Selective catalytic oxidation of ammonia into nitrogen and water vapour over transition metals modified Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript>, TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> and ZrO<Subscript>2</Subscript>

Copper or iron supported on commercially available oxides, such as γ-Al₂O₃, TiO₂ (anatase) and monoclinic tetragonal ZrO₂ (mt-ZrO₂) were tested as catalysts for selective catalytic oxidation of ammonia into nitrogen and water vapour (NH₃-SCO) in the low temperature range. Different commercial oxides were used in this study to determine the influence of the specific surface area, acidic nature of the support and crystalline phases as well as of the type of species and aggregation state of transition metals on the catalytic performance in selective ammonia oxidation. Copper modified oxide supports were found to be more active and selective to nitrogen than catalysts impregnated with iron. Activities of both transition metal modified samples decreased in the following order: mt-ZrO₂, TiO₂ (anatase), γ-Al₂O₃. Quantitative total ammonia conversion was achieved with the Cu/ZrO₂ catalytic system at 400°C. Characterisation techniques, e.g. H₂-temperature programmed reduction, UV-VIS-diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, suggest that easily reducible copper oxide species are important in achieving high catalytic performances at low temperatures.     

Lanthanide Complexes with Multidentate Oxime Ligands as Single‐Molecule Magnets and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Fixation Systems

The synthesis, structure, and magnetic properties of five lanthanide complexes with multidentate oxime ligands are described. Complexes 1 and 2 ( 1 : [La₂(pop)₂(acac)₄(CH₃OH)], 2 : [Dy₂(pop)(acac)₅]) are synthesized from the 2‐hydroxyimino‐N‐[1‐(2‐pyridyl)ethylidene]propanohydrazone (Hpop) ligand, while 3 , 4 , and 5 ( 3 : [Dy₂(naphthsaoH)₂(acac)₄H(OH)]?0.85 CH₃CN?1.58 H₂O; 4 : [Tb₂(naphthsaoH)₂(acac)₄H(OH)]?0.52 CH₃CN?1.71 H₂O; 5 : [La₆(CO₃)₂(naphthsao)₅ (naphthsaoH)_0.5(acac)₈(CO₃)_0.5(CH₃OH)_2.76H_5.5(H₂O)_1.24]?2.39 CH₃CN?0.12 H₂O) contain 1‐(1‐hydroxynaphthalen‐2‐yl)‐ethanone oxime (naphthsaoH₂). In 1 – 4 , dinuclear [Ln₂] complexes crystallize, whereas hexanuclear La^III complex 5 is formed after fixation of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Dy^III‐based complexes 2 and 3 display single‐molecule‐magnet properties with energy barriers of 27 and 98 K, respectively. The presence of a broad and unsymmetrical relaxation mode observed in the ac susceptibility data for 3 suggest two different dynamics of the magnetization which might be a consequence of independent relaxation processes of the two different Dy³⁺ ions.     

The review of versatile application of collagen

This review reports recent advances in the versatile application of collagen. Collagen materials have attracted great attention because they exhibit properties required in cosmetic preparations, in the biomedical field, and in the tanning industry leading to leather production. Herein, the structure and application of collagen are discussed in general, and detailed examples are also drawn from scientific literature and practical work. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Molecular dynamics study on the influence of C-terminal sugar substitution on dynamics and conformation of vancomycin derivatives

Computational investigations were performed to examine the effects of the addition of 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-β-D-galactopyranosylamine or 1-amino-1-deoxy-D-glucitol connected to the C-terminus of vancomycin with different linkers. The purpose of this modification was to find more effective vancomycin derivatives by providing alternative interactions between vancomycin moiety and the peptidoglycan precursor. Each prepared vancomycin–peptidoglycan complex was optimized and submitted to the molecular dynamics study and analysis. The analysis of overall root mean square deviation, changes in position and interactions involving modified part of vancomycin as well as cluster analysis were carried out. One of the proposed vancomycin analogues seems to be efficient vancomycin substitute.     

Synthesis of β-cyclodextrin-lysozyme conjugates and their physicochemical and biochemical properties

Recently a great interest in the field of protein engineering and the design of innovative drug delivery systems employing specific ligands such as cyclodextrins is observed. The paper reports the solid state, thermal method for protein coupling with β-cyclodextrin and the physicochemical and biological properties of the obtained conjugates. The structure of the obtained conjugates was investigated via liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, dynamic light scattering and circular dichroism analysis. The presented conjugates were biologically active and covalently bound β-cyclodextrin preserved the ability to form inclusion complexes with the model compound. This report demonstrates the great potential of cyclodextrin as a modifying unit that can be used to modulate the properties of therapeutic proteins, additionally giving such conjugates the possibility to transport many therapeutic substances in the form of inclusion complexes. In addition, the paper presents the potential of protein-cyclodextrin conjugates to construct innovative bioactive molecules for biological and medical applications.     

Delamination of sodium montmorillonite in PA6 in the presence of melamine polyphosphate

This study describes the influence of melamine polyphosphate (MPP) flame retardant addition on layered structure of virgin sodium montmorillonite (MMT) in PA6/MMT system obtained in extrusion process. It was found that the extrusion of the PA6/MMT binary system in co‐rotating twin screw extruder gives intercalated clay nanocomposites, while during extrusion of ternary PA6/MMT/MPP composite, full exfoliation of clay was obtained in the system. Structure of the composites was proved utilizing wide angle X‐ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy techniques. Exfoliation of MMT in ternary PA6/MMT/MPP system was also confirmed by rheological studies (viscosity and creep measurements) which were carried out using rotational rheometer. Young's modulus of PA6/MMT/MPP was found to be ~25% greater comparing to PA6/MPP of the same filling level. Cone calorimetry experiments proved decrease of heat release rate peak of PA6/MMT/MPP by ~55% comparing to PA6/MPP with the same total filling level. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Design,synthesis and application of new bile acid ligands with 1,2,3-triazole ring

New dimers have been obtained from propargyl ester of bile acids and α,α′-diazide-m-xylene by intermolecular 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. These compounds have been used as ligands to form intermolecular hydrogen bonds with various aromatic acids. The structures of all products were confirmed by spectroscopic (¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and FT-IR) analysis, mass spectrometry (ESI, MALDI) and PM5 semiempirical methods.     

HPLC method for determination of moxifloxacin in plasma and its application in pharmacokinetic analysis

Moxifloxacin is a representative of the fourth generation of fluoroquinolones. It possesses bacteriostatic activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. A simple and fast high performance liquid chromatography-ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV) method was developed for moxifloxacin analysis. The separation was performed on C18 column. The mobile phase was a mixture of acetonitrile and 0.4% triethylamine solution. The regression curve was linear over the range 0.2–10.0?µg/mL. The validation parameters obey the European Medicine Agency limits. The in vivo study confirmed the practical application of the method.     

Asymptotic Behavior of Factorization and Projection Constants

This paper is concerned with estimates of important factorization constants that appear in Banach space theory. We prove upper bounds of the Hilbertian norm of projections on finite-dimensional spaces of interpolation spaces generated by certain abstract interpolation functors and show applications to Calderón–Lozanovskii spaces. We also prove estimates of the p-factorization norm and projection constants for finite-dimensional Banach lattices. We show as a consequence of our results that in a large class of n-dimensional Banach sequence lattices \(E_n\) the projection constants \(\lambda (E_n)\) satisfy \(\lim _{n\rightarrow \infty }\lambda (E_n)/\sqrt{n} = c\), where \(c=\sqrt{2/\pi }\) in the real case and \(c= \sqrt{\pi }/2\) in the complex case. Applications are given to vector-valued sequence spaces.