Alkanolamide as an accelerator,filler-dispersant and a plasticizer in silica-filled natural rubber compounds

A feasibility study was carried out on the utilization of Alkanolamide (ALK) on silica reinforcement of natural rubber (NR) by using a semi-efficient cure system. The ALK was incorporated into the NR compound at 1.0, 3.0, 5.0, 7.0 and 9.0 phr. An investigation was carried out to examine the effect of ALK on the cure characteristics and properties of NR compounds. It was found that ALK gave shorter scorch and cure times for silica-filled NR compounds. ALK also exhibited higher torque differences, tensile modulus, tensile strength, hardness and crosslink density of up to 5.0 phr of ALK loading, and then decreased with further increases of ALK loading. The resilience increased with increased ALK loading. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs proved that 5.0 phr of ALK in the silica-filled NR compound exhibited the greatest matrix tearing line and surface roughness due to higher reinforcement level of the silica, as well as better dispersion and cure enhancement.     

Copolymers of 2-Hydroxyethyl Methacrylate and Alkyl Methacrylates. Part III. Thermal Behavior

The relative thermal stability of copolymers of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-ethyl methacrylate (HEMA-EMA) and HEMA-n-butyl methacrylate (HEMA-BMA) was investigated by thermogravimetry in an air/nitrogen atmosphere. The effect of molecular weight on thermal degradation was evaluated by taking five fractions of HEMA-EMA and four of HEMA-BMA copolymers. The enthalpic changes associated with the endothermic transition were evaluated by differential scanning calorimetry. The structural changes taking place in these copolymers during thermal degradation in air at 200°C were investigated by IR.     

Metabolic Engineering of Biosynthetic Pathway for Production of Renewable Biofuels

Metabolic engineering is an important area of research that involves editing genetic networks to overproduce a certain substance by the cells. Using a combination of genetic, metabolic, and modeling methods, useful substances have been synthesized in the past at industrial scale and in a cost-effective manner. Currently, metabolic engineering is being used to produce sufficient, economical, and eco-friendly biofuels. In the recent past, a number of efforts have been made towards engineering biosynthetic pathways for large scale and efficient production of biofuels from biomass. Given the adoption of metabolic engineering approaches by the biofuel industry, this paper reviews various approaches towards the production and enhancement of renewable biofuels such as ethanol, butanol, isopropanol, hydrogen, and biodiesel. We have also identified specific areas where more work needs to be done in the future.     

Improved chemical water oxidation with Zn in the tetrahedral site of spinel-type ZnCo2O4 nanostructure

Spinel oxides with the composition of A^IIB^III₂O₄ (A and B are metal ions) represent an important class of anode material for water splitting to replace the currently used noble-metal catalysts. Although spinel electrocatalysts have widely been investigated for electrochemical water oxidation, the role of octahedral and tetrahedral sites influencing catalytic performance has been a topic of discussion for a long time and still under debate. Lately, this issue has been addressed by substituting redox-inert cation to the tetrahedral sites of cobalt spinels and comparing the electrochemical activity between them. However, rapid surface structural transformation of the catalysts under operating electrochemical conditions makes it difficult to infer the exact contribution of tetrahedral and octahedral sites for water oxidation. Herein, for the first time, we utilize the oxidant-driven water oxidation approach to reveal the responsible active sites using two spinel-type nanostructures, Zn^IICo₂^IIIO₄ and Co^IICo₂^IIIO₄ (Co₃O₄), synthesized by using a single-source precursor approach. Strikingly, a superior O₂ production rate (0.98 mmol_O2 mol_Co^?1 s^?1) following first-order reaction kinetics was achieved for ZnCo₂O₄ in the presence of Ce^IV as sacrificial electron acceptor compared to Co₃O₄ spinel (0.29 mmol_O2 mol_Co^?1 s^?1). The structural and morphological stability of the ZnCo₂O₄ and Co₃O₄ post water oxidation catalysis confirms that the catalytic activity is strictly controlled by the geometry and electronic structure of the active site of the spinel structure. The higher performance of ZnCo₂O₄ over Co₃O₄ further indicates that the presence of Co^II is not essential for catalytic water oxidation. The presence of redox inert Zn^II at the tetrahedral site of ZnCo₂O₄ can facilitate the stabilization of a high-valent Co^IV intermediate via oxidation of Co^III (situated at the octahedral site), and this intermediate can be regarded as the active species for water oxidation catalyst along with structural defects caused by surface Zn leaching.     

An efficient representation of Benes networks and its applications

The most popular bounded-degree derivative network of the hypercube is the butterfly network. The Benes network consists of back-to-back butterflies. There exist a number of topological representations that are used to describe butterfly—like architectures. We identify a new topological representation of butterfly and Benes networks.The minimum metric dimension problem is to find a minimum set of vertices of a graph G(V,E) such that for every pair of vertices u and v of G, there exists a vertex w with the condition that the length of a shortest path from u to w is different from the length of a shortest path from v to w. It is NP-hard in the general sense. We show that it remains NP-hard for bipartite graphs. The algorithmic complexity status of this NP-hard problem is not known for butterfly and Benes networks, which are subclasses of bipartite graphs. By using the proposed new representations, we solve the minimum metric dimension problem for butterfly and Benes networks. The minimum metric dimension problem is important in areas such as robot navigation in space applications.     

Treatment of pulp and paper mill wastewaters with poly aluminium chloride and bagasse fly ash

The present study deals with the use of poly aluminium chloride (PAC) as a coagulant and bagasse fly ash (BFA), which is generated in sugar mills, as an adsorbent for the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and colour of pulp and paper mill effluents. Under optimal conditions of pH 3 and initial PAC dosage of 3 g/l, about 80% COD removal and 90% colour removal were obtained. The optimal conditions for the adsorptive removal of COD and colour with BFA were pH 4 and BFA dosage of 2 g/l. Under these conditions, COD and colour removal were, respectively, 50 and 55%. Adsorptive removal of COD by BFA followed second-order kinetics. Intra-particle diffusion was found to be rate controlling. Freundlich and Langmuir adsorption isotherms were found to fit the equilibrium adsorption data with BFA. Two-stage treatment using PAC (3 g/l) as a coagulant in the first stage and BFA (2 g/l) as an adsorbent in the second stage gave the combined COD and colour removal of nearly 87 and 95%, respectively, for different effluents without any pH adjustment. Two-stage adsorptive treatment using BFA (2 g/l) in both the stages gave a combined COD and colour removal of about 70%. The sludge obtained can be dewatered by centri-clarifiers, dried, briquetted and incinerated to recover its energy content.     

A new diterpene glycoside from Stevia rebaudiana

From the commercial extract of the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana, a new diterpene glycoside was isolated besides the known steviol glycosides including stevioside, rebaudiosides A-F, rubusoside and dulcoside A. The new compound was identified as 13-[(2-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-3-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-β-D-glucopyranosyl)oxy] ent-kaur-16-en-19-oic acid-(2-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-β-D-glucopyranosyl) ester (1) on the basis of extensive spectroscopic (NMR and MS) and chemical studies.