Nanocomposite Coatings Based on Modified Graphene Oxide and Polydimethylsiloxane: Characterization and Thermal Properties

Russian Journal of Applied Chemistry - Graphene oxide as a derivative of graphite has been noticed as a high efficient material and its application in nanocomposite coatings is surprisingly...     

Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Ethanol on the Surface of Graphene Based Nanocomposites: An Introduction and Review to it in Recent Studies

This review gives an overview of the electrochemical investigations about the properties of various types of graphene composites in the ethanol oxidation. Various routes to provide appropriate graphene‐based materials required electrochemical techniques for investigation of different types of the materials as well as their performance and efficacy in ethanol oxidation are discussed in detail. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the incorporation of suitable materials, e. g. noble metals (graphene‐supported binary and ternary metal nanoparticles), metal oxides, conductive polymer, etc, with graphene results in excellent electrocatalytic activity, superb durability and selectivity in ethanol oxidation. Immobilization of electrocatalytically active NPs on graphene supports using physical approaches is considered as an effective route to prepare direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) anode catalysts.     

Synthesis of acetamides via oxidative C–C bond cleavage of ketones catalyzed by Cu-immobilized magnetic nanoparticles

Copper supported on magnetite nanoparticles modified with environmentally friendly ligand tricine was devised for synthesis of acetamides via C–C oxidative cleavage of ketones with amines. The catalyst was characterized using different techniques, including Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, scannin electron microscopy, vibrating sample magnetometry, thermogravimetric analysis, and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. The protocol showed relatively high yields of acetamide products. Furthermore, the magnetic recovery of the catalyst rendered the overall process fast and efficient. It was used in the reaction for six consecutive cycles with negligible loss of catalytic activity. This research is the first report of application of magnetic nanocatalysts for synthesis of acetamides from ketones of low activity through a C–C bond cleavage strategy.     

Podophyllotoxin extraction from Linum usitatissimum plant and its anticancer activity against HT‐29, A‐549 and MDA‐MB‐231 cell lines with and without the presence of gold nanoparticles

In recent years, gold nanoparticles (Au‐NPs) have been taken into consideration in nanomedicine due to their excellent biocompatibility, chemical stability and promising optical properties. In this research, podophyllotoxin conjugated with gold nanoparticles (Au‐NPs‐POT) was synthesized and the conjugation of POT with Au‐NPs was confirmed using scanning electron microscopy, mass spectrometry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The anticancer effects of the product on preclinical models of lung, colon and breast cancers were investigated using MTT test. The analyses showed a direct dose–response relationship. It was found that higher concentrations of POT have more positive effects on the inhibition of cancer cell growth. At POT concentrations of 1, 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 15 and 20 ng ml^?1, approximately 50% of the growth of colorectal, lung and breast cancer cell lines was inhibited, while similar results were obtained in the presence of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 μg ml^?1 Au‐NPs‐POT. Au‐NPs‐POT exhibited the lowest cytotoxicity due to the presence of POT. The anticancer feature of Au‐NPs‐POT proved the potential to develop better anticancer therapeutics and to open new avenues for treatment of cancers.     

Orientations of graphs avoiding given lists on out-degrees

Let $G$ be a graph and $F:V\left(G\right)\to 2^{\mathbb{N}}$ be a mapping. The graph $G$ is said to be $F$- avoiding if there exists an orientation $O$ of $G$ such that $d_O^{+}\left(v\right)\notin F\left(v\right)$ for every $v\in V\left(G\right)$, where $d_O^{+}\left(v\right)$ denotes the out-degree of $v$ in the directed graph $G$ with respect to $O$. In this paper it is shown that if $G$ is bipartite and $\mid F\left(v\right)\mid \le d_G\left(v\right)/2$ for every $v\in V\left(G\right)$, then $G$ is $F$-avoiding. The bound $\mid F\left(v\right)\mid \le d_G\left(v\right)/2$ is best possible. For every graph $G$, we conjecture that if $\mid F\left(v\right)\mid \le \frac{1}{2}\left(d_G\left(v\right)-1\right)$ for every $v\in V\left(G\right)$, then $G$ is $F$-avoiding. We also argue about this conjecture for the best possibility of the conditions and also show some partial solutions.     

An Extended-FEM Model for CO2 Leakage Through a Naturally Fractured Cap-Rock During Carbon Dioxide Sequestration

In this paper, a numerical model is developed for the assessment of carbon dioxide transport through naturally fractured cap-rocks during CO₂ sequestration in underground aquifers. The cap-rock contains two types of fracture with different length scales: micro-cracks (fissures) and macro-cracks (faults). The effect of micro-cracks is incorporated implicitly by modifying the intrinsic permeability tensor of porous matrix, while the macro-cracks are modeled explicitly using the extended finite element method (X-FEM). The fractured porous medium is decomposed into the porous matrix and fracture domain, which are occupied with two immiscible fluid phases, water and CO₂. The flow inside the matrix domain is governed by the Darcy law, while the flow within the fracture is modeled using the Poiseuille flow. The mass conservation law is fulfilled for each fluid phase at both porous matrix and fracture domain; moreover, the mass exchange between the matrix and fracture is guaranteed through the integral formulation of mass conservation law. Applying the X-FEM technique, the explicit representation of macro-cracks is modeled by enriching the standard finite element approximation space with an enrichment function. Finally, several numerical examples of CO₂ injection into a brine aquifer below a naturally fractured cap-rock are modeled in order to investigate the effects of cracks’ aperture and orientation as well as the temperature of aquifer and the depth of injection on the leakage pattern of the carbon dioxide through the cap-rock.

     

A heterogeneous and reusable nanopolymer-supported palladium catalyst for the copper- and phosphine-free Sonogashira coupling reaction under aerobic conditions in water

We report here the synthesis of a nanopolymer-supported palladium(II) complex catalyst, [PS-tet-Pd(II)] using a simple protocol. The catalyst was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), FT-IR, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). PS-tet-Pd(II) proves to be a useful heterogeneous catalyst in the copper- and phosphine-free Sonogashira coupling reaction in water. The catalyst can be recovered from the reaction mixture by simple filtration and reused several times without any significant loss of catalytic activity.