A road map to assess critical materials content in boron industrial wastes using sustainable micro-X-ray fluorescence and total reflection X-ray fluorescence instrumentation

Turkey is the leading country in the world in terms of boron production and sale. Increasing boron production goes along with an increasing generation of boron wastes. The pollution of the soil and the air around the waste piles, as well as the occupation of several square kilometers of ground, are major environmental problems. It is, therefore, very important to make use of the wastes to both protect the environment and create revenue. This work presenteda road map for fast screening of boron waste for critical elements followed by determination of the elements using small footprint low power instrumentation. The sample preparation was kept to a minimum. A procedure that allowed an assessment of critical materials in industrial production waste with minimal consumption of hazardous acids, energy, and time was presented. The samples were first screened for valuable and hazardous elements by micro-X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Samples with considerable contents of Cs, Rb, and Aswere then prepared as slurries for the total reflection XRF (TXRF) measurement. To evaluate the TXRF procedure, a standard reference material was analyzed. As a result, Rb and Cs in concentrations up to 420 ± 70 and 1500 ± 200 mg/kg were detected in some of the waste forms. The time savings were in order of a factor of 3 when comparing the prescreening combined micro-XRF and TXRF approach to an all TXRFanalysis approach.     

Reaction of (S)-homoserine lactone with Grignard reagents: synthesis of amino-keto-alcohols and β-amino acid derivatives

The ring-opening reaction of homoserine lactone with phenylmagnesium bromides was systematically examined. A reliable method to achieve β-amino acid precursors was developed by tuning the reaction conditions to favor mono-addition to the carbonyl moiety of the lactone.     

Prospects and Challenges of Microwave-Combined Technology for Biodiesel and Biolubricant Production through a Transesterification: A Review

Biodiesels and biolubricants are synthetic esters produced mainly via a transesterification of other esters from bio-based resources, such as plant-based oils or animal fats. Microwave heating has been used to enhance transesterification reaction by converting an electrical energy into a radiation, becoming part of the internal energy acquired by reactant molecules. This method leads to major energy savings and reduces the reaction time by at least 60% compared to a conventional heating via conduction and convection. However, the application of microwave heating technology alone still suffers from non-homogeneous electromagnetic field distribution, thermally unstable rising temperatures, and insufficient depth of microwave penetration, which reduces the mass transfer efficiency. The strategy of integrating multiple technologies for biodiesel and biolubricant production has gained a great deal of interest in applied chemistry. This review presents an advanced transesterification process that combines microwave heating with other technologies, namely an acoustic cavitation, a vacuum, ionic solvent, and a supercritical/subcritical approach to solve the limitations of the stand-alone microwave-assisted transesterification. The combined technologies allow for the improvement in the overall product yield and energy efficiency. This review provides insights into the broader prospects of microwave heating in the production of bio-based products.     

Hilbert-Schmidt Hankel operators with anti-holomorphic symbols on complete pseudoconvex Reinhardt domains

On complete pseudoconvex Reinhardt domains in ?², we show that there is no nonzero Hankel operator with anti-holomorphic symbol that is Hilbert-Schmidt. In the proof, we explicitly use the pseudoconvexity property of the domain. We also present two examples of unbounded non-pseudoconvex domains in ?² that admit nonzero Hilbert-Schmidt Hankel operators with anti-holomorphic symbols. In the first example the Bergman space is finite dimensional. However, in the second example the Bergman space is infinite dimensional and the Hankel operator \({H_{{{\bar z}_1}{{\bar z}_2}}}\) is Hilbert-Schmidt.     

Theoretical study of hydrolysis of an imine oxime in aqueous solution and crystal structure and spectroscopic characterization of a platinum(II) complex containing the hydrolysis product

The hydrolysis of an imine oxime (ppeieoH) in neutral and acidic aqueous solutions was studied using DFT at the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level. The rate-determining step at the neutral and acidic aqueous solutions is the nucleophilic attack of the water molecules to the neutral or protonated imine C atom of ppeieoH. The activation energy is much lower in the acidic hydrolysis. The hydrolysis of ppeieoH results in the parent carbonyl oxime (inapH) and amine compounds with ΔG _cal values of 8.66 and 11.02 kJ mol^?1 in the neutral and acidic solutions, respectively. The hydrolysis of ppeieoH was observed experimentally during its reaction with K₂[PtCl₄] in an aqueous solution. The reaction yielded [PtCl(inap)(DMSO)], which contains only the hydrolysis product inap. The new platinum(II) complex was characterized spectroscopic techniques and X-ray diffraction. The platinum(II) ion is coordinated by chlorido, carbonyl oxime (inap), and DMSO ligands forming a distorted square-planar arrangement. The molecules of the platinum(II) complex were connected by weak non-conventional C–H···O and C–H···π hydrogen bonds.     

Effect of epoxidized palm oil on the mechanical and morphological properties of a PLA–PCL blend

In this study, the effects of epoxidized palm oil (EPO) on the mechanical and morphological properties of a blend of two types of biodegradable polymer, poly(lactic acid) (PLA) and polycaprolactone (PCL), were investigated. The solution-casting process, with chloroform as a solvent, was used to prepare samples. Addition of EPO reduced the tensile strength and modulus but increased elongation at break for the PLA–PCL blend. The highest elongation at break was observed for the blend with 10 % (w/w) EPO content. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that the fractured surface morphology of the PLA–PCL blend became more stretched and homogeneous in PLA–PCL–EPO. Possible interactions between the PLA–PCL blend and EPO were also characterized by use of Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Thermal stability was studied by differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis. The results from FTIR and SEM revealed that the miscibility of the PLA–PCL blend was improved by addition of EPO.