Characterization of the barrier properties of composites of HDPE and purified cellulose fibers

The present work presents and discusses the interrelation between composition, morphology, thermal history, mechanical and barrier properties to oxygen and limonene of composites of HDPE/MA-PE/cellulose fibers of significant interest in, among others, food packaging applications. From the overall results, it was observed that increasing the loading of purified alpha-cellulose fibers in the polyethylene matrix beyond 10 wt.% led to a decrease in the permeability coefficient of d-limonene, effect which was found to be primarily related to a decrease in the overall solubility of this strongly plasticizing aroma component. On the other hand, the oxygen permeability was found to decrease to a significant extend with increasing fiber content beyond 5 wt.%, but this effect was more strongly ascribed to a significant decrease in the diffusion coefficient. Therefore, the fibers are thought to generate a more tortuous path for the non-interacting gas molecules to travel across the composites thickness, even when tested at high relative humidity conditions. Optimum fiber loading levels in terms of overall property balance were found to be around 20 wt.%.     

Study of Self-Ignition of PVC

The self-ignition of rigid PVC has been studied under static and dynamic conditions. Only a high-temperature boundary has been found, and the self-ignition temperature in air at atmospheric pressure lies between 555 and 560°C. The effect of preliminary HC1 evolution has been investigated, and it is shown that the more the HC1 evolution, the higher the self-ignition limit. It has been impossible to make polyacetylene ignite spontaneously in the presence of HC1 in oxygen up to 900° C. This is attributed to a special role of HC1 in combustion of PVC. The rate of HC1 release was measured by a potentiometric method, and the overall activation energy of the process was found to be 9.4 kcal/mole. This low value seems to be due to the presence of oxygen. Chromatographic analysis showed CH4 and CO to be the major gaseous products of oxidation of PVC in this parametric zone.     

Formation of ring-shaped deposits as a result of evaporating droplets of dispersions of silver nanoparticles and study of their fine structure

Scanning electron microscopy is employed to study ring-shaped deposits formed at different time moments of evaporating droplets of silver colloidal solutions on a glass substrate. It is shown that, in addition to an external fringe, several rings are formed at intermediate stages of evaporation; these rings are, in the course of time, transformed into one dense fringe and a transition zone adjacent to its internal side. The time dependences of the height and width of the fringe are determined. It is established that an increase in the width and height of the fringe is due to the transfer of silver nanoparticles to this region, which play a key role in imparting specific structural organization to the fringe. It is noted that the height of the formed fringe may be qualitatively determined by energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis.     

Precision of Flash Pyrolysis-GC-MS Analysis: Experimental Evaluation of the Sources of Variability

The present study was carried out to evaluate the precision and to identify significant sources of variability in flash pyrolysis-GC-MS experiments. The analysis of variance has been applied to the example of polyethylene pyrolysis to estimate the impact of several controlled factors: sample handling, flash pyrolysis filament ageing and calibration. It was demonstrated that to get the best precision in experimental results, it is recommended to set the operator to reduce the impact of sample handling procedure and the filament to avoid variability due to changes in filament characteristics. In comparison, filament ageing and filament calibration are shown to influence in a limited extent the experimental results.     

Effect of microwave pretreatment of coal for improvement of rheological characteristics of coal-water slurries

Indian high-ash coal contains alpha-silica components of the mineral matter. When coal is transported in the form of a slurry, alpha-silica adds to the settling properties of coal and enhances erosion of pipelines. As such any technique that will contribute to changing the characteristics of mineral matter by selective demineralization is bound to supplement the knowledge of coal slurries in the science of rheology. One such method is the use of a novel microwave technology, which changes the alpha-silica to less harmful beta-silica. Thus microwave-treated coal slurry facilitates enhanced flow characteristics and abates the erosion problem in pipeline transport as well as in coal-slurry injection furnaces. This paper reports on the rheological study of closely sized coal particles of medium-volatile, low-ash, low-moisture cleans and high-ash rejects with and without microwave treatment. Viscosity of suspensions of microwave-treated coal was found to be less than that of untreated coal, in the case of both cleans and rejects. Microwave pretreatment thus reduces the viscosity and the pumping cost and opens a new outlook for pipeline transport. An attempt has been made to quantify the improvement of rheological characteristics due to microwave pretreatment.     

Elucidation of the mechanism of redox grafting of diazotated anthraquinone

Redox grafting of aryldiazonium salts containing redox units may be used to form exceptionally thick covalently attached conducting films, even in the micrometers range, in a controlled manner on glassy carbon and gold substrates. With the objective to investigate the mechanism of this process in detail, 1-anthraquinone (AQ) redox units were immobilized on these substrates by electroreduction of 9,10-dioxo-9,10-dihydroanthracene-1-diazonium tetrafluoroborate. Electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance was employed to follow the grafting process during a cyclic voltammetric sweep by recording the frequency change. The redox grafting is shown to have two mass gain regions/phases: an irreversible one due to the addition of AQ units to the substrate/film and a reversible one due to the association of cations from the supporting electrolyte with the AQ radical anions formed during the sweeping process. Scanning electrochemical microscopy was used to study the relationship between the conductivity of the film and the charging level of the AQ redox units in the grafted film. For that purpose, approach curves were recorded at a platinum ultramicroelectrode for AQ-containing films on gold and glassy carbon surfaces using the ferro/ferricyanide redox system as redox probe. It is concluded that the film growth has its origin in electron transfer processes occurring through the layer mediated by the redox moieties embedded in the organic film.     

Structural investigations of a series of petrified woods of different origin

Since the investigations on petrified wood performed so far have not proved the assumption that the ring structure is coupled to the changes in the crystalline form of silica, attention was paid to other possible reasons. Using small angle X-ray scattering methods we determined the Porod curves and pore size distributions for five different samples of petrified wood, of different origin. We observed clear porosity differences in different samples. In addition, the normal X-ray diffractometric measurements were carried out, which gave a totally uniform image of the crystallographic structure of all the samples. All of them were made of pure α-quartz. The differentiation of rings in dark and bright zones should be put down to the changes in porosity rather than to other factors. The pores seem to be much more concentrated in those ring locations, which correspond to the original dark wood positions in living wood.     

Efficient quantification of the importance of contacts for the dynamical stability of proteins

Understanding the stability of the native state and the dynamics of a protein is of great importance for all areas of biomolecular design. The efficient estimation of the influence of individual contacts between amino acids in a protein structure is a first step in the reengineering of a particular protein for technological or pharmacological purposes. At the same time, the functional annotation of molecular evolution can be facilitated by such insight. Here, we use a recently suggested, information theoretical measure in biomolecular design - the Kullback-Leibler-divergence - to quantify and therefore rank residue-residue contacts within proteins according to their overall contribution to the molecular mechanics. We implement this protocol on the basis of a reduced molecular model, which allows us to use a well-known lemma of linear algebra to speed up the computation. The increase in computational performance is around 10(1)- to 10(4)-fold. We applied the method to two proteins to illustrate the protocol and its results. We found that our method can reliably identify key residues in the molecular mechanics and the protein fold in comparison to well-known properties in the serine protease inhibitor. We found significant correlations to experimental results, e.g., dissociation constants and Φ values.     

The Applicability of Essential Oils in Different Stages of Production of Animal-Based Foods

Essential oils (EOs) have been used for centuries, and interest in these compounds has been revived in recent years. Due to their unique chemical composition as well as antimicrobial, immunostimulatory, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, EOs are used in pharmacology, cosmetology and, increasingly, in animal breeding and rearing, and processing of animal raw materials. Essential oils have become a natural alternative to preservatives, taste enhancers and, most importantly, antibiotics, because the European Union banned the use of antibiotics in metaphylaxis in animal husbandry in 2006. In the animal production chain, EOs are used mainly as feed additives to improve feed palatability and increase feed intake, improve animal resistance and health status, and to prevent and treat diseases. Recent research indicates that EOs can also be applied to sanitize poultry houses, and they can be used as biopesticides in organic farming. Essential oils effectively preserve meat and milk and, consequently, improve the safety, hygiene and quality of animal-based foods. Novel technologies such as encapsulation may increase the bioavailability of EOs and their application in the production of food and feed additives.     

Assessment of genetic purity of bulked-seed of rice CMS lines using capillary electrophoresis

Genetically pure cytoplasmic male sterile line (A-line) is essential to generate pure hybrid seeds in order to harness the yield heterosis in rice. Conventionally, seed purity testing is carried by grow-out test, which has many limitations. Seed purity assessments based on molecular markers reduce the time required for analysis significantly. However, it is very tedious as at least 200–400 seeds/seedlings are needed to be analyzed individually. An assay based on bulked-seed and molecular markers will be an ideal system. Keeping these points in view, in the present study, a co-dominant mitochondrial marker was used to test the purity of bulked parental line (A-line) seed utilizing CE system in a genetic analyzer. The results indicate that this method is very simple, accurate, and can be used to test purity of large number of samples rapidly in a cost-effective way compared to grow-out test and conventional molecular marker analysis.     

聚丙烯酰胺胶状杂质的形成因为

在聚丙烯酰胺(PAM)配制现场发现过滤器滤袋内存在大量黑色和黄色且有刺鼻腐臭气味的胶状条形物;这类杂质造成过滤装置严重堵塞和设备腐蚀.鉴于此,从细菌和无机离子含量两方面着手分析了聚丙烯酰胺胶状条形杂质的形成因为.结果表明:由于细菌和金属离子Fe3+含量的增加,PAM的侧酰胺基降解成羧基;而含大量金属离子的PAM溶液经缠...     

Mechanism of radiothermoluminescence of crystalline tetracosane

Radiothermoluminescence (RTL) of tetracosane irradiated in liquid nitrogen with γ-rays is due to trapped charges. At doses below 2 kGy, all processes leading to RTL are localized in tetracosane intracrystalline areas in traps with a depth of 0.1–2.0 eV that were present in tetracosane before irradiation. With increasing the dose, radiation-induced traps with a depth of 3 eV or higher appear in addition. At the same time, part of the charges reach the surface and become available for interaction with an electron acceptor. The presence of shallow traps (less than 0.15 eV) leads to a decrease in the RTL intensity over the entire temperature range from 100 to 300 K during storage of irradiated samples in liquid nitrogen.     

Biogenesis of the reservosomes of Trypanosoma cruzi.

Reservosomes are endocytic compartments found in the posterior region of epimastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi. In the differentiation from trypomastigotes to epimastigotes (reverse metacyclogenesis in vitro), one has the rare opportunity of following the biogenesis of an endocytic compartment. Metacyclic trypomastigotes incubated in LIT medium highly enriched with fetal calf serum differentiated directly to epimastigotes. In recently differentiated epimastigotes, acidic organelles were found in round compartments spread along the cell body, whereas in control epimastigotes they were found in reservosomes located in the posterior region. Ultrastructural analysis of intermediate forms showed that the cytostome and reservosomes appeared before differentiation to epimastigotes was completed. Many polymorphic reservosomes, with or without lipid inclusions, were observed from the anterior portion of the cell body, in close relationship with the Golgi complex, to the posterior region. Endocytic tracers were observed in the cytostome, flagellar pocket, vesicles, and newly formed reservosomes. Cruzipain, the main protease of T. cruzi, was localized in newly formed reservosomes and in vesicles budding from the trans-Golgi network that seem to fuse with reservosomes. Ingested gold-labeled albumin and cruzipain colocalized in recently formed reservosomes. Endocytosis and immunocytochemical analysis suggested that the endocytic and the secretory pathways may contribute to reservosome formation.     

Measurement of surface area of polymer shavings

A modified BET apparatus has been developed to measure the surface area of polymer samples in the range 0.2–3.0 m². The sample holder is designed to permit easy entry for bulky samples, such as polymer shavings, which cannot be loaded through a capillary or exposed to the high temperature required to seal glass. Other apparatus modifications, which allow the accurate measurement of surface area, include the addition of a dibutyl phthalate differential manometer in conjunction with a pressure reservoir. Corrections for the dead volume, nonideality of nitrogen, and the thermal gradient in the sample holder are developed. Calibrations of the equipment with inorganic samples of known areas from 1.81 to 11.8 m² gave highly accurate values of 1.74 to 11.6 m². Results on high-density polyethylene shavings showed precision in determinations and very close agreement in the value of 49.7 for C in the BET equation with the published value, 47.7.     

Effects of micelle properties on the conformation of oligocholates and importance of rigidity of foldamers

The conformation of a cholate hexamer with a clicked tether in between two tricholate units and pyrene groups at the chain ends was studied by fluorescence spectroscopy. In contrast to the parent cholate hexamer that folded in all micelles investigated, the folding of the clicked hexamer was highly dependent on the type of surfactant used to solubilize the compound. The clicked oligocholate folded in the Brij 35 micelle, possibly due to the latter's small size and strong internal hydrophobicity. The oligocholate formed intermolecular aggregates in SDS solutions below the CMC of the surfactant. The aggregates were dissociated by the SDS micelles but the individual oligocholate stayed unfolded. In Triton X-100 and sodium cholate solutions, the aggregated, unfolded, and folded oligocholates coexisted and gradual unfolding occurred with an increasing concentration of the surfactant. The conformation of the clicked oligocholate was sensitive to the nonideal mixing of ionic/nonionic micelles and to the unconventional aggregation of sodium cholate.     

Effect of dimerization on vibrational spectra of eumelanin precursors

We have synthesized a compound ideally suited to the study of structure-function relationships in eumelanin synthesis. N-methyl-5-hydroxy-6-methoxy-indole (MHMI) has key functional groups strategically placed on the indole framework to hinder binding in the 2, 5, 6 and 7 positions. Thus, the dimer bound exclusively in the 4-4' positions was isolated and characterized. In order to study the difference in vibrational structure between the MHMI monomer and dimer, Raman spectra were acquired of both compounds, as well as indole, indole-2-carboxylic acid and 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid (DHICA). Peaks were assigned to particular vibrational modes using B3LYP density functional theory calculations, and experimental and theoretical spectra displayed good agreement. Addition of functional groups to either benzene or pyrrole rings in the indole framework impacted vibrational spectra attributed to vibrations in either ring, and in some cases, peaks appearing unchanged between two compounds corresponded to different contributing vibrations. Dimerization resulted in an expected increase in the number of vibrational modes, but not a significant increase in the number of apparent peaks, as several modes frequently contributed to an individual observed peak. Comparison of spectral features of the monomer and dimer provides insight into eumelanin photochemistry, but final conclusions depend on the planarity of oligomeric structure in vivo.     

Heats of immersion of some ion-exchanged A and X zeolites of divalent cations

Heats of immersion in water (integral heats of hydration) of anhydrous zeolites NaA, CdA, ZnA, CoA, NaX, CdX, ZnX, CoX and NiX have been determined calorimetrically at 25°C. Sodium in NaA and NaX has been replaced by divalent cations to the extent of 70–100% . The data are correlated to the size of the cations and to the standard enthalpy changes of the corresponding ion-exchanged equilibria. The latter values are analysed in terms of three processes: hydration of ions in solution, hydration of zeolites, and electrostatic binding energy of cations to the zeolite framework.     

荧光关联光谱在高分子单链研究中的应用

荧光关联光谱(fluorescence correlation spectroscopy,FCS)是一项用于研究体系动力学性质的统计光谱技术,随着它被引入材料与化学研究领域,近年来取得了大量全新的研究成果.该技术在高分子科学研究中也逐渐发挥出越来越大的作用,特别是在聚合物结构和动力学方面,这表明它在高分子领域的巨大潜力.本文将从FCS的基本原理、实验技巧以及在一些具有挑战性体系中的应用等方面展开,着重介绍它在高分子溶液,如聚电解质溶液、高分子混致不溶现象,以及不同的表界面体系中取得的新成果,展示FCS区别于其他传统技术的特点和优势.     

Investigation of the influence of pressure on the combustion of Alpagut lignite

This research presents the combustion behavior of lignite under different reaction pressures. Lignite from Alpagut, Çorum of Turkey was combusted in its run off mine (ROM) condition under three different pressure levels of 172, 345, 517 kPa (25, 50, 75 psi). Experiments were done in a fully controlled temperature regime in an isolated combustion tube that operated in coordination with a continuous gas analyzer. Combustion behavior of lignite under different pressures was characterized by effluent gas analysis method. The changes in the amounts of consumed oxygen, evolved carbon oxides as well as variations in the temperature were assessed. The combustion efficiency and effectiveness of lignite was evaluated in terms of thermal features, from the viewpoint of reaction kinetics and by the computation of instantaneous fuel consumption at critical points. It was seen that combustion of lignite tended to turn from a steady profile to a considerably rapid one with increase in pressure, proving to be highly sensitive to the applied pressure level. Also, different levels of pressure resulted in distinctive combustion behavior not only from the view of thermal characteristics, but also in terms of reaction kinetics.     

Assignment of dielectric loss of K-L zeolite

Dielectric spectra of zeolite L (LTL) with potassium ions were measured to investigate movements of potassium ion in it. K,TMA-L was prepared through an ion-exchange of K9-L with tetramethylammonium (TMA) ion, and changed to K,H-L by gentle calcination in air. Since the TMA ion in K,TMA-L was expected to exclusively occupy site D, the hydrogen ion in K,H-L was considered to be located around site D. K9-xHx-L with 0相似文献