Preparation, characterization and performance of surface-loaded chelating resins for ion-chromatography

A procedure has been developed for the surface immobilization of 8-hydroxyquinoline on a gel-type poly(styrene-divinylbenzene) copolymer matrix. The exchange rates are shown to be favourable for ion-chromatography, and some rapid separations have been achieved.     

Preparation,characterization and antimicrobial application of hybrid cellulose-lignin beads

In the present study, cellulose-lignin beads were prepared using pretreated dissolving grade-pulp and extracted from birch wood hydrotropic lignin as starting materials. The preparation involved dissolution of both polymers in environmentally friendly 7% NaOH/12% urea aqueous solution, shaping the solution into beads and subsequent regeneration. Lignin content in the beads varied from 0 to 40%. The beads were characterized using FTIR, scanning electron and confocal fluorescence microscopy. Porosity, swelling behavior and leaching of lignin from the beads in water were studied as well. The antibacterial properties of the beads and original hydrotropic lignin were tested using Escherichia coli (XL-1 Blue) and Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923). The obtained beads in a never-dried state were highly porous spherical particles with evenly distributed lignin in them. Their shape, structure and properties were influenced by the lignin content. The beads did not show antibacterial activity against gram-negative E. coli. On the other hand, never-dried cellulose-lignin beads inhibited growth of gram-positive S. aureus, and the inhibition efficiency increased with the lignin content. The half inhibitory concentration for never-dried beads with 40% of lignin was 1.06 mg (dry weight) per 1 mL of broth determined after incubation for 24 h at 37 °C and at initial concentration of S. aureus of 6.48 log(CFU/mL). In contrast to cellulose-lignin beads, pure cellulose beads did not inhibit growth of S aureus. The results demonstrated that hydrotropic birch lignin can be used for the preparation of composite cellulose-lignin beads. Such beads show a great potential for antibacterial applications against S. aureus.     

Wounding-Induced VOC Emissions in Five Tropical Agricultural Species

Leaf mechanical wounding triggers a rapid release—within minutes—of a blend of volatile organic compounds. A wounding-induced VOC blend is mainly composed of oxygenated ubiquitous stress volatiles such as methanol and volatile products of lipoxygenase (LOX) pathway (mainly C5 and C6 alcohols and aldehydes and their derivatives), but also includes multiple minor VOCs that collectively act as infochemicals, inducing defences in non-damaged plant leaves and neighbouring plants and attracting herbivore enemies. At present, the interspecific variability of the rate of induction and magnitude of wounding-induced emissions and the extent to which plant structural traits and physiological activity alter these emissions are poorly known. Particularly scarce is information on the induced emissions in tropical agricultural plant species, despite their economic importance and large area of cultivation at regional and global scales. We chose five tropical crops with varying photosynthetic activity and leaf structural characteristics—Abelmoschus esculentus, Amaranthus cruentus, Amaranthus hybridus, Solanum aethiopicum, and Telfairia occidentalis—to characterize the kinetics and magnitude of wounding-induced emissions, hypothesizing that the induced emission response is greater and faster in physiologically more active species with greater photosynthetic activity than in less active species. Rapid highly repeatable leaf wounds (12 mm cuts) were generated by a within-leaf-chamber cutting knife. Wounding-induced VOC emissions were measured continuously with a proton-transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer and gas-chromatography mass spectrometry was used to separate isomers. Twenty-three ion VOCs and twelve terpenoid molecule structures were identified, whereas ubiquitous stress volatiles methanol (on average 40% of total emissions), hexenal (24%), and acetaldehyde (11%) were the main compounds across the species. Emissions of low-weight oxygenated compounds (LOC, 70% of total) and LOX products (29%) were positively correlated across species, but minor VOC components, monoterpenoids and benzenoids, were negatively correlated with LOC and LOX, indicating a reverse relationship between signal specificity and strength. There was a large interspecific variability in the rate of induction and emission magnitude, but the hypothesis of a stronger emission response in physiologically more active species was only partly supported. In addition, the overall emission levels were somewhat lower with different emission blend compared to the data reported for wild species, as well as different shares for the VOCs in the blend. The study demonstrates that wounding-dependent emissions from tropical agricultural crops can significantly contribute to atmospheric volatiles, and these emissions cannot be predicted based on current evidence of wild plant model systems.     

Flocculated flow of microfibrillated cellulose water suspensions: an imaging approach for characterisation of rheological behaviour

Our aim was to characterise the suspension rheology of microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) in relation to flocculation of the cellulose fibrils. Measurements were carried out using a rotational rheometer and a transparent cylindrical measuring system that allows combining visual information to rheological parameters. The photographs were analyzed for their floc size distribution. Conclusions were drawn by comparing the photographs and data obtained from measurements. Variables selected for examination of MFC suspensions were degree of disintegration of fibres into microfibrils, the gap between the cylinders, sodium chloride concentration, and the effects of changing shear rate during the measurement. We studied changes in floc size under different conditions and during network structure decomposition. At rest, the suspension consisted of flocs sintered together into a network. With shearing, the network separated first into chain-like floc formations and, upon further shear rate increase, into individual spherical flocs. The size of these spherical flocs was inversely proportional to the shear rate. Investigations also confirmed that floc size depends on the geometry gap, and it affects the measured shear stress. Furthermore, suspension photographs revealed an increasing tendency to aggregation and wall depletion with sodium chloride concentration of 10⁻³ M and higher.     

Robustifying principal component analysis with spatial sign vectors

In this paper, we apply orthogonally equivariant spatial sign covariance matrices as well as their affine equivariant counterparts in principal component analysis. The influence functions and asymptotic covariance matrices of eigenvectors based on robust covariance estimators are derived in order to compare the robustness and efficiency properties. We show in particular that the estimators that use pairwise differences of the observed data have very good efficiency properties, providing practical robust alternatives to classical sample covariance matrix based methods.     

Thermoanalytical study of precursors for In<Subscript>2</Subscript>S<Subscript>3</Subscript> thin films deposited by spray pyrolysis

Thermal decomposition of precursors for In₂S₃ thin films obtained by drying aqueous solutions of InCl₃ and SC(NH₂)₂ at the In:S molar ratios of 1:3 (1) and 1:6 (2) was monitored by simultaneous TG/DTA/EGA-FTIR measurements in the dynamic 80%Ar + 20%O₂ atmosphere. XRD and FTIR were used to identify the dried precursors and products of the thermal decomposition. The precursors 1 and 2 are complex compounds, while in 2 free SC(NH₂)₂ is also present. The thermal degradation of 1 and 2 in the temperature range of 30–900 °C consists of four mass loss steps, the total mass loss being 89.1 and 78.5%, respectively. According to XRD, In₂S₃ is formed below 300 °C, crystalline In_2.24(NCN)₃ is detected only in 1 above 520 °C and In₂O₃ is the final decomposition product at 900 °C. The gaseous species evolved include CS₂, NH₃, H₂NCN, HNCS, which upon oxidation yield also COS, SO₂, HCN and CO₂.     

Photoactivated 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition for the rapid preparation of F labelled radiotracers

An ¹⁸F-labelled 2,5-diaryl tetrazole reagent has been prepared and reacted with substituted alkene dipolarophiles through a photoactivated 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction. The radiobioconjugation reaction furnished the desired product in 5 min with radiochemical conversions of 85-95% at room temperature. Remarkably, for the activated dipolarophiles, these results were obtained in highly dilute solutions (10-100 μM).