Feasibility study on reducing lead and cadmium absorption by spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) in a contaminated soil using nanoporous activated carbon

Activated carbons (AC) have been long recognized as prominent absorbents in industries and feature numerous applications in preventing or absorbing the harmful gases and liquids and could be employed for filtration and remediation or even reutilization of chemicals. In order to investigate the capacity of AC in reducing the absorption of heavy metals (HM) including lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) and dual complex (Pb?×?Cd) by spinach, a factorial experiment in a completely randomized design with three replications on a pot trial was conducted. Three factors including five levels of AC 0, 5000, 10000, 15000, 20000?mg/kg soil, one concentration level of Pb 4,000?mg/kg soil and one concentration level of cadmium Cd 8?mg/kg soil were tested. The index of heavy metal concentration was calculated in leaf, stem and root and their corresponding dry weights. Results illustrated that in contaminated soils, plants with AC exhibited a superior reduction of absorption of HM vis-à-vis the plants without AC. The foremost result regarding the impact of AC on reducing the concentration of Pb and Cd was observed in 20,000 level of AC. This reveals that AC declined the soil contamination and lessened the accumulation of HM into the shoots and roots. Results suggest that the application of AC may be an eligible solution for decreasing the translocation of HM into the plants.     

Energy,Exergy, Exergoeconomic and Emergy-Based Exergoeconomic (Emergoeconomic) Analyses of a Biomass Combustion Waste Heat Recovery Organic Rankine Cycle

In recent decades, there has been an increasing trend toward the technical development of efficient energy system assessment tools owing to the growing energy demand and subsequent greenhouse gas emissions. Accordingly, in this paper, a comprehensive emergy-based exergoeconomic (emergoeconomic) method has been developed to study the biomass combustion waste heat recovery organic Rankine cycle (BCWHR-ORC), taking into account thermodynamics, economics, and sustainability aspects. To this end, the system was formulated in Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software, and then the exergy, exergoeconomic, and emergoeconomic analyses were conducted accordingly. The exergy analysis results revealed that the evaporator unit with 55.05 kilowatts and the turbine with 89.57% had the highest exergy destruction rate and exergy efficiency, respectively. Based on the exergoeconomic analysis, the cost per exergy unit (c), and the cost rate (C˙) of the output power of the system were calculated to be 24.13 USD/GJ and 14.19 USD/h, respectively. Next, by applying the emergoeconomic approach, the monetary emergy content of the system components and the flows were calculated to evaluate the system’s sustainability. Accordingly, the turbine was found to have the highest monetary emergy rate of capital investment, equal to 5.43×1012 sej/h, and an output power monetary emergy of 4.77×104 sej/J. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the system’s overall performance characteristics from an exergoeconomic perspective, regarding the changes in the transformation coefficients (specific monetary emergy).     

In-vitro drug–drug interaction studies of diltiazem with floroquinolones

Diltiazem is an established cardiovascular drug mainly used for the management of hypertension specifically for the angina pectoris. Fluoroquinolones are widely prescribed against the treatment of severe infections. In vitro relations of diltiazem with fluoroquinolones (ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, norfloxacin, and ofloxacin) were examined using spectrophotometric and separation techniques, i.e., RP-HPLC. Diltiazem’s availabilities were observed to be predisposed highly in the presence of fluoroquinolones. To investigate the mechanism of interaction in a variety of dissolution environments, i.e., simulating body environments with regard to pH on these interactions has been studied. Moreover, complex of diltiazem–fluoroquinolones were prepared and elucidated through IR spectroscopy and confirmed by computational molecular modeling.     

Sodium Bromide Catalysed Regioselective Cleavage of Oxitanes with Chlorotrimethylsilane

Sodium bromide efficiently catalyses the regioselective cleavage of oxiranes with chlorotrimethylsilane to the corresponding O-silylated chlorohydrins in excellent yields.     

Radiation damage in polymer films from grazing‐incidence X‐ray scattering measurements

Grazing‐incidence X‐ray scattering (GIXS) is widely used to analyze the crystallinity and nanoscale structure in thin polymer films. However, ionizing radiation will generate free radicals that initiate crosslinking and/or chain scission, and structural damage will impact the ordering kinetics, thermodynamics, and crystallinity in many polymers. We report a simple methodology to screen for beam damage that is based on lithographic principles: films are exposed to patterns of X‐ray radiation, and changes in polymer structure are revealed by immersing the film in a solvent that dissolves the shortest chains. The experiments are implemented with high throughput using the standard beam line instrumentation and a typical GIXS configuration. The extent of damage (at a fixed radiation dose) depends on a range of intrinsic material properties and experimental variables, including the polymer chemistry and molecular weight, exposure environment, film thickness, and angle of incidence. The solubility switch for common polymers is detected within 10–60 s at ambient temperature, and we verified that this first indication of damage corresponds with the onset of network formation in glassy polystyrene and a loss of crystallinity in polyalkylthiophenes. Therefore, grazing‐incidence X‐ray “patterning” offers an efficient approach to determine the appropriate data acquisition times for any GIXS experiment. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2016 , 54, 1074–1086     

Development of co-continuous morphology in epoxy poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) blends cured by mixtures of phase-separating and non-phase-separating curing agents

The morphology of a quaternary blend containing a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA), a thermoplastic modifier (PMMA), a phase-separating curing agent (diaminodiphenylmethane, DDM), and a non-phase-separating curing agent (methylenebis(3-chloro-2,6-diethylaniline, MCDEA) was studied as a function of volume fraction of the thermoplastic modifier and fractional concentration of the curing agents in their mixture. It was found that using mixtures of curing agents a co-continuous morphology could be obtained at PMMA concentrations as low as 2.5 volume percent. Using FTIR spectroscopy it was proved that specific interactions are present between PMMA and individual amine curing agents. On the other hand, there was no detectable specific interaction between PMMA and DGEBA. By analyzing the micro-indentation hardness data of the cryo-fractured samples and putting forward the intrinsic hardness concept, it was proposed that the co-continuous morphology is inherently more effective than the other morphologies in changing the mechanical properties of the above-mentioned multi-component blends.     

Synthesis of stable derivatives of c(62): the first nonclassical fullerene incorporating a four-membered ring

A rational synthetic approach to the first four-membered ring-containing derivatives of C(62) is reported. They were synthesized by an inverse electron demand Diels-Alder reaction of 3,6-diaryl-1,2,4,5-tetrazines with C(60) in o-dichlorobenzene, followed by visible light irradiation at reflux. The structure of these nonclassical fullerenes derivatives was determined by X-ray single-crystal diffraction.     

Thermodynamic study of complex formation process of free base meso-tetraphenylporphyrins with dimethyl and dibutyltin(IV) dichloride: a new algorithm for a single thermometric titration

A novel, fast and easy single sample measurement has been developed based upon temperature dependence of equilibrium constant in order to determine the enthalpy and entropy changes of a complexation reaction using spectrophotometric temperature titration. The method can be used in determination of the formation constant and thermodynamic parameters of the solutions that there are difficulties in their titration where volatile compounds are studying. Knowledge of component spectra is not required for the analysis. The formation constants of the interactions of ß-di and tri-brominated meso-tetraphenylporphyrins, and meso-tetrakis(4-methylphenyl) and (4-methoxyphenyl) porphyrins with Me₂SnCl₂ and Bu₂SnCl₂, have been determined in range of 0–25 °C utilizing van’t Hoff relation, mass balance and equilibrium constant equations by an iterative least squares method with ΔH ⁰ as adjustable parameter. The outputs of analysis are the equilibrium constants, ligand and adduct spectral profiles, their concentrations as a function of temperature, the adjusted values of the standard enthalpy ΔH ⁰, and entropy ΔS ⁰ changes. The order of formation constants of the resulting 1:1 complexes decreased with increasing number of bromide substituents and increased with adding methyl and methoxy groups, and vary as H₂T(4-CH₃O)PP > H₂T(4-CH₃)PP > H₂TPP > H₂TPPBr₂ > H₂TPPBr₃ and Me₂SnCl₂ > Bu₂SnCl₂.