Comparative study of the textural and structural properties of the aerogel and xerogel sulphated zirconia

Aerogel and xerogel sulphated zirconia with defined atomic ratio S/Zr = 0.5 and molar hydrolysis ratio h = nH₂O/nZrO₂ = 3 show different textural and structural properties after calcination at high temperatures. The aerogel obtained just after solvent evacuation develops only the tetragonal phase, whereas the xerogel dried in an oven is amorphous. Heating to a temperature above 833 K, leads to transition of the tetragonal phase to the monoclinic one for the two solids, due to sulphur loss but the tetragonal phase remains stable for the aerogel . Raman, Infrared and XPS spectroscopies show that the loss of the sulphur at high temperatures seems to be easier for the xerogel than for the aerogel.     

Characterization of hydrotreated Cu-ZSM-5 catalyst for the selective catalytic reduction of NO by n-decane

The steam treatment of Cu-ZSM-5 prepared by solid ion exchange involves an important decrease of the NO conversion. Characterization of the solids by NO-TPD, H₂-TPR, ²⁷Al MAS NMR shows that the catalyst deactivation is mainly due to change in copper species rather than the collapse of the zeolite framework.This revised version was published online in December 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Production of Xylooligosaccharides by Immobilized His-tagged Recombinant Xylanase from Penicillium occitanis on Nickel-Chelate Eupergit C

Penicillium occitanis xylanase 2 expressed with a His-tag in Pichia pastoris, termed PoXyn2, was immobilized on nickel-chelate Eupergit C by covalent coupling reaction with a high immobilization yield up to 93.49 %. Characterization of the immobilized PoXyn2 was further evaluated. The optimum pH was not affected by immobilization, but the immobilized PoXyn2 exhibited more acidic and large optimum pH range (pH 2.0–4.0) than that of the free PoXyn2 (pH 3.0). The free PoXyn2 had an optimum temperature of 50 °C, whereas that of the immobilized enzyme was shifted to 65 °C. Immobilization increased both pH stability and thermostability when compared with the free enzyme. Time courses of the xylooligosaccharides (XOS) produced from corncob xylan indicated that the immobilized enzyme tends to use shorter xylan chains and to produce more xylobiose and xylotriose initially. At the end of 24-h reaction, XOS mixture contained a total of 21.3 and 34.2 % (w/w) of xylobiose and xylotriose with immobilized xylanase and free xylanase, respectively. The resulting XOS could be used as a special nutrient for lactic bacteria.     

Synthesis of diamine functionalized mesoporous organosilicas with large pores

Hybrid mesoporous silicas functionalized with ethylenediamine groups have been synthesized via sol–gel process under different conditions. The best textural properties, with pore diameters up to 170 Å, have been obtained using carboxylic acids as catalysts in propanol as solvent without the need for any surfactant. The presence of the diamine moiety has been demonstrated by different characterization techniques, and the materials have been used in the adsorption of copper cations. The adsorption capacity of all the solids is high (up to 1.87 mmol/g and up to 2.47 Cu atoms/nm²), with important variations in the properties of the silica surface, besides the role of the immobilized diamine moieties as ligand for copper. In general the surface area seems to be the most important feature controlling the adsorption.     

Effect of the variation of metal and cerium loadings on CeO2x–TiO2(100−x) supports in the complete catalytic oxidation of formaldehyde

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Formaldehyde has been successfully converted into CO2 and H2O at low temperature in the presence of CeO2x–TiO2(100?x) mixed oxides prepared by the...     

Effect of the alkoxides addition order on the properties of Pd/Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript>–ZrO<Subscript>2</Subscript> catalysts used for methane combustion

A series of Pd/Al₂O₃–ZrO₂ catalysts were prepared to be used in methane oxidation. The effect of the addition order of metal alkoxides on the texture, structure and catalytic properties of the solids is studied. The control of the preparation parameters is achieved via sol gel way as an attractive route of the preparation of these catalysts. N₂ physisorption, XRD, Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) and H₂ chemisorption are the main techniques used to characterize the prepared Pd/Al₂O₃–ZrO₂ catalysts. Textural analysis reveals the mesoporosity of all the catalysts independently of the addition order of alkoxides while surface area is more pronounced when the aluminium alkoxide is added before or with the zirconium precursor. XRD patterns show the development of the zirconia tetragonal phase for all the catalysts. Better metallic dispersion is obtained when aluminium alkoxide is added first which can be justified by the high homogeneity observed on the corresponding catalyst as revealed by SEM technique.     

New Thermostable Amylase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus cohnii</Emphasis> US147 with a Broad pH Applicability

A new thermophilic bacterial strain identified as Bacillus cohnii US147 was isolated from the southern Tunisian soil. The identification was based on physiological tests and molecular techniques related to the 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid. The isolated strain produced amylase, which was purified. This amylase had an apparent molecular mass of 30 kDa as estimated by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Amylase US147 showed K _m and V _max values of 0.7 mg/ml and 2.2 U/ml, respectively, with starch as the substrate. The enzyme was active in acid and basic pH and had a maximal activity on starch at pH 9 and 70 °C. The enzyme was stable at pH 9 for 72 h and retained half of its activity after incubation at 70 °C for 150 min. A partially inhibition (15%, 25%, 23%, 20%, and 22%) was obtained with 1 mM SDS, 1 mM NaBO₃, 1 mM H₂O_2, 1 mM Zn⁺², and 5 mM ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), respectively. The amylase recovered its original activity by the addition of 10 mM Ca ²⁺ to the 5 mM EDTA. These properties indicated a possible use of this amylase in starch saccharification, in detergent, and in other industrial applications.     

Some statistical properties of the kernel-diffeomorphism estimator

The kernel density estimation method is not so attractive when the density has its support confined to a bounded space U of R^d. In a recent paper, we suggested a new nonparametric probability density function (p.d.f.) estimator called the ‘kernel-diffeomorphism estimator’, which suppressed border convergence difficulties by using an appropriate regular change of variable. The present paper gives more asymptotic theory (uniform consistency, normality). An invariance criterion for p.d.f. estimators is discussed. The invariance of the kernel diffeomorphism estimator under special affine motion (a translation followed by any member of the special linear group SL(d, R) is proved. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.