed in the light of the arrangement of the avalaible experimental structures and in particular of those of Ru₄Bi₂(CO)₁₂ and Os₄Bi₂(CO)₁₂.     

Thermal behaviour of lignins extracted from different raw materials

The thermal degradation of lignins extracted from bagasse, rice straw, corn stalk and cotton stalk, have been investigated using the techniques of thermogravimetric analysis (TG) and differential thermal analysis (DTA), between room temperature and 600°C. The actual pyrolysis of all samples starts above 200°C and is slow. The results calculated from TG curves indicated that the activation energy, Efor thermal degradation for different lignins lies in the range 7.949–8.087 kJ mol^?1. The DTA of all studied lignins showed an endothermic tendency around 100°C. In the active pyrolysis temperature range, thermal degradation occurred via two exothermic process at about 320 and 480°C, and a large endothermic pyrolysis region between 375 and 450°C. The first exothermic peak represents the main oxidation and decomposition reaction, the endothermic effect represents completion of the decomposition and the final exothermic peak represents charring.     

The behavior of 2-chloroquinoline-3-carbaldehyde and 2-oxoquinoline-3-carbaldehyde toward stabilized methylenetriphenylphosphoranes and secondary amines

In this study use was made of the Wittig carbonyl olefination reaction and stereo-identification of the resulting alkenes. Condensation of 2-chloroquinoline-3-carbaldehyde with some selected stabilized phosphonium ylides yielded a mixture of the corresponding E and Z olefins in each case. On the other hand reaction of 2-oxoquinoline-3-carbaldehyde with the selected ylides afforded the respective olefins only in one of the possible stereoisomers. The reaction of 2-chloroquinoline-3-carbaldehyde with acetylmethylenetriphenylphosphorane produced the respective olefine together with acridin-3-ol. Heating of (E) and/or (Z)-methyl 3-(2-chloroquinolin-3-yl)acrylate with hydrazine hydrate yielded the corresponding propan-1-ol derivative. Dechlorination of (E)-ethyl 3-(2-chloroquinolin-3-yl)acrylate and/or (E)-4-(2-chloroquinolin-3-yl)but-3-en-2-one was effected upon treatment with morpholine or piperidine in absolute ethanol to give the respective enone derivatives.     

Investigation of Olea ferruginea Roylebark extracts for potential in vitroantidiabetic and anticancer effects

This study was conducted to investigate the physicochemical, phytochemical, in vitro antidiabetic and anticancer potential of Olea ferruginea R bark. After extraction using Soxhlet, in vitro antidiabetic and cytotoxic activity on human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells was assessed by nonenzymatic glycosylation of hemoglobin assay, alpha-amylase inhibition assay, glucose uptake by yeast cells, and 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide assay, respectively, and gene expression via real-time polymerase chain reaction. Primary and secondary metabolites were present in the extractants; polyphenols (35.61 ± 0.03) and flavonoids (64.33 ± 0.35 ) in the chloroform; and polysaccharides in the ethanol (268.75 ± 0.34), and glycosaponins (78.01 ± 0.07) in the methanol. The chloroform extract exhibited maximum antidiabetic potential, showing inhibition of nonenzymatic glycosylation of hemoglobin (65%), and alpha-amylase inhibition (32%) with maximum percent glucose uptake by the ethanol extract (78%). Only the ethanol extract had dose-dependent cytotoxic potential against the HepG2 cells. After 24-h exposure to the ethanol-extract, the expression of protein kinase B (Akt) remained unchanged, while the expression of B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2) and BCL2 associated X (BAX) changed significantly. After 48-h exposure, the expression of Akt decreased significantly, while that of BCL2 and BAX increased significantly. Olea ferruginea R bark possessed in vitro antidiabetic potential and anticancer/cytotoxic effects, attributable to the decline in the prosurvival signals of the Akt signaling pathway.     

Personalized hydrogels for individual health care: preparation,features, and applications in tissue engineering

Biomaterials-based tissue engineering scaffolds play an essential role as an independent therapy or with the combination of cellular or biological active constituents in tissue regeneration applications. However, synthetic grafts, xenografts, and allografts are recognized as foreign materials in human body, resulting in suboptimal clinical outcomes. Recently, autologous materials from a patient's body have drawn great attention in clinical treatment and tissue engineering. Moreover, the autologous scaffolds equipped with the advantages of tissue-like hydrogels have great potential to become a highly versatile tool as personalized hydrogels (PHs) for applications in 3D cell culture and tissue engineering. PHs may feature excellent biocompatibility, tailorable mechanical properties, regenerative capability, non-rejection of grafts/transplants on immunological responses, and customizable properties which could be suitable to meet the personal and clinical care. Here, we present a scoping review of recent progress of PHs with a focus on detailed preparation methods, material properties, and tissue engineering applications along with their challenges and opportunities. It is expected that PHs will circumvent the limitations of current tissue engineering therapies and will be used as next-generation scaffolds for tissue engineering and translational research.