Fluoride removal from water by chitosan derivatives and composites: A review

Fluoride is an essential element, indispensable for maintenance of dental health. Nevertheless, fluoride concentrations in drinking water above 1.5 mg L⁻¹ may be detrimental to human health. Many methods have been developed for removing excessive fluoride from drinking water, adsorption seems to be an effective, environmentally friendly and economical one. Since the sorption capacity of fluoride below 2 mg L⁻¹ on most conventional adsorbents is not satisfactory, much effort has been devoted to develop new and cost-effective fluoride adsorbents. This review reports the recent developments in the F⁻ removal in water treatment, using chitosan derivatives and composites in order to provide useful information about the different technologies. When possibly the adsorption capacity of chitosan derivatives and composites under different experimental conditions is reported to help to compare the efficacy of the fluoride removal process. A comparison with the adsorption capacity of other low cost adsorbents is also tabled.     

Density functional theory study of the structure and energetics of negatively charged oligopyrroles

First‐principles calculations are used to investigate the electronic properties of negatively charged n‐pyrrole oligomers with n = 2–18. Chains of neutral oligomers are bent, whereas the negatively charged oligomers become almost planar due to accumulation of negative charge at the end monomers. Isomers of short oligomers (n < 6) display negative electron affinity although the corresponding anions are energetically stable. For longer oligomers with n ≥ 6, the electron affinity is small and positive, slowly increasing with oligopyrrole length. Doping of 12‐pyrrole with lithium atoms shows that negative oxidation states are possible due to electron transfer from dopant to oligomer at locations close to dopant. These 12‐pyrrole regions support extra negative charge and exhibit a local structural change from benzenoid to quinoid structure in the C? C backbone conjugation. Comparison between neutral and doped polypyrrole (PPy) indicates that doped polymers displays a substantial depletion of the band gap energy and the appearance of dopant‐based bands in the gap for a 50% per monomer doping level. It is predicted that Li‐doped PPy is not metallic. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2011     

面向应急对地观测任务的多平台资源部署优化研究

提出了一种基于遗传算法的面向应急对地观测任务的多平台资源部署优化方法。该方法通过把观测区域离散化为网格点的集合,将多平台资源部署问题形式化为一个组合优化问题,其目标是在一定响应时间约束下最大化观测区域覆盖率。设计的求解算法采用整数编码表示各平台资源的部署位置,使用精英保留策略加快算法收敛速度。仿真结果表明,该方法能够快速获得满意的卫星、飞艇、无人机多平台资源部署方案。     

坝前淤泥土与新填坝体接触面抗剪强度试验研究及工程应用

坝前淤泥面与新填筑坝体接触面是"坝前淤泥面加坝"技术的薄弱环节。为了探究不同工况下淤泥坝基、新填筑坝体,以及淤泥土-新填土接触面的剪切强度特性,以宁夏南部山区西吉县南川水库坝前淤泥面加坝工程为研究对象,通过常规应变式直剪仪、改进常规应变式直剪仪分别进行剪切试验,分析了淤泥土含水率和压实度变化时,淤泥土、新填土、淤泥土-新填土接触界面的抗剪强度、黏聚力、内摩擦角的变化规律。试验结果表明:新填土抗剪强度最大,不同工况下淤泥土-新填土接触界面的抗剪强度介于淤泥土和新填土的抗剪强度之间;淤泥土含水率在12%~16%之间存在最优含水率,超过该含水率后,淤泥土及淤泥土-新填土接触界面之间的抗剪强度均显著降低;当淤泥土含水率从8%增加至12%、16%时,黏聚力减小8%左右后迅速减小至22%,具有明显的阶段性,而淤泥土-新填土接触界面的黏聚力呈现先增加后减小的趋势;当含水率相同时,随着压实度的增加,淤泥土、淤泥土-新填土接触面的黏聚力、内摩擦角总体呈增大趋势。最后根据试验结果对"坝前淤泥面加坝"工法的工程应用提出了相关建议。     

X射线光谱在生命起源和全球气候变化等若干重大科学问题中的研究进展

生命起源、全球气候变化等是关系到人类未来命运的重大科学问题,X射线光谱（XRS）可原位测定物质组成与元素形态,在解决重大科学问题、揭示自然规律中发挥了重要作用：（1）在生命起源探索中,通过RNA结构和海洋热液自养体系元素形态分析,揭示了RNA形成机制和生物地球化学规律;（2）在地球早期生命研究中,通过沉积纹层、细胞组构测定,发现了远古生物保存机制与证据;（3）在全球碳循环研究中,通过物相与元素形态分析,揭示了铁源生物有效性与碳汇机制。利用XRS从微纳米尺度原位测定元素三维空间分布与形态,实现活体分析蛋白质信息传递与生物响应过程,探索元素与有机质构效关系,揭示生命起源与生物代谢机制及全球气候变化规律,是XRS未来发展中的重要领域;作为冶金、材料、地质、文物、工矿、生态、环境、医学与生命科学等领域中的重要分析手段,XRS所特有的无损、原位与活体分析特性,已呈现了巨大应用价值,在未来探索重大科学问题、解决关键技术难点的研究中,X射线光谱分析技术必将发挥更大作用。     

Improved techniques for the calculation of ab initio ion-neutral interaction potentials: application to coinage metal ions interacting with rare gas atoms

Ab initio values for the potential energy functions for ion–neutral interactions can be tested by comparison with gaseous ion transport coefficients, but only if special care is taken to compute the interaction potentials accurately over wide ranges of internuclear separation. This is illustrated here by a reanalysis of the ab initio values for the coinage metal ions interacting with rare gas atoms, precise calculations of the transport cross sections over extremely wide ranges of energy, and similarly precise calculations of the zero-field ion mobilities as functions of gas temperature and the field-dependent ion mobilities at various fixed temperatures. The calculations indicate that the mobilities for Ag⁺(¹S) moving in Ne or Ar can distinguish between the existing, very similar ab initio potentials. They also show that substantial differences exist among the mobilities of the coinage metal anions and the ground and excited states of the cations. The techniques implemented are recommended for future ab initio calculations.     

Flow Injection Kinetic Spectrophotometric Determination of Cerium Based on the Decolorization Reaction Between Arsenazo III and Cerium (IV)

ABSTRACT

Trace amounts of cerium were analyzed by flow injection kinetic spectrophotometry, based on the decolorization reaction between arsenazo III and Ce(IV) in sulfuric acid medium at room temperature. The absorbance difference (ΔA) of decolorization was linear with the concentration of Ce(IV). The flow injection technique was used to precisely control the timing. Under the optimum conditions, the determination of Ce(IV) in the range 0.0–8.0 µg mL^?1 with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9982, the regression equation was ΔA = 0.0014 + 0.0406c (µg mL^?1). The detection limit (3σ) of 0.2 µg mL^?1 was achieved at a sampling frequency of 60 h^?1. The proposed method was applied to the analyses of Ce in soil successfully.