Iron/multiwalled carbon nanotube (Fe/MWCNT) hybrid materials characterization: thermogravimetric analysis as a powerful characterization technique

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - Nanomaterials and nanocomposites have gained relevance in science and technology due to their excellent properties. Therefore, the characterization of...     

A shooting method for a nonlinear beam equation

We study the existence of solutions for a nonlinear fourth-order ODE with nonlinear boundary condition that arises in beam theory. Using a shooting type argument, we prove the existence of at least one solution of the problem.     

Recovery of Banana Waste-Loss from Production and Processing: A Contribution to a Circular Economy

Banana is a fruit grown mainly in tropical countries of the world. After harvest, almost 60% of banana biomass is left as waste. Worldwide, about 114.08 million metric tons of banana waste-loss are produced, leading to environmental problems such as the excessive emission of greenhouse gases. These wastes contain a high content of paramount industrial importance, such as cellulose, hemicellulose and natural fibers that various processes can modify, such as bacterial fermentation and anaerobic degradation, to obtain bioplastics, organic fertilizers and biofuels such as ethanol, biogas, hydrogen and biodiesel. In addition, they can be used in wastewater treatment methods by producing low-cost biofilters and obtaining activated carbon from rachis and banana peel. Furthermore, nanometric fibers commonly used in nanotechnology applications and silver nanoparticles useful in therapeutic cancer treatments, can be produced from banana pseudostems. The review aims to demonstrate the contribution of the recovery of banana production waste-loss towards a circular economy that would boost the economy of Latin America and many other countries of emerging economies.     

Kernel spectral clustering with memory effect

Evolving graphs describe many natural phenomena changing over time, such as social relationships, trade markets, metabolic networks etc. In this framework, performing community detection and analyzing the cluster evolution represents a critical task. Here we propose a new model for this purpose, where the smoothness of the clustering results over time can be considered as a valid prior knowledge. It is based on a constrained optimization formulation typical of Least Squares Support Vector Machines (LS-SVM), where the objective function is designed to explicitly incorporate temporal smoothness. The latter allows the model to cluster the current data well and to be consistent with the recent history. We also propose new model selection criteria in order to carefully choose the hyper-parameters of our model, which is a crucial issue to achieve good performances. We successfully test the model on four toy problems and on a real world network. We also compare our model with Evolutionary Spectral Clustering, which is a state-of-the-art algorithm for community detection of evolving networks, illustrating that the kernel spectral clustering with memory effect can achieve better or equal performances.     

Thermoplastic Elastomers Based on Natural Rubber/Polypropylene Blends: Effect of Blend Ratios and Dynamic Vulcanization on Rheological,Thermal, Mechanical,and Morphological Properties

Thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) based on natural rubber (NR)/polypropylene (PP) with different blend ratios were prepared and studied. The TPEs were obtained by dynamic vulcanization of NR/PP using a sulfur (S)/N-tert-butyl-2-benzothiazolesulphenamide (TBBS) and tetramethylthiuram disulphide (TMTD) curative system during processing in the melt state in an internal mixer equipped with cam rotors. Rheological, thermal, mechanical, dynamic, and morphological properties of the TPEs prepared were investigated. Based on this study a mechanism for the NR crosslinking was proposed where the sulfur vulcanization occurs through radical substitution in the forms of polysulfide bridges. The dynamic vulcanization process increases the stiffness of the NR phase in the TPEs and modifies the rheological and thermal behavior of the system compared to the behavior of the basic material PP. The crosslinked NR particles restrict the spherulitic growth and the regular arrangement of the spherulites of PP phase, decreasing the crystallinity degree. On the other hand, a reduction of mobility of the chain segments was also observed and, consequently, an increase of the T_g values. NR/PP TPEs with high content of NR showed superior mechanical performance compared to the uncrosslinked NR/PP blends in terms of tensile strength, Young's modulus and hardness. An increase of approximately 320% in Young's modulus values was obtained for the NR70/PP30 TPE compared to NR70/PP30. Morphological studies revealed the formation of large aggregates of NR domains in NR/PP TPEs which increased in size with an increase of the rubber content.     

Experimental and numerical verification of bifurcations and chaos in cam-follower impacting systems

In this paper, we present the design, modelling and experimental validation of a novel experimental cam-follower rig for the analysis of bifurcations and chaos in piecewise-smooth dynamical systems with impacts. Experimental results are presented for a cam-follower system characterized by a radial cam and a flat-faced follower. Under variation of the cam rotational speed, the follower is observed to detach from the cam and then show the emergence of periodic impacting behaviour characterized by many impacts and chattering. Further variations of the cam speed cause the sudden transition to seemingly aperiodic behaviour. These results are compared with the numerical simulation of a mathematical model of the system which shows the same qualitative behaviour. Excellent quantitative agreement is found between the numerical and experimental results.     

High-Yield Synthesis of the Novel E,E-2,5-Dimethoxy-1,4-bis[2-(4-ethylcarboxylatestyril)]benzene by the Heck Reaction

The novel E,E-2,5-dimethoxy-1,4-bis[2-(4-ethylcarboxylatestyril)]benzene, 4, was obtained in good yield (92%), by the Heck cross-coupling reaction using Pd(dba)₂ and P(OPh)₃ like catalytic system. The high trans specificity of the product produced by the Heck reaction was confirmed by Fourier Transform–infrared and NMR. The methodology reported can be used as synthetic route for precursors to phenylenevinylene target systems with highly desired functional groups in their molecular structure, such as carboxylic, to build metal–organic frameworks and other applications within the supramolecular chemistry.

Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Synthetic Communications® to view the free supplemental file.     

Competitive One-Pot Reactions: Simultaneous Synthesis of Decahydroacridine-1,8-diones and 1,8-Dioxo-octahydroxanthenes and Photophysical Characterization

A simple and convenient one-pot method for simultaneously obtaining decahydroacridine-1,8-diones and 1,8-dioxo-octahydroxanthene derivatives is described. A high conversion yielding both products was obtained under the reaction conditions. To understand the optical behavior of the model compounds and their potential use as antenna moieties in bichromophoric systems, the photophysical properties of all samples were studied using ultraviolet–visible absorption and steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy in methanol solutions. For the case of the acridinediones, the fluorescence spectra were found to exhibit the typical emission profile of the locally excited state, whereas, contrary to previous published experimental results, reliable fluorescence emission spectra for the xanthenes derivatives could not be obtained. On the other hand, the poor quantum yields of the synthesized decahydroacridine-1,8-diones were explained based on the benzene-like substitution effect, which favors the intersystem crossing relaxation mechanism.

[Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Synthetic Communications® for the following free supplemental resource(s): Full experimental and spectral details.]