Experimental and Modelling Study of Gravity Drainage in a Three-Block System

Transport in Porous Media - Gravity drainage is known as the controlling mechanism of oil recovery in naturally fractured reservoirs. The efficiency of this mechanism is controlled by...     

Abel’s integral operator: sparse representation based on multiwavelets

In this work, Abel’s integral operator is represented based on Alpert’s multiwavelets as a sparse matrix and then a non-linear Abel’s integral equation of the second kind is solved by multiwavelets Galerkin method. Nonlinearity and singularity make the numerical procedure more challenging. But the proposed scheme overcomes these problems. Convergence analysis is investigated and some numerical examples validated this analysis.

     

Green and convenient protocols for the efficient reduction of nitriles and nitro compounds to corresponding amines with NaBH4 in water catalyzed by magnetically retrievable CuFe2O4 nanoparticles

Research on Chemical Intermediates - In this study, firstly, CuFe2O4 nanoparticles were prepared by a simple operation. The structure of the mentioned nanoparticles was characterized by Fourier...     

Micron and Submicron-Sized Whey Protein–Pectin Aggregates Generated Via Alkali-Catalyzed Chemical Crosslinking

Citric acid was used to crosslink whey proteins and sugar beet pectin at 50°C with the aid of sodium hydroxide as catalyst. The effects of the pH of biopolymers mixed solution and the duration of the crosslinking process on various characteristics of generated particles were studied. Although the majority of the generated aggregates were of submicron size, particles as small as 59 nm were present. The crosslinking duration did not affect the size of aggregates; however, the samples crosslinked at pH 4.2 were greater than those obtained at pH 7.0. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed that aggregates were not uniformly shaped; differential scanning calorimetry indicated that conjugate whey protein–pectin aggregates had greater thermal stabilities than their parent individual biopolymers. The occurrence of crosslinkages was confirmed by the results of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.     

A manganese oxide with phenol groups as a promising structural model for water oxidizing complex in Photosystem II: a 'golden fish'

We describe here the ability of manganese oxide monosheets to aggregate to form layered structures with 4-aminophenol molecules. These aggregated monosheets could be considered as the first step to synthesize a self-assembled layered hybrid of phenol-manganese ions with phenol and manganese(III) and (IV) as exists in the water oxidizing complex of Photosystem II.     

Nanostructure-based electrochemical sensor for determination of glutathione in hemolysed erythrocytes and urine

A sensitive and selective electrochemical method was developed for the determination of glutathione (GSH) in hemolysed erythrocyte using vinylferocene modified carbon nanotubes paste electrode (VFMCNTPE). The results indicate that the electrode is efficient in terms of its electrocatalytic activity for the oxidation of GSH, leading to a reduced overpotential by more than 470 mV. Also, the values of catalytic rate constant (k), and diffusion coefficient (D) for GSH were calculated. The electrocatalytic oxidation peak current of GSH showed two linear dynamic ranges with a detection limit of 0.09 μM GSH. The linear calibration ranges were obtained between 0.2–4.0 and 4.0–250.0 μM GSH using square wave voltammetry (SWV) method. The proposed method was also examined as a selective, simple and precise electrochemical sensor for the determination of GSH in real samples such as urine and hemolysed erythrocyte.     

Flow-injection determination of ascorbic acid and cysteine simultaneously with spectrofluorometric detection.

A simple and sensitive spectrofluorometric method was developed for the simultaneous determination of ascorbic acid and cysteine by a flow-injection system. This method is based on the reduction of Tl(III) with ascorbic acid or cysteine in acidic media, producing fluorescence reagent, TlCl3(2-) (lambdaex = 227 nm, lambdaem = 419 nm). The injected sample solution was divided into two separate streams. The first stream was treated with Tl(III) at pH 3.0 and then passed through a 270 cm reaction coil to the flow cell of the spectrofluorometer, where the fluorescence intensity was measured. This signal is related to ascorbic acid and cysteine concentration. The second part of the injected sample solution was treated with Tl(III) in HCl solution and then passed through a 50 cm reaction coil to the flow cell and the fluorescence intensity was measured. This signal is related only to cysteine. Thus, the ascorbic acid content was determined directly by the difference according to the calibration curve. Ascorbic acid and cysteine can be determined in the range of 1 x 10(-6) to 5.0 x 10(-5) M, at a rate of 16 samples per hour. The limits of detection (S/N = 3) were 8 x 10(-7) M for ascorbic acid and 7 x 10(-7) M for cysteine. The influence of potential interfering substances was studied. The proposed method was successfully applied to the simultaneous determination of both analytes in real samples.