Performance of pyrophyllite and halloysite clays in the catalytic degradation of polystyrene

Summary The performance of pyrophyllite and halloysite clays in the degradation of polystyrene (PS) was investigated. The degradation was carried out in a semi-batch reactor with a mixture of polystyrene and catalysts at 400-450^oC. The catalysts showed good catalytic activity for the degradation of PS with high selectivity to aromatics liquids. Styrene is the major product, and ethylbenzene is the second most abundant one in the liquid product. The catalytic degradation showed much less production of styrene dimers and higher selectivity to ethylbenzene than the thermal degradation did. High degradation temperature favored the production of styrene monomer, but it decreased the ethylbenzene production.     

Preparation of porous regenerated cellulose microstructures via emulsion-coagulation technique

Cellulose - Cellulose-based materials, such as cellulose microspheres, have attracted enormous attention because of their widespread applications in water and protein purifications, chromatographic...     

Resveratrol-β-Lactoglobulin Composite Nanocoating by Layer-by-Layer Assembly with Fe(III)-Tannic Acid Complex

Resveratrol (3,4’,5-trihydroxystilbene) is beneficial to human health due to its diverse biological activities including its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects as confirmed by pharmacokinetic tests. Despite these clinical merits, resveratrol's limited hydrosolubility and chemical vulnerability remain challenging with regard to developing a controlled delivery system with enhanced bioavailability. In this work, we report a resveratrol-β-lactoglobulin (R-BLG) composite nanocoating through a layer-by-layer assembly with Fe(III)-tannic acid nanofilms. The R-BLG composite nanocoating can be formed in planar and particulate substrates, showing excellent film stability under a broad range of pH values and against enzymatic digestion during a weeklong incubation. We envision that the proteinaceous nanocoating herein could be combined with existing pharmaceutical carrier materials (e. g., microcapsules and nanoparticles) to realize advanced drug delivery systems with an expanded repertoire of hydrophobic drugs.     

Synthesis,characterisation, and X-ray structures of zinc(II) complexes bearing camphor-based ethyleneamineimines as pre-catalysts for heterotactic-enriched polylactide from rac-lactide

Transition Metal Chemistry - A series of Zn(II) complexes bearing camphor-based ethyleneamine derivatives, [LnZnCl2]...     

Ancillary Ligand Effects on Heteroleptic IrIII Dye in Dye-Sensitized Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction: Photoaccumulation of Charges on Arylated Bipyridine Ligand and Its Control on Catalytic Performance

Herein, we report the synthesis, and photochemical and -physical properties, as well as the catalytic performance, of a series of heteroleptic Ir^III photosensitizers (IrPSs), [Ir(C^N)₂(N^N^Aryl)]⁺, possessing ancillary ligands that are varied with aryl-substituents on bipyridyl unit [C^N=(2-pyridyl)benzo[b]thiophen-3-yl (btp); N^N^Aryl=4,4′-Y₂-bpy (Y=−Ph or −PhSi(Ph)₃]. We found that the π-extension of bipyridyl ligand by aryl-substitution put bipyridyl ligand in use as an electron relay unit that performed charge accumulation before delivering to the catalytic center, greatly improving the overall CO₂-to-CO conversion activities. In a typical run, the aryl-substituted IrPS ( ^{t Bu} IrP-Ph^Si )-sensitized homogeneous systems (IrPS+Re^I catalyst) gave a turnover number of 1340 (Φ_CO=24.2 %) at the early stage of photolysis (<5 h). This study demonstrates that the π-character modulation on the ancillary bipyridyl ligand is critical for forthcoming catalytic performance.     

Correction to: Effect of varying biogas mass flow rate on performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine fuelled with blends of n‑butanol and diesel

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In the original publication of the article, Figs.&nbsp;6 and 7 were published incorrectly without test fuel D80/nb20+BG (0.5 kg/h).     

Studies on a new solid–liquid Cs separation using the ionic liquid extraction system in comparison with the conventional adsorption

The process characteristics of a new solid–liquid Cs⁺ separation from the radioactive liquid waste using a crown ether dicyclohexano-18-crown-6 as an extractant and an ionic liquid of 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide were studied. The physicochemical properties of the precipitate containing Cs⁺ which is an solid–liquid extraction product were investigated to identify the solid–liquid phase separability and Cs⁺ loading. The Cs⁺ separation process performances were compared experimentally with those of the conventional adsorption system for pretreatment requirement and the amount of Cs⁺ waste. It was observed that the solid–liquid separation method using ILs has high Cs⁺ separation performance especially in the low Cs⁺ concentration.

     

Unified Noncrossing Multiple Quantile Regressions Tree

In this article, we consider the estimation problem of a tree model for multiple conditional quantile functions of the response. Using the generalized, unbiased interaction detection and estimation algorithm, the quantile regression tree (QRT) method has been developed to construct a tree model for an individual quantile function. However, QRT produces different tree models across quantile levels because it estimates several QRT models separately. Furthermore, the estimated quantile functions from QRT often cross each other and consequently violate the basic properties of quantiles. This undesirable phenomenon reduces prediction accuracy and makes it difficult to interpret the resulting tree models. To overcome such limitations, we propose the unified noncrossing multiple quantile regressions tree (UNQRT) method, which constructs a common tree structure across all interesting quantile levels for better data visualization and model interpretation. Furthermore, the UNQRT estimates noncrossing multiple quantile functions simultaneously by enforcing noncrossing constraints, resulting in the improvement of prediction accuracy. The numerical results are presented to demonstrate the competitive performance of the proposed UNQRT over QRT. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.     

Palladium‐catalyzed carbonylative cyclization of β‐bromo‐α,β‐unsaturated carboxylic acids with 2,2‐dimethylhydrazine leading to 1‐(dimethylamino)‐1H‐pyrrole‐2,5‐diones

β‐Bromo‐α,β‐unsaturated carboxylic acids are carbonylatively cyclized with 2,2‐dimethylhydrazine under carbon monoxide pressure in THF in the presence of a catalytic amount of a palladium catalyst along with a base to give 1‐(dimethylamino)‐1H‐pyrrole‐2,5‐diones. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.