MWCNTs/Ionic Liquid/Graphene Quantum Dots Nanocomposite Coated with Nickel‐Cobalt Bimetallic Catalyst as a Highly Selective Non‐enzymatic Sensor for Determination of Glucose

In this work, a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was modified with multiwall carbon nanotubes/ionic liquid/graphene quantum dots (MWCNTs/IL/GQDs) nanocomposite. Then, the nanocomposite was decorated with nickel‐cobalt nanoparticles (Ni?Co NPs), and it was used as a non‐enzymatic glucose sensor. Field emission scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction spectroscopy, and energy dispersive spectroscopy were employed to prove the electrodeposition of the Ni?Co NPs on the surface of MWCNTs/IL/GQDs/GCE. Also, cyclic voltammetric and amperometric methods were utilized for the investigation of the electrochemical behaviour of the Ni?Co NPs/MWCNTs/IL/GQDs/GCE for glucose oxidation. The novel amperometric sensor displayed two linear ranges from 1.0 to 190.0 μmol L^?1 and 190.0 to 4910 μmol L^?1 with a low detection limit of 0.3 μmol L^?1 as well as fast response time (2 s) and high stability. Also, the sensor showed good selectivity for glucose determination in the presence of ascorbic acid, citric acid, dopamine, uric acid, fructose, and sucrose, as potential interference species. Finally, the performance of the proposed sensor was investigated for the glucose determination in real samples. Ni?Co NPs/MWCNTs/IL/GQDs/GCE showed good sensitivity and excellent selectivity.     

Electrically conductive epoxy‐based nanocomposite adhesives loaded with silver‐coated copper and silver‐coated reduced graphene oxide nanoparticles

In this research, a conductive adhesive based on epoxy resin as the polymer matrix and silver‐coated copper powder and silver‐coated reduced graphene oxide as conductive fillers was synthesized. Graphene oxide was synthesized by modified Hummer's method. It was reduced and modified by silver powder. Copper particles were coated with silver using the electroless plating method. Finally, conductive nanocomposite adhesives were prepared using conductive fillers with different weight fractions. The structural properties of fillers were identified by Fourier‐transform infrared (FTIR) and induced coupled plasma (ICP) analysis and the morphology of the samples by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Finally, conductive properties, lap shear strength, and thermal stability of adhesive were evaluated. The conductive adhesive prepared with optimized properties have 70% weight percentage silver‐coated copper powder and 1% weight percentage silver‐coated reduced graphene oxide. The bulk resistivity of the optimum sample was 1.6 × 10^‐2 Ω.cm, and the lap shear strength was 7.10 MPa. Also, thermogravimetric analysis showed that the weight loss of adhesive decreased from 88.72% to 30.55% during heating, which showed the addition of fillers improves the thermal stability of adhesive.     

Influence of MgO/CeO2 ratio on CO2-oxidative transformation of C2H6 to C2H4 over highly active and stable Cr/MgO(x)–CeO2(100−x) nanocatalysts

Cr/MgO(x)–CeO₂(100?x) nanocatalysts were synthesized by a coprecipitation method and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy-dispersive x-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis. The effect of ceria addition on their physicochemical characteristics was investigated, and the results were correlated with their catalytic performance in oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane. A decrease in the size of the metal particles was found when adding a suitable content of ceria to the support. Crystalline Cr₂O₃ was not found in the calcined samples, indicating good dispersion of Cr species on the support. All samples showed nanosized particles with uniform morphology, with the best surface morphology for the Cr/MgO(50)–CeO₂(50) sample, on which the particle distribution mainly lay in the range of 40–60 nm. Variation of the amount of Ce in the support led to an enhancement of the Cr⁶⁺/Cr³⁺ ratio, with the highest value for the Cr/MgO(50)–CeO₂(50) sample. This catalyst effectively dehydrogenated ethane to ethylene with CO₂ at 700 °C even after 5 h on-stream, giving 42.76 % ethylene yield.

     

Upgrading the Iranian national laboratory standard to conform to ISO 15189:2012

Accreditation and Quality Assurance - The Reference Health Laboratory (RHL) of Iran is the national authority responsible for making policies and plans for providing quality laboratory services...     

Phosphorus phenyl-group activation by reduced zirconium and niobium complexes stabilized by the [P2N2] macrocycle.

Reduction of [P2N2]ZrCl2 (where [P2N2] = PhP(CH2SiMe2NSiMe2CH2)2PPh) with KC8 under argon generates the phosphorus phenyl bridged bimetallic complex where the bridging phenyl groups are formally reduced to bis(allyl) dianions. Similar reduction of [P2N2]NbCl caused the one-electron reduction of the phosphorus phenyl group to generate a cyclohexadienyl moiety via a C-C bond formation between the ipso carbons of the two phenyl groups.     

Inherent safety evaluation in process plants— a comparison of methodologies

A global population increase and an improved standard of living are generally expected. To meet these demands, an increased production of chemicals will be necessary while protecting human health and the environment. However, most current methods of chemical production are unsustainable. New designs must result in plants that assure process and operator safety, the sustained health of workers and the community, and the protection of the environment. Traditional safety precautions and process controls minimize risk but cannot guarantee the prevention of accidents followed by serious consequences. Therefore, the general approach to environmental and safety problems must be changed from reactive to proactive. One way is to further develop the concept of inherent safety. In this paper some methods for inherent safety evaluations are reviewed. The aim of the study is to analyze the different tools available for inherent safety evaluation and identify the most important criteria in determining the inherent safety of a process plant. A model is proposed to show the interactions of different factors on the inherent safety level of a process and the model is illustrated by a case study.     

A novel efficient numerical method to simulate electrochemical process for a lithium ion battery

The simulation plays an important role in understanding of electrochemical behavior and internal process of lithium ion batteries. The existing finite difference method (FDM) to conduct the simulation of electrochemical process is time-consuming and computationally expensive. In this paper, a novel numerical method is proposed to accelerate the solution of the electrochemical model for a lithium ion battery. It is implemented in three steps. In the first step, physical analogy of electrochemical process to an electric circuit is used to solve charge conservation equations. In the second and third step, control volume method is used to solve species conservation equations. The simulation results show that the proposed method is much faster than the FDM by 2.2 times while maintain high accuracy which is verified by simulation and experimental data as well.     

On Nonhomogeneous Second Order Difference Inclusions of Accretive Type in Banach Spaces

In this paper, we investigate the existence, uniqueness and asymptotic behavior of solutions to a nonhomogeneous second order difference inclusion of accretive type in Banach spaces. We develop new methods and significantly extend and improve some known results in the literature. Our conclusions are new even for Hilbert spaces.     

The role of pyruvic acid as starting material in some organic reactions in the presence of SBA-Pr-SO<Subscript>3</Subscript>H nanocatalyst

Pyruvic acid contains three different reactive positions: –COOH, ketone carbonyl and methyl groups. Correspondingly, pyruvic acid was applied as starting material in the modified Niementowski reaction and Aldol condensation using SBA-Pr-SO₃H as an efficient nanocatalyst. Aldol condensation of pyruvic acid and oxindole provided a new oxindol-based carboxylic acid which was subsequently used in the Ugi four-component reaction. Moreover, through the modified Niementowski reaction of pyruvic acid, new derivatives of quiazoline were produced in the presence of SBA-Pr-SO₃H. The obtained products are important due to their potentially biological active skeletons.     

Sensitive amperometric pyridoxine sensor based on self‐assembled Prussian blue nanoparticle‐modified poly(o‐phenylenediamine)/glassy carbon electrode

Prussian blue nanoparticles (PBNPs) were prepared by a self‐assembly process on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with poly(o‐phenylenediamine) (PoPD) film. The stepwise fabrication process of PBNP‐modified PoPD/GCE was characterized using scanning electron microscopy and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The prepared PBNPs showed an average size of 70 nm and a homogeneous distribution on the surface of the modified electrode. The PBNPs/PoPD/GCE showed electrocatalytic activity towards the oxidation of pyridoxine (PN) and was used as an amperometric sensor. The modified electrode exhibited a linear response for PN oxidation over the concentration range 3–38.5 μM with a detection limit of ca 6.10 × 10^?7 M (S/N = 3) and sensitivity of 2.79936 × 10³ mA M^?1 cm^?2 using an amperometric method. The mechanism and kinetics of the catalytic oxidation reaction of PN were investigated using cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry. The values of α, k_cat and D were estimated as 0.36, 1.089 × 10² M^?1 s^?1 and 8.9 × 10^?5 cm² s^?1, respectively. This sensor also exhibited good anti‐interference and selectivity. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.