Rapid,efficient and selective reduction of aromatic nitro compounds with hydrazine hydrate in the presence of the plain and supported platinum nanoparticles as catalysts

The current study aimed at application of the plain and supported platinum nanoparticles as a heterogenous catalyst for the reduction of aromatic nitro compounds. Monodispersed platinum nanoparticles were synthesized by reduction of H₂PtCl₆ by ethanol in the presence of polyvinyl pyrrolidone as a stabilizer, and then were immobilized on four types of zeolites. The obtained catalyst granules were characterized by X-ray diffractometry and transmission electron microscopy. The study then focused on elaboration of the catalytic activity of the nano catalysts under different operational conditions. It was found that reaction is adequately rapid at ambient temperature, and by utilizing a sufficient amount of catalyst, can be completed in nearly 30 min. Among the utilized zeolitic supports, zeolite 4A had the highest performance, but the mechanism of its synergetic effect on the activity of platinum nano catalyst was not found and requires more investigation.     

Ab initio study of Pd-decorated single-walled carbon nanotube with C-vacancy as CO sensor

In this paper, the adsorption of CO onto Pd-decorated (5,5) single-walled carbon nanotube (Pd/SWCNT) and Pd-doped (5,5) single-walled carbon nanotube (Pd/SWCNT-V) has been investigated using ab initio studies. The larger binding energies and charges transfer show that the adsorption of CO onto Pd/SWCNT is more stable than that of CO onto Pd/SWCNT-V. The Pd/SWCNT can be utilized as good sensors for CO molecules due to strong binding energy and large electron charge transfer between the Pd/SWCNT and this molecule. Furthermore, the topological properties of the electron density distributions for intramolecular interactions have been analyzed in terms of the Bader theory of atoms in molecules. Finally, the natural population analysis method has been used to evaluate the Pd–C and Pd/CO interactions.     

Application of Rosin–Rammler model for analysis of CSD in sugar crystallization

Crystal‐size distribution (CSD) is one of the most important parameters in sugar production. The objective is to grow crystals of uniform sizes or narrow CSD. CSD appears to be determined by the growth‐rate history of the crystals and the relative supersaturation (SS) of the solution from which crystals growth takes place. Three methods for preparation of nucleation seeds were described and used for industrial crystallization of raw and white sugars; these are wet milling filtered sugar (ML), agitating saturated solution (AS) and powdered sugars (PD). Rosin–Rammler (RR) and mathematical models were adopted to investigate CSD and the uniformity of the produced crystals. Higher uniformity coefficients were reported for the AS seeded crystals than the other two seeding methods. Furthermore, higher crystal contents were obtained for the AS seeded white sugar batches in comparison.     

Quenching effect of deferoxamine on free radical-mediated photon production in luminol and ortho-phenanthroline-dependent chemiluminescence

Removing excessive free radicals （FRs） by a synthetic chemical might give a clue for treatment of many iron-mediated diseases. Deferoxamine （DFO） can be one of the chemicals of choice for the clue. To investigate photoredox properties of DFO, its quenching effect on superoxide radical （O2°）, hydrogen peroxide （H202） and hydroxyl radical （OH~） was examined using luminol and ortho-phenanthroline （o- phen） chemiluminescence （CL） systems and UV-vis spectrophotometry. Stern-Volmer equation was also used for the CL kinetics. The observed quenching effect of DFO on CL]photon production in luminol and o-phen CL systems strongly confirmed the static arm of quenching properties of DFO on OH° and H2O2, but much less pronounced on O2^-°; the quenching property was maximal when iron was involved in the reaction systems. The Stern-Volmer plots in the designed photochemical reaction systems also confirmed a potent quenching effect of DFO on FR-mediated CL. Our study highlights strong photoreducing and antioxidant properties of DFO with huge quenching capacity on excessive FRs, and thus implies its promising prospects for therapeutic applications.     

Determination of cyanide using a chemiluminescence system composed of permanganate,rhodamine B,and gold nanoparticles

We describe a new chemiluminescence (CL) system based on the oxidation of rhodamine B (RhoB) with alkaline potassium permanganate in the presence of gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) and anionic detergent sodium dodecyl sulfate. Free RhoB is weakly chemiluminescent when oxidized with permanganate at alkaline pH values. However, a remarkably strong enhancement of CL is observed in the presence of Au-NPs, probably due to a strong interaction between RhoB and the NPs. The possible mechanism was studied via recording the CL emission. It is also found that the intensity of CL gradually decreases in the presence of cyanide due to its interaction with the Au-NPs. The relation between the decreased CL intensity and cyanide concentration was exploited to develop a method for the determination of cyanide in the 0.01–0.5 μM concentration range, with a detection limit of 2.8 nM. The method was used to determine cyanide in spiked water, urine, and serum. Figure

Alkaline permanganate-rhodamine B-SDS CL reaction is dramatically enhanced by gold nanoparticles. Based on the inhibiting effect of cyanide on this system, a sensitive CL method was developed for its determination     

Microencapsulation of Calcium Using Water-in-Oil-in-Water Double Emulsion Method

Calcium in the form of tricalcium phosphate was encapsulated in the inner water phase of water-in-oil-in-water emulsion. Efficiency and payload of microcapsules were optimized using a D-optimal mixture design with four components (gelatin, agar, primary water-in-oil emulsion, and water in outer phase). Release profiles of calcium from microcapsules were determined at 4°C over 12 days. It was found that microencapsulation efficiency increased by increasing of water-in-oil emulsion to 45% and then decreased at higher contents of this portion. However, payload increased continuously with increase of water-in-oil fraction. Less calcium was released when both biopolymers and water-in-oil emulsion contents were increased.     

Mercury(II) complexes of new bidentate phosphorus ylides: synthesis,spectra and crystal structures

The reaction of dppm (1,1-bis(diphenylphosphino)methane) with 2-bromo-4-phenylacetophenone and benzyl bromoacetate in chloroform produces new phosphonium salts, [Ph₂PCH₂PPh₂CH₂C(O) C₆H₄Ph]Br (I) and [Ph₂PCH₂PPh₂CH₂COOCH₂Ph]Br (II). By allowing the phosphonium salts to react with the appropriate base, the bidentate phosphorus ylides, Ph₂PCH₂PPh₂=C(H)C(O)C₆H₄Ph (III) and Ph₂PCH₂PPh₂=C(H)C(O)OCH₂Ph (IV), were obtained. The reaction of these ligands with mercury(II) halides in dry methanol led to the formation of the mononuclear complexes {HgX₂[(Ph₂PCH₂PPh₂C(H)C(O)C₆H₄Ph)]} (X = Cl (V); X = Br (VI); X = I (VII)) and {HgX₂[(Ph₂PCH₂PPh₂C(H)COOCH₂Ph)]} (X = Cl (VIII); X = Br (IX); X = I (X)). The FTIR and ¹H, ³¹P and ¹³C NMR spectra were studied. The structure of compound III was unequivocally determined by the single-crystal X-ray diffraction technique. Single-crystal X-ray analysis of the {HgBr₂[(Ph₂PCH₂PPh₂C(H)C(O)C₆H₄Me)]} complex (XI) revealed the presence of a mononuclear complex containing the Hg atom in a distorted tetrahedral environment. In all complexes, the ylides referred to above were coordinated through the ylidic carbon and the phosphine atom.     

Finite-time synchronization control for a class of perturbed nonlinear systems with fixed convergence time and hysteresis quantizer: applied to Genesio–Tesi chaotic system

In the present article, a terminal sliding mode control strategy has been proposed in order to address the synchronization problem for a class of perturbed nonlinear systems with fixed convergence time and input quantization. The proposed protocol guarantees the fixed-time convergence of the sliding manifold to the origin, which means that the convergence time of the proposed sliding manifold does not change on the variations of initial values, different from typical control methods. Here, the hysteresis quantizer, as a specific type of quantizer with nonlinear sector-bounded, is applied in order to quantize the input signal. The proposed quantized control scheme vigorously prevents the potential adverse chattering phenomenon which is experienced in the common quantization methods. The proposed controller does not need the limiting criteria related to considered parameters of quantization compared to recent control approaches. Finally, the designed controller is implemented on the perturbed Genesio–Tesi (G–T) chaotic systems to verify effectiveness and strength of the proposed method.

     

Catalyst-free synthesis of functionalized dihydro-2-oxypyrroles by the reaction of enaminones and N,N′-bis(phenylmethylidene)phenylmethane

A catalyst-free and convenient approach for the preparation of substituted dihydro-2-oxypyrrole is described. This three-component reaction between primary amines, dialkyl acetylenedicarboxylate, and N,N′-bis(phenylmethylidene)phenylmethane proceeds in MeOH under reflux conditions in good to excellent yields.     

Ni ion-containing immobilized ionic liquid on magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles: An effective catalyst for the Heck reaction

In this work, we synthesized Ni²⁺-containing 1-methyl-3-(3-trimethoxysilylpropyl) imidazolium chloride ionic liquid on magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The catalytic activity of these novel nanocomposites was finally evaluated for the Heck reaction at 100 °C, and can be reused after washing without loss in activity. The immobilized ionic liquid catalysts proved to be effective and easily separated from the reaction media by applying an external magnetic field. This procedure has many obvious advantages compared to those reported in the previous literature, including avoidance of the use of the expensive Pd catalysts, mild reaction conditions, high yields, and simplicity of the methodology.