Shape-Selective Alkylation of Isopropylnaphthalene over HM Zeolite. A Theoretical Study

A first principle quantum chemical method for determining the shape of molecules has been elaborated and its value in interpreting the experimentally found shape selectivity in isopropylation of isopropylnaphthalene on H-mordenite zeolite is demonstrated. In line with experimental results, it is found that 2,6-diisopropylnaphthalene is the most feasible product since it diffuses through the main channels of mordenite the easiest among the possible isomers.     

Enhancement in thermal stability and resistance to denaturants of lipase encapsulated in mesoporous silica with alkyltrimethylammonium (CTAB)

We assembled a highly durable conjugate with both a high-density accumulation and a regular array of lipase, by encapsulating it in mesoporous silica (FSM) with alkyltrimethylammonium (CTAB) chains on the surface. The activity for hydrolyzing esters of the lipase immobilized in mesoporous silica was linearly related to the concentration of lipase, whereas that of non-immobilized lipase showed saturation due to self-aggregation at a high concentration. The lipase conjugate also had increased resistance to heating when stayed in the silica coupling with CTAB. In addition, encapsulating the enzyme with FSM coupled CTAB caused the lipase to remain stable even in the presence of urea and trypsin, suggesting that the encapsulation prevented dissociation and denaturing. This conjugate had much higher activity and much higher stability for hydrolyzing esters when compared to the native lipase. These results show that FSM provides suitable support for the immobilization and dispersion of proteins in mesopores with disintegration of the aggregates.     

Three-dimensional measurement of void fraction in a bubble plume using statistic stereoscopic image processing

A method for measuring the instantaneous 3-D bubble distribution in bubbly flows is proposed by making use of stereoscopic image processing. The method applies to the case of higher rather than dilute void fractions, because it is based on the following two statistic-based procedures. The first process is to obtain the 2-D distribution of local void fraction from visualized images, where a correlation between the bubble shadow fraction and the projection void fraction is derived by introducing the new idea of overlapping probability of the bubble-images under various conditions. The second process is to reconstruct the 3-D distribution of the local void fraction. In this step, a logical method is proposed in order to obtain the bubble-existence probability function which simultaneously satisfies the two distributions of the two projection void fractions. The present method is applied for instantaneous measurement of the 3-D structure of a bubble plume. The measured results show its particular structure, such as the hollow distribution of the bubbles, and the local spiral structure, which cannot be captured by point-measurement experiments. Received: 5 January 1999/Accepted: 3 February 2000     

Use of zeolite to refold a disulfide-bonded protein

Zeolites are microporous crystalline aluminosilicates with a highly ordered structure. Using zeolite beta as an adsorbent, denatured/reduced hen egg lysozyme was refolded to the active form at high concentrations. The denatured/reduced lysozyme was adsorbed onto the zeolite and the protein was refolded by desorbing it into refolding buffer, consisting of redox reagents, guanidine hydrochloride, polyethylene glycol, and L-arginine. This zeolite refolding method could be highly effective for various kinds of proteins, refolding them with high efficiency even when they contain disulfide bonds.     

Experimental visualization of lithium conduction pathways in garnet-type Li(7)La(3)Zr(2)O(12)

The evolution of the Li-ion displacements in the 3D interstitial pathways of the cubic garnet-type Li(7)La(3)Zr(2)O(12), cubic Li(7)La(3)Zr(2)O(12), was investigated with high-temperature neutron diffraction (HTND) from RT to 600 °C; the maximum-entropy method (MEM) was applied to estimate the Li nuclear-density distribution. Temperature-driven Li displacements were observed; the displacements indicate that the conduction pathways in the garnet framework are restricted to diffusion through the tetrahedral sites of the interstitial space.     

Linear and nonlinear transports of coupled quantum dots

Series of double quantum dots each with a size around 400 × 400nm² have been realized by delineating a 2DEG in modulation-doped AlGaAs/GaAs with 100 nm wide Schottky split gates fabricated by an electron-beam lithography and a lift-off technique. The split gate in the middle of the double dot allows us to control interdot coupling widely. The charging diagram obtained from linear transports in the Coulomb blockade regime shows that the isolated dots merge into a single composite dot with increase of interdot coupling. A clear Coulomb staircase has been observed in the double-dot system at a limited high-bias condition.     

Monotosylated α- and β-cyclodextrins prepared in an alkaline aqueous solution

In order to establish the tosylated positions of α- and β-cyclodextrins, ¹³C-nmr spectra for the monotosyl-derivatives prepared in an alkaline aqueous solution were examined and determined to be in the 6-position of one glucose unit for β-cyclodextrin and to be in the C-2 position for α-cyclodextrin.