Solvent‐Free One Pot Synthesis of 2‐aryl/Heteroarylbenzothiazoles Using Hypervalent Iodine (III) Reagents

In this article, an efficient, environmentally benign, one‐pot and simple synthesis of 2‐aryl/heteroarylbenzothiazoles by the reaction of 2‐aminothiophenol and aryl/heteroaryl aldehydes mediated by hypervalent iodine (III) reagents under solvent‐free condition at room temperature is demonstrated. All the reactions were carried out by grinding the reactants (2‐aminothiophenol and aryl/heteroaryl aldehydes) with hypervalent iodine (III) reagents in a mortar with pestle. Phenyliodine bistrifluoroacetate act as an efficient oxidizing reagent in comparison to iodobenzene diacetate in term of reaction time but yields are comparative. The advantages of this protocol are the one‐step procedure, mild reaction conditions, high yields of the products, and no side reactions.     

Coated-wire copper(II)-selective electrode based on phenylglyoxal-α-monoxime ionophore

A copper(II) ion-selective electrode based on a recently synthesized 2-quinolyl-2-phenylglyoxal-2-oxime (phenylglyoxal-alpha-monoxime) has been developed. The PVC-based membrane containing phenylglyoxal-alpha-monoxime, dibutyl phthalate as plasticizer, and sodium tetraphenylborate as anion excluder and membrane modifier, was directly coated on the surface of a platinum-wire electrode. The response of the electrode was linear with a near-Nernstian slope of 28.2 mV decade(-1) within the Cu2+ ion concentration range 1x10(-6)-1x10(-1) mol x L(-1). The response time for the proposed electrode to achieve a 95% steady potential for Cu2+ concentrations ranging from 1x10(-1) to 1x10(-6) mol x L(-1) is between 10 and 50 s, and the electrode is suitable for use within the pH range of 3 to 6.5. The electrode has a detection limit of 5x10(-7) mol x L(-1) Cu2+ and its selectivity relative to several alkali, alkaline earth, transition, and heavy metal ions was good. The coated-wire electrode could be used for at least two months without a considerable alteration of its potential. Applications of the electrode for determination of copper in milk powder samples and as an indicator electrode for potentiometric titration of Cu2+ ion using EDTA are reported.     

Equilibrium and kinetic study of novel methyltrimethoxysilane magnetic titanium dioxide nanocomposite for methylene blue adsorption from aqueous media

Novel magnetic titanium dioxide nanoparticles decorated with methyltrimethoxysilane (Fe₃O₄@TiO₂‐MTMOS) were successfully fabricated via a sol–gel method at room temperature. The synthesized material was characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and vibrating sample magnetometry. The removal efficiency of the adsorbent was evaluated through the adsorption of methylene blue (MB) dye from water samples. The adsorption isotherm and kinetics were evaluated using various models. The Langmuir model indicated a high adsorption capacity (11.5 mg g^?1) of Fe₃O₄@TiO₂‐MTMOS. The nanocomposite exhibited high removal efficiency (96%) and good regeneration (10 times) compared to Fe₃O₄ and Fe₃O₄@TiO₂ at pH = 9.0. Based on the adsorption mechanism, electrostatic interaction plays a main role in adsorption since MB dye is cationic in nature at pH = 9, whereas the adsorbent acquired an anionic nature. The newly synthesized Fe₃O₄@TiO₂‐MTMOS can be used as a promising material for efficient removal of MB dye from aqueous media.     

Synthesis of Fe<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript>@PPy–MWCNT nanocomposite and its application for extraction of ultra-trace amounts of PAHs from various samples

In the present study, multi-walled carbon nanotube oxide was immobilized on the pyrrole magnetic nanoparticles. Application of the synthesized material was investigated for the magnetic solid-phase extraction (MSPE) of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), from the environmental samples. Determinations of the analytes were performed with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The structure and morphology of Fe₃O₄@PPy–MWCNT were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, thermal gravimetric analysis, and vibrating sample magnetometer. Performance of MSPE is mainly affected by extraction time, sorbent amount, sample solution volume, and eluent type and volume. In this study, the best possible performance of MSPE has been achieved using a combination of central composite design and Bayesian regularized artificial neural network technique. Under the optimum extraction conditions, linear range between 0.5 and 250 µg L^?1 (R ² > 0.994), preconcentration factors from 232 to 403 and limits of detection ranging from 0.1 to 0.3 µg L^?1 were obtained. Relative standard deviations for intra-day and inter-day precision were 3.3–5.1% and 3.7–5.6%, respectively. In addition, feasibility of the method was demonstrated by extraction and determination of PAHs from some real samples containing tap water, hookah water as well as soil samples, and relative recovery in the range of 85.4–106.8% was obtained. This MSPE method provides several advantages, such as high extraction efficiency, minimum sorbent for extraction of the analytes from high sample volumes, convenient extraction procedure, and short analysis times.     

ACE-Inhibitory and Antioxidant Activities of Peptide Fragments Obtained from Tomato Processing By-Products Fermented Using <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus subtilis</Emphasis>: Effect of Amino Acid Composition and Peptides Molecular Mass Distribution

The effects of amino acid composition and peptide molecular mass on ACE-inhibitory and antioxidant activities of protein fragments obtained from tomato waste fermented using Bacillus subtilis were evaluated. The addition of B. subtilis increased the relative amounts of aromatic and positively-charged amino acids which have been described to influence the biological activities of peptide fragments. IC₅₀ values of hydrolysates for ACE-inhibitory and 2, 2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activities were found to be 1.5 and 8.2 mg/mL, respectively. Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) pattern of the hydrolysate indicated the breakdown of parent proteins to smaller peptides with molecular weights mainly below 1400 Da. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry analysis revealed that the highest ACE-inhibitory activity was due to peptides showing molecular mass range 500–800 Da, while the most active antioxidant peptides were found to be mainly at the two different peptide weight ranges 500–800 Da and 1200–1500 Da.     

Application of perforated sheets to improve the efficiency of reactive profiled noise barriers

The scope of this paper is to study the performance of noise barriers treated with different diffusers with/without a perforated sheet. We investigated the barrier insertion loss using a 2D boundary element method (BEM). To obtain a better depth sequence, a Random Sequence Diffuser (RSD) was designed. The results clearly showed that employing a "RSD" instead of the most popular Schroeder diffusers (Quadratic Residue Diffuser and Primitive Root Diffuser) increased the acoustic performance. We also found that the diffuser performance improved by treating the diffuser with perforated sheets either on the top surface or inside the wells. The addition of these perforated sheets inside the "RSD" (barrier model "RPI2") improved the performance by 3.59 dB (A).     

AuB2 in comparison to superconducting MgB2-an ab initio study

The noble metal diboride AuB₂, a potential candidate for superconductor, is studied by an ab initio method in comparison to the superconducting MgB₂. The results, described in terms of equilibrium lattice constants, bulk modulus, pressure derivative of bulk modulus and their in- and out-of-plane linear values, volume coefficient of T_c, density of states, band structure, show some similarity as well as dissimilarity between the behaviour of the two compounds. The implications for the behaviour are discussed.     

Backward substitution method based on Müntz polynomials for solving the nonlinear space fractional partial differential equations

A computational technique based on the Müntz polynomials and meshless method has been presented for the solution of nonlinear and linear space fractional partial differential equations (PDEs). The meshless method that is used in this study is the new version of backward substitution method (BSM). First, the time-derivative term is discretized by the Crank-Nicolson method. Then, the approximate solution is given as the separation of the approximation of the boundary data and the correcting functions using the Müntz polynomials. In general form, this approximate solution that does not necessarily satisfy the original equation is shown as the sum of the system basics in which it consists free parameters. Finally, these parameters are determined by the BSM method inside the domain. The main advantage of the method is efficiency and reliability that is examined by six numerical experiments.     

Time-domain dielectric relaxation of poly(methyl methacrylate) and nitrile rubber

The time-domain dielectric response (after-effect) of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) to a voltage step (100 V) was measured at varying temperatures. From the variation of the sample capacitanceC with time, we determined the ratioF _d/C, withF _d=(dC/dlnt)_max and C denoting the difference between the initial and the extrapolated equilibrium capacitance values. For PMMA around room temperature (RT) this ratio assumed values similar to those reported for mechanical stress relaxation. With NBR, such values were observed only at temperatures significantly below RT. A modified Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts (stretched exponential) function provided a good fit to the measuredC(t) data.