Effect of film thickness on the electro-reduction of molecular oxygen on electropolymerized cobalt tetra-aminophthalocyanine films

We studied the electrocatalytic activity of cobalt tetra-aminophthalocyanine (CoTAPc) for the reduction of molecular oxygen (O₂) on adsorbed monomeric and on electropolymerized films of different thicknesses on glassy carbon (GC) electrode. The polymeric films, denoted poly-CoTAPc, were first characterized by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and it appears that the types of phenomena revealed to be occurring depend less on the film thickness in basic than in acid media. For O₂ reduction, the results showed that poly-CoTAPc is more active than the monomeric CoTAPc adsorbed on GC. Indeed, rotating ring-disk electrode data showed that polymeric CoTAPc promotes the four-electron reduction of O₂ to water in parallel to a two-electron reduction to give peroxide. On monomeric and thin films of poly-CoTAPc, a two-electron reduction mechanism predominates. In basic media the activity increases very slightly with thickness, whereas in acid media this increase is more pronounced. This parallels the observed behavior revealed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.     

Sorption of uranium by non-living water hyacinth roots

Summary Many studies have shown that water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) roots can be used to accumulate high concentrations of organic as well as inorganic pollutants. They are currently used to remediate aquatic environments and aqueous solutions. In the present study, sorption of uranium from aqueous solutions by using dried roots of water hyacinth has been investigated. The sorption of uranium was examined as a function of initial concentration, pH, weight of roots and contact time. Five different concentrations 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 μg ^. ml^-1 were used. Sorption proves to be very rapid and depend on pH, weight of roots and concentration of uranium. Maximum sorption capacity of water hyacinth roots was 64,000 U⁶⁺ μg/g. The sorption of uranium by water hyacinth roots follows a Langmuir isotherm.     

Stabilization of γ‘ phase in Bi<Subscript>4</Subscript>V<Subscript>2-x</Subscript>Fe<Subscript>x</Subscript><Superscript>II</Superscript>O<Subscript>11-1.5x</Subscript> series

Summary This work reports the room-temperature stabilization of the Bi₄V_2-xFe_x^IIO_11-1.5x γ ‘ phase, a promising ionic conductive material that finds application in solid oxide fuel cell and oxygen sensor devices. The Fe(II) cation proved to be a better stabilizer than Fe(III), which was previously used, since a lower substitution degree of V⁵⁺ is needed for the former. Powder X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry were used in these experiments.     

Trennung,Identifizierung und Bestimmung von Bactericiden auf der Basis von halogenierten Aromaten mittels Gas-Chromatographie

The separation of a mixture of 22 bactericides has been achieved by gas chromatography on columns with silicone rubber W-982 as stationary phase with temperatures between 100° and 300°C. The unchanged compounds as well as their silylation products have been used. The latter are more conveniently used especially for the quantitative determination. To be able to calculate the retention indices after Kovats gas chromatography has been performed isothermally at 180°C for the more volatile compounds and at 250°C for all other bactericides.The retention indices obtained under these conditions are tabulated together with the limits of detection.     

Formation of hydroxyl radical from the photolysis of frozen hydrogen peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide (HOOH) in ice and snow is an important chemical tracer for the oxidative capacities of past atmospheres. However, photolysis in ice and snow will destroy HOOH and form the hydroxyl radical (*OH), which can react with snowpack trace species. Reactions of *OH in snow and ice will affect the composition of both the overlying atmosphere (e.g., by the release of volatile species such as formaldehyde to the boundary layer) and the snow and ice (e.g., by the *OH-mediated destruction of trace organics). To help understand these impacts, we have measured the quantum yield of *OH from the photolysis of HOOH on ice. Our measured quantum yields (Phi(HOOH --> *OH)) are independent of ionic strength, pH, and wavelength, but are dependent upon temperature. This temperature dependence for both solution and ice data is best described by the relationship ln(Phi(HOOH --> *OH)) = -(684 +/- 17)(1/T) + (2.27 +/- 0.064) (where errors represent 1 standard error). The corresponding activation energy (Ea) for HOOH (5.7 kJ mol(-1)) is much smaller than that for nitrate photolysis, indicating that the photochemistry of HOOH is less affected by changes in temperature. Using our measured quantum yields, we calculate that the photolytic lifetimes of HOOH in surface snow grains under midday, summer solstice sunlight are approximately 140 h at representative sites on the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. In addition, our calculations reveal that the majority of *OH radicals formed on polar snow grains are from HOOH photolysis, while nitrate photolysis is only a minor contributor. Similarly, HOOH appears to be much more important than nitrate as a photochemical source of *OH on cirrus ice clouds, where reactions of the photochemically formed hydroxyl radical could lead to the release of oxygenated volatile organic compounds to the upper troposphere.     

2-Amino-4-bromobutanoic Acid

(2S)- and (2R)-2-Amino-4-bromobutanoic acid were prepared starting from N-Boc-glutamic acid α tert-butyl ester. The double tert-butyl protection was necessary to prevent a partial racemisation during Barton’s radical decarboxylation used to transform the γ-carboxylic group into a bromide. This bromide reacted with different nitrogen, oxygen and sulphur nucleophiles to give nonnatural amino acids characterised by basic or heterocyclic side chains. The title compound was also used to prepare a conformationally constrained peptidomimetic.     

A molecular mechanics approach for analyzing tensile nonlinear deformation behavior of single-walled carbon nanotubes

In this paper, by capturing the atomic information and reflecting the behaviour governed by the nonlinear potential function, an analytical molecular mechanics approach is proposed. A constitutive relation for single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT’s) is established to describe the nonlinear stress-strain curve of SWCNT’s and to predict both the elastic properties and breaking strain of SWCNT’s during tensile deformation. An analysis based on the virtual internal bond (VIB) model proposed by P. Zhang et al. is also presented for comparison. The results indicate that the proposed molecular mechanics approach is indeed an acceptable analytical method for analyzing the mechanical behavior of SWCNT’s. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10121202, 90305015 and 10328203), the Key Grant Project of Chinese Ministry of Education (0306) and the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (HKU 7195/04E).     

Isolation of a carbon nanohoop with M(o)bius topology

Carbon nanohoop,a class of constrained molecular architecture consisting of linked arene units,has attracted considerable interest from both experimental and th...     

Effects of Different Extraction Methods on Vanilla Aroma

To establish the analytic conditions for examining the aroma quality of vanilla pods, we compared different extraction methods and identified a suitable option. We utilized headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME), steam distillation (SD), simultaneous steam distillation (SDE) and alcoholic extraction combined with gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to identify volatile components of vanilla pods. A total of 84 volatile compounds were identified in this experiment, of which SDE could identify the most volatile compounds, with a total of 51 species, followed by HS-SPME, with a total of 28 species. Ten volatile compounds were identified by extraction with a minimum of 35% alcohol. HS-SPME extraction provided the highest total aroma peak areas, and the peak areas of aldehydes, furans, alcohols, monoterpenes and phenols compounds were several times higher than those of the other extraction methods. The results showed that the two technologies, SDE and HS-SPME, could be used together to facilitate analysis of vanilla pod aroma.     

Preparation of nano-hydroxyapatite/poly(<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">l</Emphasis>-lactide) biocomposite microspheres

Nano-hydroxyapatite (HA)/poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) composite microspheres with relatively uniform size distribution were prepared by a solid-in-oil-in-water (s/o/w) emusion solvent evaporation method. The encapsulation of the HA nanopaticles in microshperes was significantly improved by grafting PLLA on the surface of the HA nanoparticles (p-HA) during emulsion process. This procedure gave a possibility to obtain p-HA/PLLA composite microspheres with uniform morphology and the encapsulated p-HA nanoparticle loading reached up to 40 wt% (33 wt% of pure HA) in the p-HA/PLLA composite microspheres. The microstructure of composite microspheres from core-shell to single phase changed with the variation of p-HA to PLLA ratios. p-HA/PLLA composite microspheres with the diameter range of 2–3 μm were obtained. The entrapment efficiency of p-HA in microspheres could high up to 90 wt% and that of HA was only 13 wt%. Surface and bulk characterizations of the composite microspheres were performed by measurements such as wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).