The Coagulation Impact of 50% Epoxidised Natural Rubber Chain in Ethylene Carbonate-Plasticized Solid Electrolytes

In this research, thin, soft and flexible free standing films can be obtained from poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/50% epoxidised natural rubber (ENR 50)/lithium triflate (LiCF₃SO₃) blends. However, phase separation is observed on the surface of the films which indicates that the blending is not homogeneous. The blend became more homogeneous when ethylene carbonate (EC) plasticizer is introduced into the blend system. However, the anti-plasticization effect of EC on ENR 50 occurs at lower concentration of EC at which the rubber became coagulated due to immiscibility of the rubber with EC plasticizer during solution casting. These ENR 50 coagulates can be observed as large solid structures in the Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) micrographs of the EC-plasticized rubber-based electrolytes. The presence of these coagulates, hinder the migration of lithium ions in the system and also trap the lithium ions within the coil. This in turn reduced the number of free lithium ions that contribute to the ionic conduction. As a result, the conductivity of the un-plasticized PMMA/ENR 50/LiCF₃SO₃ film dropped drastically by two orders of magnitude.     

Enhancing the Decolorization of Methylene Blue Using a Low-Cost Super-Absorbent Aided by Response Surface Methodology

The presence of organic dyes from industrial wastewater can cause pollution and exacerbate environmental problems; therefore, in the present work, activated carbon was synthesized from locally available oil palm trunk (OPT) biomass as a low-cost adsorbent to remove synthetic dye from aqueous media. The physical properties of the synthesized oil palm trunk activated carbon (OPTAC) were analyzed by SEM, FTIR-ATR, and XRD. The concurrent effects of the process variables (adsorbent dosage (g), methylene blue (MB) concentration (mg/L), and contact time (h)) on the MB removal percentage from aqueous solution were studied using a three-factor three-level Box–Behnken design (BBD) of response surface methodology (RSM), followed by the optimization of MB adsorption using OPTAC as the adsorbent. Based on the results of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) for the three parameters considered, adsorbent dosage (X₁) is the most crucial parameter, with an F-value of 1857.43, followed by MB concentration (X₂) and contact time (X₃) with the F-values of 95.60 and 29.48, respectively. Furthermore, the highest MB removal efficiency of 97.9% was achieved at the optimum X₁, X₂, and X₃ of 1.5 g, 200 mg/L, and 2 h, respectively.     

Water soluble crown ethers: selective masking agents for improving extraction-separation of zinc and lead cations

The presence of crown ethers 12C4, 15C5 and 18C6 (CE) in aqueous phase influences extraction-separation of zinc and lead ions (M²⁺) by acidic extractant bis(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (DEHPA) in cyclohexane. In fact, higher complexing ability of the crown ethers towards lead ions causes a greater shift toward higher pH region of the extraction curves versus aqueous phase pH, and consequently an enhancement in the extraction selectivity. The order of extraction selectivity in the presence of the crown ethers varies as 18C6 > 15C5 > 12C4. The analysis of extraction data allows evaluating the stability constants of [M?CE]²⁺ complexes in the aqueous phase. It is demonstrated that the influence of aqueous crown ethers on the extraction process is deeply affected by the organic diluent used. The influence of temperature on the extraction process was studied in the range 286–302 K. This study lets estimating the thermodynamic parameters, i.e., free-energy (ΔGº), enthalpy (ΔΗº), and entropy (ΔSº) changes associated with the extraction process as well as the complexation of cations by the crown ethers in water.     

Application of Heteropolyacids as Heterogeneous and Recyclable Catalysts for One-Pot Synthesis of 3-Cyanopyridine Derivatives

A simple, clean and environmentally benign route to the synthesis of 3-cyanopyridines is described via a one-pot multi-component reaction of 3,4-dimethoxyacetophenone, malonitrile or ethylcyanoacetate, aldehyde and ammonium acetate using heteropolyacids as heterogeneous and recyclable catalysts in very good yields.     

Preparation of highly selective solid-phase extractants for Cibacron reactive dyes using molecularly imprinted polymers

Selective polymeric extractants were prepared for preconcentration of Cibacron reactive red dye, a dye that is often applied with Cibacron reactive blue and Cibacron reactive yellow for dyeing of fabrics. The best extractant was fabricated (in chloroform) using methacrylic acid (as monomer), ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (as crosslinker), AIBN (as initiator for polymerization), and red dye as template molecule, with a molar stoichiometric ratio of 8.0:40.0:2.5:0.63, respectively. The structure of the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was robust, and resisted dissolution up to 260 °C. Compared with the un-imprinted polymer, the imprinted product has a large specific surface area which improved its adsorption capacity. The effect of imprinting was obvious from the adsorption capacity measured at pH 4 for red dye (the imprinted molecule), which was increased from 24.0 to 79.3 mg g⁻¹ after imprinting. Equilibrium adsorption studies revealed that the dye-imprinted-polymer enables efficient extraction of red dye even in the presence of blue and yellow dyes which have similar chemical natures to the red dye. The selectivity coefficients S _{red dye/dye}, were 13.9 and 17.1 relative to the yellow and blue dyes, respectively. The MIP was found to be effective for red dye preconcentration, with a preconcentration factor of 100, from tap water and treated textile wastewater. The factors affecting extraction of red dye by the MIP were studied and optimized. Under the optimized extraction conditions, red dye was selectively quantified in the presence of other competing dyes at a concentration of 20 μg L⁻¹ from different water systems with satisfactory recoveries (91–95%) and RSD values (∼5.0%).     

Semilinear fractional integro-differential equations with compact semigroup

In this paper, we study the local and global existence of mild solutions to a class of fractional integro-differential equations in an arbitrary Banach space associated with operators generating compact semigroup on the Banach space.     

Effect of the rotation,magnetic field and initial stress on peristaltic motion of micropolar fluid

In this work, the effect of magnetic field, rotation and initial stress on peristaltic motion of micropolar fluid in a circular cylindrical flexible tube with viscoelastic or elastic wall properties has been considered. Runge–Kutta technique are used. Runge–Kutta method is developed to solve the governing equations of motion resulting from a perturbation technique for small values of amplitude ratio. The time mean axial velocity profiles are presented for the case of free pumping and analyzed to observe the influence of wall properties, magnetic field, rotation and initial stress for various values of micropolar fluid parameters. In the case of viscoelastic wall, the effect of viscous damping on mean flow reversal at the boundary is seen. The numerical results of the time mean velocity profile are discussed in detail for homogeneous fluid under the effect of wall properties, magnetic field, initial stress and rotation for different cases by figures. The results indicate that the effect of wall properties, rotation, initial stress and magnetic field are very pronounced. Numerical results are given and illustrated graphically.     

Synthesis and Characterization of a Fluorescent Water-Borne Polyurethane Based on a Novel Naphthalimide Dye

A waterborne-polyurethane (WPU) dye, based on the fluorescent dye 4-diamino propane-N-allyl-1,8- naphthalimide (WPU-DAN), was synthesized by attaching 4-diamino propane-N-allyl-1,8- naphthalimide (DAN) onto both ends of the polyurethane (PU) chains according to a prepolymer?ionomer process. The synthetic process was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-visible absorption. The glass transition temperature, molecular weight and average particle sizes were measured. The glass transition temperatures of WPU and WPU-DAN were 46.6 and 49.8°C, respectively. In addition, the particle size distributions of WPU-DAN and WPU were 140 and 134 nm, respectively. The thermal behaviour of WPU-DAN showed improvement compared to WPU. The fluorescence intensity of WPU-DAN was enhanced more than DAN due to the naphthalimide groups attached to the chains, and the fluorescence intensity of WPU-DAN and DAN were increased by increasing temperature. Moreover, the fluorescence intensity of WPU-DAN emulsion was stable during 30 days and no loss of fluorescence intensity occurred for these days.     

Bioassay‐guided Isolation and Antioxidant Activity of Sulfur‐containing Compounds from Clinacanthus nutans

Clinacanthus nutans has been used in traditional herbal medicine for cancer prevention, but the specific bioactive compounds responsible for the observed activities have not been explored. Different polar solvents such as methanol, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and hexane were used for the extraction. The extracts, fractions, and isolated compounds were subjected to DPPH and ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) assays. Methanol extracts show significant free‐radical scavenging activity of 69.09% in DPPH and 56.49% FRAP. Purification of MeOH extracts afforded the fraction FB28 and two new sulfur‐containing compounds, named clinamide D and E ( 1 , 2 ). Compound ( 1 ) proved to be more active with an IC₅₀ value for DPPH radical scavenging of 118.27 ± 0.01 µg/mL and reduction of Fe³⁺–TPTZ complex of 386.24 ± 0.02, higher than that of the standard ascorbic acid. Sulfur‐containing compounds isolated from C. nutans is a potential natural antioxidant.     

Thermodynamic properties and the approximate solutions of the Schrödinger equation with the shifted Deng–Fan potential model

With the introduction of a new improved approximation scheme (Pekeris-type approximation) to deal with the centrifugal term, the energy eigenvalues and the wave functions of the Schrödinger equation of the shifted Deng–Fan molecular potential are obtained, via the asymptotic iteration method. Rotational–vibrational energy eigenvalues of some diatomic molecules are presented, these results are in good agreement with other results in the literature. For these selected diatomic molecules, energy eigenvalues obtained are in much better agreement with the results obtained from the rotating Morse potential model for moderate values of rotational and vibrational quantum numbers. Furthermore, thermodynamic properties such as the vibrational mean U, specific heat C, free energy F and entropy S for the pure vibrational state in the classical limit for these energy eigenvalues are studied.