Reactive kinetics of carbon dioxide loaded aqueous blend of 2-amino-2-ethyl-1,3-propanediol and piperazine using a pressure drop method

In this study, a new pressure drop method has been used to investigate the kinetics of carbon dioxide reaction with aqueous blend of 2-amino-2-ethyl-1,3-propanediol (AEPD) with piperazine (PZ). The blending of a small amount of PZ with AEPD has a significant effect on the observed rate constant, k_obs. It was observed that k_obs values of the blend increased more than twice than the summation of k_obs values of individual alkanolamines. The reaction kinetics in this study were modeled by assuming a termolecular mechanism. The addition of 0.1 mol/L of PZ to 1 mol/L AEPD exhibited an observed rate constant, k_obs of 8824.1 s⁻¹, which is comparable to other alkanolamine mixtures. Hence, PZ/AEPD mixtures can be potentially used for rapid carbon dioxide capture.     

Layered Crystalline and Amorphous Platinum Disulfide (PtS2): Contrasting Electrochemistry

Group 6 transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), such as MoS₂ and WS₂ have been extensively studied for various applications while few studies have delved into other TMDs such as platinum dichalcogenides. In this work, layered crystalline and amorphous platinum disulfide (PtS₂) were synthesized, characterised and their fundamental electrochemical properties were investigated. Both materials exhibited inherent oxidation and reduction reactions which would limit their operating potential window for sensing applications. Amorphous phase materials are considered to be promising electrocatalysts due to the porous, and nanostructured morphology with high concentration of unsaturated active sites. The electrocatalytic performances towards oxygen reduction (ORR) and hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) of crystalline and amorphous PtS₂ were analysed. Amorphous PtS₂ was found to exhibit superior electrocatalytic performances towards ORR and HER as compared to crystalline PtS₂. For HER, amorphous and crystalline PtS₂ have overpotential values of 0.30 V and 0.70 V (vs. RHE) at current density of 10 mA cm⁻², respectively. The influence of electrochemical reduction pre-treatment on their catalytic behaviours was also investigated. Electrochemical reduction pre-treatment on both crystalline and amorphous PtS₂ removed the oxidized sulfate groups and increased the proportion of Pt⁰ oxidation state which exposed more catalytic sites. As such, these materials were activated and displayed improved ORR and HER performances. Electrochemically reduced amorphous PtS₂ outperformed the untreated counterparts and exhibited the best HER performance with overpotential of 0.17 V (vs. RHE) at current density of −10 mA cm⁻². These findings provide insights into the electrochemical properties of noble metal PtS₂ in both crystalline and amorphous states which can be activated by electrochemical reduction pre-treatment.     

Metal contamination in Sunairi Point sediment core along Karachi coast,Pakistan

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - This paper describes the pollution level in sediment core collected from Sunairi Point of Karachi coastal area Pakistan. The sediment was...     

Simpson and Newton type inequalities for convex functions via newly defined quantum integrals

We first establish two new identities, based on the kernel functions with either two section or three sections, involving quantum integrals by using new definition of quantum derivative. Then, some new inequalities related to Simpson's 1/3 formula for convex mappings are provided. In addition, Newton type inequalities, for functions whose quantum derivatives in modulus or their powers are convex, are deduced. We also mention that the results in this work generalize inequalities given in earlier study.     

Cross-link network of polydimethylsiloxane via addition and condensation (RTV) mechanisms. Part I: Synthesis and thermal properties

A series of highly cross-linked polysiloxane was synthesised via hydrosilylation and condensation reaction. Structural identification using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and ¹H-NMR confirmed their chemical structures. Their thermal and, mechanical properties, and crystallinity, were analysed and related to the level of cross-link density. These systems displayed elevated thermal and hardness properties at an increased cross-link density. Furthermore, the level of crystallinity was reduced as displayed by XRD analysis. Along with this observation, the calculated fractional free volume (FFV) showed a decreasing trend leading to the ‘densification’ effect. It was envisaged that the linear polysiloxane chain segments aligned parallel to each other in a triclinic crystal system to generate a crystalline domain. The spacing between these stacking chains was found to be about 7.2 Å as measured from simulated XRD pattern.     

Green Iron Oxide Nanoparticles as a Modifier of Carbon Paste Electrode for Electrochemical Estimation of Paracetamol in Pharmaceutical Samples

Russian Journal of Electrochemistry - Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) were green synthesized using an aqueous leaves extract of Christ’s thorn jujube and were characterized by TGA, FTIR,...     

Tunable Light-Emission Properties of Solution-Processable N-Heterocyclic Carbene Cyclometalated Gold(III) Complexes for Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC) cyclometalated gold(III) complexes remain very scarce and therefore their photophysical properties remain currently underexplored. Moreover, gold(III) complexes emitting in the blue region of the electromagnetic spectrum are rare. In this work, a series of four phosphorescent gold(III) complexes was investigated bearing four different NHC monocyclometalated (C^C*)-type ligands and a dianionic (N^N)-type ancillary ligand ((N^N)=5,5’-(propane-2,2-diyl)bis(3-(trifluoromethyl)-1 H-pyrazole) (mepzH₂)). The complexes exhibit strong phosphorescence when doped in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) at room temperature, which were systematically tuned from sky-blue [λ_PL=456 nm, CIE coordinates: (0.20, 034)] to green [λ_PL=516 nm, CIE coordinates: (0.31, 0.54)] by varying the monocyclometalated (C^C*) ligand framework. The complexes revealed high quantum efficiencies (ϕ_PL) of up to 43 % and excited-state lifetimes (τ₀) between 15–266 μs. The radiative rate constant values found for these complexes (k_r=10³–10⁴ s⁻¹) are the highest found in comparison to previously known best-performing monocyclometalated gold(III) complexes. Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) calculations of these complexes further lend support to the excited-state nature of these complexes. The calculations showed a significant contribution of the gold(III) metal center in the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (LUMOs) of up to 18 %, which was found to be unique for this class of cyclometalated gold(III) complexes. Additionally, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) were fabricated by using a solution process to provide the first insight into the electroluminescent (EL) properties of this new class of gold(III) complexes.     

Investigation of modified orange peel in the removal of Cd2+, Co2+ and Zn2+ from wastewater

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry - Eco-friendly and cost-effective adsorbent material was successfully synthesized from orange peel (OP). Using H2O2, the modification of the...     

Excess molar enthalpies of ternary mixtures (dibutyl ether or dipropyl ether + 2,2-dimethylbutane + 2,3-dimethylbutane) at the temperature 298.15 K

Excess molar enthalpies, measured at the temperature 298.15 K and atmospheric pressure conditions by means of a flow microcalorimeter, are reported for the ternary mixtures {x₁(dibutyl ether or dipropyl ether) + x₂ 2,2-dimethylbutane + (1 ? x₁ ? x₂) 2,3-dimethylbutane}. A smooth representation of the results is described and the constant-enthalpy contours for each ternary system are displayed on the respective Roozeboom diagrams. The results serve to show that good estimates of the excess molar enthalpies of the ternary systems can be obtained from the Liebermann–Fried model by using the physical properties of the constituent pure components and the parameters determined from the binary mixtures of these components.