Effect of melt flow rate of polycarbonate and cobalt catalyst on properties of PET/PC (80/20 wt%) reactive blending

The influence of PC melt flow rate (MFR) on phase behavior, thermal and rheological properties of catalysed and non-catalysed poly(ethylene terephthalate)/polycarbonate (PET/PC) (80/20 wt%) reactive blending were investigated. Two types of PC named PC1 and PC2 with MFR 3.1 and 10.8 g/10 min, respectively, were used. Each PC and the catalyst showed significant influence on calorimetric properties, thermal stability and WAXS patterns of the blends. Regarding to TG/DTG, the blends degraded in two steps which were attributed to PET rich phase and PC one and permit to infer that a partially miscible blends were produced.     

Oxide nanolayer formation on surface of modified blast furnace sludge particles during voltammetric cycling in alkaline media

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Knowledge of the properties of metallurgical waste is essential for the assessment of their recycling. In this work, the formation of iron oxide nanolayers...     

Elucidating the Influence of Electrical Potentials on the Formation of Charged Oligopeptide Self-Assembled Monolayers on Gold

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) based on oligopeptides have garnered immense interest for a wide variety of innovative biomedical and electronic applications. However, to exploit their full potential, it is necessary to understand and control the surface chemistry of oligopeptides. Herein, we report on how different electrical potentials affect the adsorption kinetics, stability and surface coverage of charged oligopeptide SAMs on gold surfaces. Kinetic analysis using electrochemical surface plasmon resonance (e-SPR) reveals a slower oligopeptide adsorption rate at more positive or negative electrical potentials. Additional analysis of the potential-assisted formed SAMs by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrates that an applied electrical potential has minimal effect on the packing density. These findings not only reveal that charged oligopeptides exhibit a distinct potential-assisted assembly behaviour but that an electrical potential offers another degree of freedom in controlling their adsorption rate.     

Gelation Kinetics-Structure Analysis of pH-triggered Low Molecular Weight Hydrogelators

Properties such as shear modulus, gelation time, structure of supramolecular hydrogels are strongly dependent on self-assembly, gelation triggering mechanism and processes used to form the gel. In our work we extend reported rheology analysis methodologies to pH-triggered supramolecular gels to understand structural insight using a model system based on N−N’ Dibenzoyl-L-Cystine pH-triggered hydrogelator and Glucono-δ-Lactone as the trigger. We observed that Avrami growth model when applied to time-sweep rheological data of gels formed at lower trigger concentrations provide estimates of fractal dimension which agree well compared with visualization of the microstructure as seen via Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy, for a range of gelator concentrations.     

Solvent Mixture Optimization in the Extraction of Bioactive Compounds and Antioxidant Activities from Garlic (Allium sativum L.)

Garlic is a health promoter that has important bioactive compounds. The bioactive extraction is an important step in the analysis of constituents present in plant preparations. The purpose of this study is to optimize the extraction with the best proportion of solvents to obtain total phenolic compounds (TPC) and thiosulfinates (TS) from dried garlic powder, and evaluate the antioxidant activities of the optimized extracts. A statistical mixture simplex axial design was used to evaluate the effect of solvents (water, ethanol, and acetone), as well as mixtures of these solvents, after two ultrasound extraction cycles of 15 min. Results showed that solvent mixtures with a high portion of water and pure water were efficient for TPC and TS recovery through this extraction procedure. According to the regression model computed, the most significant solvent mixtures to obtain high TPC and TS recovery from dried garlic powder are, respectively, the binary mixture with 75% water and 25% acetone and pure water. These optimized extracts presented oxygen radical absorbance capacity. Pure water was better for total antioxidant capacity, and the binary mixture of water–acetone (75:25) was better for DPPH scavenging activity. These optimized extracts can be used for industrial and research applications.     

Isolation of Bisphenol A-Tolerating/degrading Shewanella haliotis Strain MH137742 from an Estuarine Environment

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology - The human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) occurs frequently. Once, this compound was one of the highest volume chemicals produced worldwide and used as a...     

Hysteresis of charge tunneling in assemblies of carboxylic acid-modified gold nanoparticles

We report on charge transport measurements through laterally contacted assemblies of Au nanoparticles capped with 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid ligands. Both alternating- and direct-current data indicate that although the nanoparticles behave as electrically isolated metallic islands, there is a significant influence from the nanoparticle environment, indicating the existence of a slow reorganization process linked to charge transport. On the basis of the observation of temperature-dependent hysteresis of charge tunneling, we propose that this process is due to proton transfer between the carboxylic acid tails of the ligands.     

Determination of weight distribution ratios of Pa(V) and Np(V) with some extraction chromatography resins and the AG1-X8 resin

Literature data on distribution ratios (D_w) of Np(V) and Pa(V) for the AG1-X8 resin are scarce whereas those related on resin capacity factors (k′) values for TEVA, TRU and U/TEVA resins are absent. Therefore, batch extraction experiments for Pa(V) and Np(V) from HCl and HNO₃ media were realized, at tracer scale, with AG1-X8 and EIChroM resins (TEVA, TRU and U/TEVA). Based on the new D_w and k′ values obtained in this study, a new protocol for Pa/Np separation has been developed leading to a better separation factor of 10⁵ and a chemical yield of 97 ± 3% and 99 ± 1% for Pa and Np, respectively. A separation of ²³¹Pa from uranium matrix was successfully tested.