Modeling Polycondensation of Lactic Acid

Summary: A mathematical model for the polycondensation of lactic acid accounting for water removal by diffusion is developed. The corresponding kinetic parameters are estimated by performing experiments under different sets of reaction conditions in open system. The model results are compared with the experimental ones and, after validating the model, parametric simulations are further carried out to understand the effects of operating conditions such as reaction temperature, catalyst activity, and reaction pressure.     

Oxidative Catalysis by TAMLs: Obtaining Rate Constants for Non-Absorbing Targets by UV-Vis Spectroscopy

Understanding the catalysis of oxidative reactions by TAML activators of peroxides, i. e. iron(III) complexes of tetraamide macrocyclic ligands, advocated a spectrophotometric procedure for quantifying the catalytic activity of TAMLs for colorless targets (k_II′, M⁻¹ s⁻¹), which is incomparably more advantageous in terms of time, cost, energy, and ecology than NMR, HPLC, UPLC, GC-MS and other similar techniques. Dyes Orange II or Safranin O (S) are catalytically bleached by non-excessive amount of H₂O₂ in the presence of colorless substrates (S₁) according to the rate law: −d[S]/dt=k_Ik_II[H₂O₂][S][TAML]/(k_I[H₂O₂]+k_II[S]+k_II′[S₁]). The bleaching rate is thus a descending hyperbolic function of S₁ : v=ab/(b+[S₁]). Values of k_II′ found from a and b for phenol and propranolol with commonly used TAML [Fe^III{o,o′-C₆H₄(NCONMe₂CO)₂CMe₂}₂(OH₂)]⁺ are consistent with those for S₁ (phenol, propranolol) obtained directly by UPLC. The study sends vital messages to enzymologists and environmentalists.     

Time-varied synthesis of hierarchical ZnO microspheres and their applications in dye-sensitized solar cells

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Hierarchically nano-structured ZnO microspheres have been synthesized solvothermally at variable reaction times (6, 12, 36, and 48 h) by using...     

Allylation of 1-phenyl-1-propyne with N- and O-pronucleophiles using polymer supported triphenylphosphine palladium complex as a heterogeneous and recyclable catalyst

Simple methodology for the allylation of various N- and O-pronucleophiles with 1-phenyl-1-propyne as an allylating agent, using PS-TPP-Pd (polymer supported triphenylphosphine palladium) as a highly active heterogeneous recyclable catalyst has been developed. The protocol is applicable for a wide variety of hindered and functionalized aromatic amines, alcohols, and carboxylic acids. The catalyst exhibited remarkable catalytic activity for five consecutive recycles.     

Multivariant finite elements for three-dimensional simulation of viscous incompressible flows

Within multivariant elements, which have restricted degrees of freedom at some nodes, different velocity components have different variations. Shape functions for the multivariant elements Q P_o and R P_o are developed. With such shape functions the value of a velocity component within a multivariant element is shown to depend upon all the independent components of velocity at the nodes of the element. The use of the Q₁ P₀ element to simulate flows with discontinuous boundary conditions generated disturbance throughout the flow domain, giving erroneous pressure and velocity distributions. The Q P_o element restricted the disturbance due to such discontinuities to a small region near the singular points, whereas the P P_o element completely eliminated the fluctuations. Flows with discontinuous boundary conditions were simulated with reasonable accuracy by partially relaxing the no-slip condition on the Q₁ P_o elements near the singular points.     

Fluorescent Styryl Dyes Based on Novel 4-Methoxy-9-Methyi-9H-Carbazole-3-Carbaldehyde—Synthesis,Photophysical Properties and DFT Computations

Novel carbazole based styryl derivatives (6a–6c) having styryl group at third position and a methoxy substitution were synthesized by condensing 4-methoxy-9-methyl-9H-carbazole-3-carbaldehyde 3 and different active methylene derivatives (5a–5c). Evaluated photophysical properties of these synthesized novel chromophores, studied the effect of solvent polarity on absorption, emission and quantum yield of these styryl derivatives. DFT and TD-DFT computations are carried out to study structural, molecular, electronic and photophysical parameters of dyes. The ratio of ground state to excited state dipole moment was calculated using Bakhshiev and Kawski-Chamma-Viallet correlations.     

Optimal relay node placement in delay constrained wireless sensor network design

The Delay Constrained Relay Node Placement Problem (DCRNPP) frequently arises in the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) design. In WSN, Sensor Nodes are placed across a target geographical region to detect relevant signals. These signals are communicated to a central location, known as the Base Station, for further processing. The DCRNPP aims to place the minimum number of additional Relay Nodes at a subset of Candidate Relay Node locations in such a manner that signals from various Sensor Nodes can be communicated to the Base Station within a pre-specified delay bound. In this paper, we study the structure of the projection polyhedron of the problem and develop valid inequalities in form of the node-cut inequalities. We also derive conditions under which these inequalities are facet defining for the projection polyhedron. We formulate a branch-and-cut algorithm, based upon the projection formulation, to solve DCRNPP optimally. A Lagrangian relaxation based heuristic is used to generate a good initial solution for the problem that is used as an initial incumbent solution in the branch-and-cut approach. Computational results are reported on several randomly generated instances to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithm.     

Gold nanoparticles catalyzed chemiluminescence immunoassay for detection of herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid

We present a novel immunoassay format utilizing the catalytic properties of gold nanoparticles in the luminol-silver nitrate-gold nanoparticle based chemiluminescence (CL) system for the detection of widely used herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Highly sensitive anti-2,4-D antibody was produced and conjugated with gold nanoparticles of various sizes. In the present assay format, employing a competitive inhibition approach, a well-characterized hapten-protein conjugate (2,4-D-BSA) was used to coat the microtiter plates. The analyte (2,4-D) was pre-incubated with anti-2,4-D antibody labeled with gold nanoparticles and added to each well of the microtiter plate. The gold label triggered the reaction between luminol and silver nitrate generating a luminescence signal at 425 nm. Under the optimized conditions, the CL based immunoassay showed the detection limit of 2,4-D in standard water samples around 3 ng mL(-1). The CL based immunoassay format, based on gold nanoparticles as a catalyst, could be used as a fast screening methodology (<30 min) for pesticide detection.