Attapulgite grafted with polystyrene via a simultaneous reverse and normal initiation atom transfer radical polymerization

The surface grafting of attapulgite (ATP) with polystyrene (PS) was established via a simultaneous reverse and normal initiation atom transfer radical polymerization (SR&NIATRP). 4‐(chloromethyl)phenyltrimethoxysilane (CMPTMS) chemical bounded on the surface of ATP (ATP‐Cl, Cl‐I) was prepared via one‐step self‐assembly. SR&NI ATRP of styrene was conducted using CuCl₂ complex tris(2‐(dimethylamino)ethyl)amine (Me₆‐TREN) as the catalytic system, initiated by 2,2‐azobis(isobutyronitrile) (AIBN) and ATP‐Cl. FT‐IR, XRD, XPS, TGA and TEM data were consistent with the grafting of benzyl chloride groups and PS chains on ATP surface. The controllability of polymerization was investigated by the kinetics behavior under different molar ratio of AIBN and CuCl₂. The obtained polymer possessed a uniform distribution of molecular weights with a lower polydispersity index of 1.2～1.4. The relationship between polymerization on the surface of ATP and in solution was discussed in detail based on TGA data of hybrid particles and GPC trace of free polymer in solution. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016 , 54, 1508–1516     

Micro-composites based on polylactic acid with kaolinite or rice husk particles and their performance on water vapor permeability

In this work, the effect of addition of kaolinite and rice husk microparticles on the water vapor permeability of polylactic acid (PLA) was evaluated. The PLA-composites materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and optical microscopy. For the composite preparation, an experimental design was established using two factors: additive type and concentration. When evaluating the water vapor permeability of the composites, it was found that the incorporation of kaolinite at 1% and 5% reduced the permeability coefficient of PLA. Furthermore, the inclusion of 5% kaolinite showed an increase on the tensile strength of the material. By contrast, the addition of rice husk produced an increase on water vapor permeability of the material and a decrease of both the tensile strength and ductility (percent of elongation at fracture). The higher dispersion and more regular morphology of the kaolinite particles could explain the enhancement of the gas barrier. A similar thermal behavior was observed for both PLA and composite materials, confirming that no damage of these properties was caused with the incorporation of the filler particles.     

An acid-free Pictet–Spengler reaction using deep eutectic solvents (DES)

Deep eutectic solvents (such as the combination of either urea or glycerol with choline chloride) are effective solvents/organocatalysts for Pictet–Spengler condensations to form carbolines. The reaction conditions are quite mild and do not require additional Bronsted or Lewis acid catalyst. Given the inexpensive, non-toxic, and recyclable nature of the DES, these reaction conditions are simple and highly environmentally friendly.     

Confinement and controlled release of quinine on chitosan–montmorillonite bionanocomposites

To accomplish the controlled‐release systems based on layered clay minerals, one of the best ways is to intercalate organic molecules into the interlayer gallery of clay minerals. Into a series of chitosan (CS) intercalated montmorillonite (MMT) nanocomposites, prepared via ion‐exchange route, antimalarial drug [quinine (QUI)] was loaded to act as effective drug delivery systems. Among the CS–MMT nanocomposites, higher drug adsorption with decreasing CS concentration was observed. CS–MMT and CS–MMT/QUI intercalated compounds were characterized by powder X‐ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermal analysis. The synthesized nanocomposites, filled in the gelatin capsules followed by coating of Eudragit® L 100, were tested for in vitro drug release performance in the sequential buffer environments at 37 ± 0.5 °C. As no drug release (0%) was observed in the gastric fluid, the coating of Eudragit® L 100 to the capsules is highly adequate. However, the drug release rate was comparatively faster from the CS intercalated clay with compare with pure clay. The drug release kinetic data revealed that the release of QUI from the nanocomposites can be explained by modified Freundlich model. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011     

ABLE: Attention based learning for enzyme classification

Classifying proteins into their respective enzyme class is an interesting question for researchers for a variety of reasons. The open source Protein Data Bank (PDB) contains more than 1,60,000 structures, with more being added everyday. This paper proposes an attention-based bidirectional-LSTM model (ABLE) trained on over sampled data generated by SMOTE to analyse and classify a protein into one of the six enzyme classes or a negative class using only the primary structure of the protein described as a string by the FASTA sequence as an input. We achieve the highest F1-score of 0.834 using our proposed model on a dataset of proteins from the PDB. We baseline our model against eighteen other machine learning and deep learning networks, including CNN, LSTM, Bi-LSTM, GRU, and the state-of-the-art DeepEC model. We conduct experiments with two different oversampling techniques, SMOTE and ADASYN. To corroborate the obtained results, we perform extensive experimentation and statistical testing.     

温度对低共熔溶剂影响的二维拉曼光谱研究

低共熔溶剂（DES）作为一种新式的绿色溶剂，在多种化学过程中表现出色，因此在诸多热门范畴都展现出良好的发展潜力。对DES的光谱分析通常局限在一维光谱技术上，但其分辨率低、谱峰重叠严重等缺点，导致光谱数据存在误差。运用二维拉曼光谱（2D Raman），能够明显提高光谱分辨率，并发现重叠峰位置，获得在外扰条件下不同谱峰的变化顺序及其相互作用等重要信息，以实现对复杂体系的精确分析。以氯化胆碱（ChCl）和ZnCl₂合成的DES为例，利用显微共焦激光拉曼光谱仪分别对ChCl和DES进行拉曼实验，发现与ChCl相比，DES中各处峰的整体强度显著下降，原有的谱峰未消失，说明Zn2+的加入没有破坏ChCl的骨架结构。287 cm-1处出现一个新的特征峰，推测有Zn-Cl配位键的伸缩振动。对DES进行升温拉曼实验，发现随着温度的升高，NC₄的不对称伸缩振动峰强度逐渐减小，峰宽变大，峰形变缓，Zn-Cl配位键伸缩振动峰强度逐渐降低，峰位置基本不变，峰形有明显重叠。运用2D Raman技术对溶液内NC₄和Zn-Cl特征峰的变化进行研究，结果表明，随着温度的升高，溶液中发生ChCl向Ch+的解离过程，Zn2+与Cl-形成了多种配合物，ZnCl-₃，Zn₂Cl-₅，Zn₃Cl-₇之间存在相互转化。不同位置的特征峰随温度的变化顺序不同，将特征峰与团簇进行一一归属，得出了各个团簇对温度的敏感程度。基于量子化学中的密度泛函理论，对推测的物质结构进行构型优化和参数计算，证实了其存在的可能性，同时也验证了2D Raman的分析结果准确可行。这些结果将为DES的后续研究提供理论参考，拓展了二维光谱技术的应用范围。     

Nano-liquid chromatography combined with a sustainable microextraction based on natural deep eutectic solvents for analysis of phthalate esters

The separation of 11 phthalic acid ester (PAEs) was carried out by nano-liquid chromatography coupled to ultraviolet and MS detection. Preliminary experiments were achieved in order to select suitable stationary phases and chromatographic conditions. The baseline separation was obtained, for all compounds, with an XBridge^TM C₁₈ column in less than 15 min, working in step gradient mode. The sensitivity of the method was improved by on-column focusing. PAEs were extracted from alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages using vortex-assisted emulsification dispersive liquid–liquid microextration and natural deep eutectic solvents. The whole method was validated in terms of linearity, sensitivity, precision, recovery, and repeatability. Combination of both off-line sample preparation preconcentration and large injection volume led to obtain LOQs in the range 5–47 ng/mL. The developed nano-LC-UV method was extended to MS detection to confirm the presence of PAEs in some beverages commercialized in different types of packaging.     

Dephosphatation under UV light of water by Ti-PILC with activation by secondary species (La,Se, and Rb)

Me/Ti-PILC catalysts (Me: La, Se, Rb) were prepared with 60% in weight of Ti-species and 3% in weight of Me-secondary species added under ultrasounds. All materials were characterized by XRF, XPS, XRD, BET, HR-TEM/EDS, FEG-SEM and UV-vis. Three kinds of Ti-oxide nanoparticles were identified: (1) Ti-pillars within the clay layers, (2) rutile nanoflowers, and (3) anatase. In UV-vis spectra, no significant change in the band-gap was observed. In La and Se samples, small variations of the anatase XRD lines are associated with cationic diffusion after deposition of secondary species and calcination. An O1s XPS-peak (533.5 eV) is attributed to oxygen vacancies generated by this diffusion. Phosphate photo-removal in water was studied using phosphoric acid solution (75.97 g L⁻¹). Dephosphatation is significantly improved in the presence of Me-species as La/Ti-PILC > Se/Ti-PILC > Rb/Ti-PILC > Ti-PILC. Partial dephosphatation by adsorption is possible in the dark but is strongly improved by UV irradiation. With a La catalyst and under UV irradiation, phosphates (6.6 × 10⁻³ mol L⁻¹) were recovered in less than 70 min. Therefore, Me/Ti-PILC have a great potential as photocatalysts for the treatment of wastewaters and the recovery of phosphates.     

Photoluminescence and electric spectroscopy of dislocation-induced electronic levels in semi-insulated CdTe and CdZnTe

We studied deformation-induced defects in semi-insulating CdTe and CdZnTe by infrared photoluminescence (PL), contact less photoconductivity and resistivity. Plastic deformation increased the concentrations of grown-in defects, namely, those of an important midgap level E_C−0.74 eV in CdTe and Cd_1−xZn_xTe (x<0.1), the materials of choice in today’s X-ray and gamma ray detector technology. We confirmed the direct correlation between Y-emission and the dislocation density in both compounds. The Y-band intensified near an indenter deformation or near a scribing line, but was barely visible in low-dislocation areas (etch pit density <2×10⁵ cm⁻²). Our results correlate with recent findings that dislocation-induced defects and their clusters degrade charge collection in radiation detectors. Photoluminescence of midgap levels can serve as a tool to identify areas of degraded performance in semi insulated CdTe and CdZnTe crystals for radiation detectors.