Finely dispersed palladium on silk‐fibroin as an efficient and ligand‐free catalyst for Heck cross‐coupling reaction

A palladium–fibroin complex (Pd/Fib.) was prepared by the addition of sonicated fibroin fiber in water to palladium acetate solution. Pd (OAc)₂ was absorbed by fibroin and reduced with NaBH₄ at room temperature to the Pd(0) nanoparticles. Powder‐X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy–energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform‐infrared, CHN elemental analysis and inductively coupled plasma‐atomic emission spectroscopy were carried out to characterize the Pd/Fib. catalyst. Catalytic activity of this finely dispersed palladium was examined in the Heck coupling reaction. The catalytic coupling of aryl halides (‐Cl, ‐Br, ‐I) and olefins led to the formation of the corresponding coupled products in moderate to high yields under air atmosphere. A variety of substrates, including electron‐rich and electron‐poor aryl halides, were converted smoothly to the targeted products in simple procedure. Heterogeneous supported Pd catalyst can be recycled and reused several times.     

Hexamethylenetetramine-based ionic liquid anchored onto the metal–organic framework MIL-101(Cr) as a superior and reusable heterogeneous catalyst for the preparation of hexahydroquinolines

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Regarding the significance of medicinal and pharmacological sciences, we explored one-pot multicomponent reaction of aromatic aldehydes, aryl amines,...     

Synthesis of Fe3O4-supported Schiff base Cu (II) complex: a novel efficient and recyclable magnetic nanocatalyst for one-pot three-component synthesis of quinolin-5-one,chromene-3-carbonitrile and phthalazine-5,10-dione derivatives

Research on Chemical Intermediates - In this research, synthesis and characterization of a novel Schiff base Cu (II) complex immobilized on Fe3O4@SiO2 nanoparticles are reported. Then, the...     

Design and construction of a 110 W green laser for medical application

In this paper, the design and the construction of a high-power side-diode-pumped Nd:YAG solid-state laser at repetition rates of 6 and 10 kHz has been presented. Second harmonic of the Nd:YAG laser with green light at 532 nm, with an average power of 111.5 W at 10 kHz repetition rate, and with 90 ns pulse duration, has been obtained by the nonlinear crystal of KTP with 59% conversion efficiency and 12% diode-to-green optical–optical efficiency in the linear resonator. Beam spot size and divergence is 4 mm and 8 mrad, respectively. The laser stability is about 97%. As a medical application of this laser, investigation of degree of effectiveness and penetration depth of laser on adenomas of resected prostate after open prostatectomy has been done.     

On the approximation of local efflux/influx bed discharge in the shallow water equations based on a wave propagation algorithm

In cities, flood waves may propagate over street surfaces below which lie complicated pipe networks used for storm drainage and sewage. The flood and pipe flows can interact at connections between the underground pipes and the street surface. The present paper examines this interaction, using the shallow water equations to model the flood wave hydrodynamics. Sources and sinks in the mass conservation equation are used to model the pipe inflow and outflow conditions at bed connections. We consider the problem reduced to one dimension. The shallow water equations are solved using a Godunov‐type wave propagation scheme. Wave speeds are modified in the wave propagation algorithm to enable flows to be simulated over nearly dry beds and dry states. First, the model is used to simulate vertical flows through finite gaps in the bed. Next, the interaction of the vertical flows with a dam break flow is considered for both dry and wet beds. An efflux number, En, is defined based on the vertical efflux velocity and the gap length. Comparisons are made with numerical predictions from STAR‐CD, a commercial Navier–Stokes solver that models the free‐surface motions, and a parameter study is undertaken to investigate the effect of the one‐dimensional approximation of the present model, for a range of non‐dimensional efflux numbers. It is found that the shallow flow model gives sensible predictions at all time provided En<0.5, and for long durations for En>0.5. Dam break flow over an underground connecting pipe is also considered. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of polymeric coating on capillary electrophoresis of iron oxide nanoparticles

In this work, electrophoresis was successfully used to separate three different polymer-coated magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with similar sizes (nominally 50 nm) using high-pH borate buffer system. The coating polymers were dextran, polyethylene glycol, or carboxymethyl dextran. The results showed that the migration time of carboxymethyl dextran coated nanoparticles is the longest due to relatively more negative surface charges. Investigation of the effects of buffer concentration, pH, electric field strength and the capillary temperature, on electrophoretic properties of samples was also carried out. The results showed that pH, electric field strength and the capillary temperature had indirect relations with both of the migration time and the separation resolution of three different polymer-coated nanoparticles while the buffer concentration had a direct relation.     

Theoretical study of the electronic conduction through organic nanowires

A substantial amount of researches have been carried out on the electron transport properties of gold surfaces. In order to study the role of linkage in the conductive properties of a molecular wire, different linkers such as sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, CS, SH, NS, and CN are considered in our study. It is found that nitrogen or sulfur linkages can bond Au covalently to cis- and trans-butadiene, whereas on the other hand, oxygen linkage with the same shows a weak interaction and a non-covalent character. Further, this research is also an attempt to study the dependence of the molecular electronic structure of gold-molecule complexes on the external electric field. In addition, electronic conduction has been investigated from the perspective of alteration in shape of molecular orbitals and the development of the HOMO-LUMO gap of moleculegold complexes under the effect of an electric field.     

Chaos and reproduction in sea level

Prediction of sea-level is an important task for navigation, coastal engineering and geodetic applications, as well as recreational activities. This study presents a comparison of Chaos theory and Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) techniques for sea level modelling for daily, weekly, 10-day and monthly time scale at the Cocos (Keeling) islands from 1992 to 2001. The state space reconstruction of the unknown underlying process is directly employed from time series data, through Takens delay embedding method: optimal embedding dimension and delay time are obtained from false nearest neighbours and average mutual information techniques, respectively. Optimal values are then used for the estimation of the correlation dimension and the largest Lyapunov exponent, for inspecting possible signatures of chaotic dynamics. We find a positive Lyapunov exponent an evident feature of chaos. Indeed, the nonlinear prediction of sea level, in the period ranging from January 2001 to December 2001, is in an excellent agreement with the data for the same period, evidencing the nonlinear nature of the process. ARIMA method is also used for sea level modelling, for the same time scales; the performances of the two models are compared using such statistical indices as the root mean square error (RMSE) and correlation coefficient (CC). The comparative analyses show that the chaos theory model has a slight edge over ARIMA while both models are in principal acceptable.     

Photocatalytic ozonation degradation of ciprofloxacin using ZnO nanoparticles immobilized on the surface of stones

Ciprofloxacin is used in the treatment of bacterial infections. Because ciprofloxacin is not effectively degraded by biological processes, advanced oxidation processes such as photocatalytic ozonation are applied to remove this antibiotic from wastewater. The aim of this study was to investigate photocatalytic ozonation for the removal of ciprofloxacin from aquatic environments and optimization of the effective parameters of the process. For this purpose, ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized using the thermal method and immobilized on the surface of stones. The structural properties of the nanoparticles were determined by XRD, TEM, Photoluminescence (PL) and SEM. Experiments were carried out in a Plexiglas reactor supported with the continuous injection of ozone. The effective parameters for removal efficiency were reaction time, initial concentration of ciprofloxacin, pH, photocatalyst concentration and reaction kinetics. The highest ciprofloxacin removal efficiency occurred at the following optimal conditions: pH of 7, reaction time of 30?min, photocatalyst concentration of 3?g/L and initial ciprofloxacin concentration of 10?mg/L. Removal efficiency of 96% was obtained under these conditions. Linear kinetic models showed that the process followed pseudo-first order and Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics. This process had a high removal efficiency and suitable for removal of ciprofloxacin from aquatic environments.GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT