Efficient and selective oxidation of hydrocarbons with tert-butyl hydroperoxide catalyzed by oxidovanadium(IV) unsymmetrical Schiff base complex supported on γ-Fe2O3 magnetic nanoparticles

The catalytic activity of an oxidovanadium(IV) unsymmetrical Schiff base complex supported on γ-Fe₂O₃ magnetic nanoparticles, γ-Fe₂O₃@[VO(salenac-OH)] in which salenac-OH?=?[9-(2′,4′-dihydroxyphenyl)-5,8-diaza-4-methylnona-2,4,8-trienato](-2), was explored in the oxidation of hydrocarbons with tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP, 70% aqueous solution) as oxidant. High catalytic activity and selectivity were demonstrated by this magnetic nanocatalyst in alkane hydroxylation and alkene epoxidation, and the corresponding products were obtained with good to excellent yields in acetonitrile at 50 °C. Reasonable catalytic activity was presented by this supported catalyst in the epoxidation of linear alkenes under optimal reaction conditions. In addition, alkylbenzene derivatives and cycloalkanes can be oxidized to their corresponding alcohols and ketones with good yields in this catalytic system. It is possible to magnetically separate the γ-Fe₂O₃@[VO(salenac-OH)] catalyst and reuse it four times without losing the activity significantly. Moreover, the catalyst structure and morphology do not change after recovery, as indicated by comparing scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and diffuse reflectance spectrum (DRS) of the recovered catalyst with those of the fresh catalyst.

     

Gold Spherical and Flake Assemblies Fabrication Through Calcination of Gold Nanoparticles Incorporated Poly(acrylonitrile) Nanofibers

Journal of Cluster Science - This work reports on the outcome of the calcination of gold nanoparticles incorporated polyacrylonitrile nanofibers in air which results in the formation of gold...     

A renewable approach to capture CO2 in Iran: thermodynamic and exergy analyses

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - This work presents numerical simulation of two-dimensional thermogravitational energy transport in a chamber filled with copper–water ( $${\hbox...     

Light reflection from finite conductors with a Gaussian random roughness using Kirchhoff and geometric optics approximations

A comparison between exact solutions and two approximate models, Kirchhoff approximation (KA) and geometric optics approximation (GOA), for reflection from random Gaussian rough conductive metallic surfaces for three regimes of correlation length in both cases of polarization TM and TE has been reported. The phenomenon of excitation of surface plasmons (SPs) has been shown only at TM polarization for KA. The domains of validity of both approximate models have been quantified. It is shown that accuracy and efficiency of any approximate method depended of various parameters: surface roughness, polarization, SPs effects, wavelength, and surface materials. KA is efficient for weakly rough surfaces with correlation length greater than wavelength, but when rms height increases GOA is more suitable than KA. Excitation of SPs is observed only at TM-polarized light, only for weakly rough surfaces with correlation length less than wavelength using KA and not GOA.     

CompassR Yields Highly Organic-Solvent-Tolerant Enzymes through Recombination of Compatible Substitutions

The CompassR (computer-assisted recombination) rule enables, among beneficial substitutions, the identification of those that can be recombined in directed evolution. Herein, a recombination strategy is systematically investigated to minimize experimental efforts and maximize possible improvements. In total, 15 beneficial substitutions from Bacillus subtilis lipase A (BSLA), which improves resistance to the organic cosolvent 1,4-dioxane (DOX), were studied to compare two recombination strategies, the two-gene recombination process (2GenReP) and the in silico guided recombination process (InSiReP), employing CompassR. Remarkably, both strategies yielded a highly DOX-resistant variant, M4 (I12R/Y49R/E65H/N98R/K122E/L124K), with up to 14.6-fold improvement after screening of about 270 clones. M4 has a remarkably enhanced resistance in 60 % (v/v) acetone (6.0-fold), 30 % (v/v) ethanol (2.1-fold), and 60 % (v/v) methanol (2.4-fold) compared with wild-type BSLA. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed that attracting water molecules by charged surface substitutions is the main driver for increasing the DOX resistance of BSLA M4. Both strategies and obtained molecular knowledge can likely be used to improve the properties of other enzymes with a similar α/β-hydrolase fold.     

Octadecylamine as chemical modifier for tuned hydrophobicity of surface modified cellulose: toward organophilic cellulose nanocrystals

Cellulose - A novel, environmentally friendly and simple method for chemical functionalization of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) to produce organophilic cellulose nanocrystals (CNC-ODA) is herein...     

An efficient meshfree point collocation moving least squares method to solve the interface problems with nonhomogeneous jump conditions

We are going to study a simple and effective method for the numerical solution of the closed interface boundary value problem with both discontinuities in the solution and its derivatives. It uses a strong‐form meshfree method based on the moving least squares (MLS) approximation. In this method, for the solution of elliptic equation, the second‐order derivatives of the shape functions are needed in constructing the global stiffness matrix. It is well‐known that the calculation of full derivatives of the MLS approximation, especially in high dimensions, is quite costly. In the current work, we apply the diffuse derivatives using an efficient technique. In this technique, we calculate the higher‐order derivatives using the approximation of lower‐order derivatives, instead of calculating directly derivatives. This technique can improve the accuracy of meshfree point collocation method for interface problems with nonhomogeneous jump conditions and can efficiently estimate diffuse derivatives of second‐ and higher‐orders using only linear basis functions. To introduce the appropriate discontinuous shape functions in the vicinity of interface, we choose the visibility criterion method that modifies the support of weight function in MLS approximation and leads to an efficient computational procedure for the solution of closed interface problems. The proposed method is applied for elliptic and biharmonic interface problems. For the biharmonic equation, we use a mixed scheme, which replaces this equation by a coupled elliptic system. Also the application of the present method to elasticity equation with discontinuities in the coefficients across a closed interface has been provided. Representative numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed methodology for the closed interface problems. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 31: 1031–1053, 2015     

A Novel Naphthalene-Immobilized Nanoporous SBA-15 as a Highly Selective Optical Sensor for Detection of Fe<Superscript>3+</Superscript> in Water

A novel organic-inorganic hybrid optical sensor (SBA-NCO) was designed and synthesized through immobilization of isocyanatopropyl-triethoxysilane and 1-amino-naphthalene onto the surface of SBA-15 by post-grafting method. The characterization of materials using XRD, TEM, N₂ adsorption-desorption, and FT-IR techniques confirmed the successful attachment of organic moieties and preserving original structure of SBA-15 after modification step. Fluorescence experiments demonstrated that SBA-NCO was a highly selective optical sensor for the detection of Fe³⁺ directly in water over a wide range of metal cations including Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Al³⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Cr³⁺, Mn²⁺, Fe²⁺, Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cd²⁺, Hg²⁺, and Pb²⁺ in a wide pH values.     

Electropolymerized coatings of poly(o‐anisidine) and poly(o‐anisidine)‐TiO2 nanocomposite on aluminum alloy 3004 by using the galvanostatic method and their corrosion protection performance

Poly(o‐anisidine) (POA) and poly(o‐anisidine)‐TiO₂ (POA‐TiO₂) nanocomposite coatings on aluminum alloy 3004 (AA3004) have been investigated by using the galvanostatic method. The electrosynthesized coatings were characterized by FT ‐ IR spectroscopy, XRD, SEM ‐ EDX and SEM. The corrosion protection performance of POA and POA‐TiO₂ nanocomposite coatings was investigated in the 3.5% NaCl solution by using potentiodynamic polarization technique and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results show that the corrosion rate of the nanocomposite coatings is about 900 times lower than the bare AA3004 under optimal conditions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Preparation of ethylene/α-olefins copolymers using (2-RInd)2ZrCl2/MCM-41 (R:Ph,H) catalyst,microstructural study

(2-RInd)₂ZrCl₂ (R:Ph,H) catalyst was supported on MCM-41 and ethylene copolymerization behavior as well as microstructure of copolymers were studied. A steady rate–time profile behavior was observed for homo and copolymerization of ethylene using supported catalysts. It was noticed that increasing the comonomer content can result in lower physical properties. The obtained results indicated that (2-PhInd)₂ZrCl₂/MCM-41 had higher ability of comonomer incorporation than the non-substituted supported catalysts. The CCC, CCE, and ECC (C: comonomer, E: ethylene) triad sequence distribution in backbone of copolymers were negligible, that means no evidence could be detected for comonomer blocks. The polymer characterization revealed that utilizing 1-octene instead of 1-hexene as the comonomer leads to more heterogeneous distribution of chemical composition. The heterogeneity of the chemical composition distribution and the physical properties were influenced by the type of comonomer and catalyst. (2-PhInd)₂ZrCl₂/MCM-41 produced copolymers containing narrower distribution of lamellae (0.3–1 nm) than the copolymer produce using Ind₂ZrCl₂/MCM-41 (0.3–1.6 nm).