Chitosan loaded with silver nanoparticles,CS‐AgNPs,using thymus syriacus,wild mint,and rosemary essential oil extracts as reducing and capping agents

The present study describes the green method for the preparation of chitosan loaded with silver nanoparticles (CS‐AgNPs) in the presence of 3 different extracted essential oils. The essential oils play dual roles as reductant and capping agents. The reducing power and DPPH (2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl) assay for the 3 essential oils—Thymus syriacus (T), wild mint (M), and rosemary (R)—have been reported. The preparation of CS‐AgNPs was performed by 2 steps. The 3 previously extracted essential oils have been used as reducing and capping agent in the first step, while in the second step, silver nanoparticles were integrated in chitosan. The integration of AgNPs in the structure of chitosan was confirmed by ultraviolet‐visible, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy techniques, and energy dispersive X‐ray. Surface plasmon resonance confirmed the formation of CS‐AgNPs with maximum absorbance at λ_max between 405 ‐ 410 and 410 ‐ 430 nm for colloidal and films of CS‐AgNPs, respectively. The intensity of bands at 3408 cm^?1 in the fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements was decreased substantially and shifted slightly to lower frequency (?υ = 43 cm^?1). Scanning electron microscopy shows a spherical morphology of AgNPs with size of 62 nm for both colloidal and film samples, and energy dispersive X‐ray analysis shows peaks confirming AgNPs formation.     

Line intensities of C2H2 in the 7.7 μm spectral region

Absolute intensities of 414 lines are measured in eight bands of the 7.7 μm spectral region of the ¹²C₂H₂ molecule, with an average accuracy of 5%. Vibrational transition dipole moment squared values and empirical Herman–Wallis coefficients are obtained in order to model the rotational dependence of the transition dipole moment squared, except for some forbidden bands for which smoothed values are given. These data are used to calculate a line list for atmospheric or astrophysical applications.     

Enantioselective determination of modafinil in pharmaceutical formulations by capillary electrophoresis, and computational calculation of their inclusion complexes

A fast capillary electrophoretic method is described for the separation and determination of the enantiomers of the novel wake-promoting agent, modafinil. Several parameters affecting the separation were studied, including the type and concentration of chiral selector, buffer pH, buffer concentration, voltage and temperature. Good chiral separation of the racemic mixture was achieved in less than 5 min with resolution factor Rs?=?2.51, using a bare fused-silica capillary and a background electrolyte (BGE) of 25 mM H₃PO₄?1 M tris solution; pH 8.0; containing 30 mg mL^?1 of sulfated-β-cyclodextrin (S-β-CD). The separation was carried out in normal polarity mode at 25 ^?C, 18 kV and using hydrostatic injection. Acceptable validation criteria for selectivity, linearity, precision, and accuracy were included. The developed method was successfully applied to the assay of enantiomers of modafinil in pharmaceutical formulations. The computational calculations for the enantiomeric inclusion complexes rationalized the reasons for the different migration times between the modafinil enantiomers.     

Poly(ε-caprolactone) modified by functional groups: Preparation and chemical–physical investigation

Functionalization of polymers is a particular relevant approach in the field of biodegradable polymers, where modifications are often required to allow these materials to replace more conventional, not biodegradable polymers in a wider range of applications. This article will report on functionalization of poly(ε-caprolactone) with unsaturated monomers bearing either anhydride groups (PCL-g-(MA-GMA)) or tertiary amines (PCL-g-DMAEA), obtained through radical grafting in a Brabender mixer. Crystallization kinetics parameters have been determined with several techniques (rheology, optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry) and the results obtained are in good agreement. It was observed that the crystallization rate significantly increases in the case of the modified polymers.     

Ring expansion of functionalized octahydroindoles to enantiopure cis-decahydroquinolines

A new synthetic entry to enantiopure cis-decahydroquinolines is reported. Endo and exo derivatives of cis-1-benzyl-2-(hydroxymethyl)octahydroindol-6-one ethylene acetal undergo ring enlargement upon treatment with TFAA and then Et3N (thermodynamic conditions) to give enantiopure 1-benzyl-3-hydroxydecahydroquinolin-7-one derivatives in 77 and 82% yield, respectively. For 2-(1-hydroxyethyl) analogues, the best synthetic result is obtained from the (2S,1'R) endo isomer, which under kinetic reaction conditions (MsCl, THF, -20 degrees C, then AgOAc at rt ) gives the expanded product in 54% yield.     

Exploration of the Mitsunobu reaction with Tosyl- and Boc-hydrazones as nucleophilic agents

Tosyl- and Boc-hydrazones were found to be effective nucleophiles in the Mitsunobu reaction. Tosyl hydrazones reacted cleanly with primary and secondary alcohols when co-administered to a cooled DBAD/PPh3 or DEAD/PPh3 complex. Boc-hydrazones required electron-withdrawing substituents to participate in the reaction.     

Prandtl number effects in decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence with a mean scalar gradient

Decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence with an imposed mean scalar gradient is investigated numerically, thanks to a specific eddy-damped quasi-normal Markovian closure developed recently for passive scalar mixing in homogeneous anisotropic turbulence (BGC). The present modelling is compared successfully with recent direct numerical simulations and other models, for both very large and small Prandtl numbers. First, scalings for the cospectrum and scalar variance spectrum in the inertial range are recovered analytically and numerically. Then, at large Reynolds numbers, the decay and growth laws for the scalar variance and mixed velocity–scalar correlations, respectively, derived in BGC, are shown numerically to remain valid when the Prandtl number strongly departs from unity. Afterwards, the normalised correlation ρ_wθ is found to decrease in magnitude at a fixed Reynolds number when Pr either increases or decreases, in agreement with earlier predictions. Finally, the small scales return to isotropy of the scalar second-order moments is found to depend not only on the Reynolds number, but also on the Prandtl number.     

Explicit algebraic Reynolds stress model (EARSM) for compressible shear flows

We develop an explicit algebraic Reynolds stress model (EARSM) for high-speed compressible shear flows and validate the model with direct numerical simulation (DNS) data of homogeneous shear flow and experimental data of high-speed mixing-layers. Starting from a pressure–strain correlation model that incorporates compressibility effects, the weak-equilibrium assumption is invoked to derive the EARSM closure expression. The resulting closure is fully explicit and physically realizable and is a function of mean flow strain rate, rotation rate, turbulent kinetic energy, dissipation rate, and gradient Mach number. Homogeneous shear flow calculations show that the model captures the asymptotic behavior of DNS quite well. Linear EARSM calculations of a plane supersonic mixing-layer are performed, and comparison with experimental data shows good agreement. Salient results are agreement of streamwise velocity similarity profiles, mixing-layer spreading rates, and capturing the Langley curve trend.     

Glass/PDMS hybrid microfluidic device integrating vertically aligned SWCNTs to ultrasensitive electrochemical determinations

This communication reports a promising platform for rapid, simple, direct, and ultrasensitive determination of serotonin. The method is related to integration of vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) in electrochemical microfluidic devices. The required microfabrication protocol is simple and fast. In addition, the nanomaterial influenced remarkably the obtained limit-of-detection (LOD) values. Our system achieved a LOD of 0.2 nmol L(-1) for serotonin, to the best of our knowledge one of the lowest values reported in the literature.