Preparation, characterization, and photocatalytic activity of sulfate-modified titania for degradation of methyl orange under visible light

Hydrated titania was prepared by a sol-gel method, taking tetraisopropyl orthotitanate as starting material, and then promoted with different weight percentages of sulfate by an incipient wetness impregnation method. The materials were characterized by various advanced techniques such as PXRD, BET surface area, N(2) adsorption-desorption measurements, FTIR, and SEM. Analytical results demonstrated that TiO(2) is mesoporous in nature, and sulfate modification could inhibit the phase transformation and enhance the thermal stability of TiO(2). It was also found that sulfate modification could reduce the crystallite size and increase the specific surface area of the catalysts. The degradation of methyl orange under solar radiation was investigated to evaluate the photocatalytic activity of these materials. Effects of different parameters such as pH of the solution, amount of catalyst, additives, and kinetics were investigated. At 2.5 wt% sulfate loading, the average percentage of degradation of methyl orange was nearly two times than that of neat TiO(2). The photocatalytic degradation followed first-order kinetics.     

Nickel(II) chloride as an efficient and useful catalyst for chemoselective thioacetalization of aldehydes

A wide variety of acyclic and cyclic dithioacetals can be prepared chemoselectively from the corresponding aldehydes by employing a catalytic amount of nickel(II) chloride in dry CH₂Cl₂-MeOH (5:1) at room temperature in good yields. Some of the major advantages of this procedure are high chemoselectivity, ease of operation, high yields and also compatibility with other protecting groups.     

Size quantization effect in GaAs nanocrystals

GaAs nanocrystals have been synthesized by an electrochemical route from the acidic solutions of metallic gallium and arsenic oxide. Structural analysis by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), reveales the presence of orthorhombic phase, in contrast to the usual cubic phase of bulk GaAs. Well separated GaAs nanocrystals having sizes in the range of 7 to 15 nm are identified in the TEM micrograph. Optical absorption shows a strong excitonic absorption band on account of quantum size effect associated with GaAs nanocrystals. Photoluminescence, recorded at 300 K under ultraviolet excitation (369 nm), shows the HOMO-LUMO transition band as well as the red shifted bands. Micro-Raman analysis shows a phonon mode centered at 250 cm⁻¹ associated with a point defect.     

Microscopic study of low-lying collective bands in77Kr

The structure of the collective bands in⁷⁷Kr is investigated within our deformed shell model (DSM) based on Hartree-Fock states. The different levels are classified into collective bands on the basis of their B(E2) values. The calculatedK = 5/2⁺ ground band agrees reasonably well with the experiment. An attempt has been made to study the structure of the 3-quasiparticle band based on large J state in this nucleus. The calculated collective bands, the B(E2), and B(M1) values are compared with available experimental data. The nature of alignments in the low-lying bands is also analyzed.     

Chiral synthons from campholenaldehyde: enantiospecific synthesis of diquinane and linear triquinanes

Enantiospecific syntheses of diquinane and linear triquinanes were accomplished, starting from the readily available α-campholenaldehyde employing a Nazarov reaction as the key step.     

Enantioselective formal total syntheses of Clavukerin A and isoclavukerin A via a ring-closing metathesis reaction

Enantioselective formal total syntheses of the marine trisnorsesquiterpenes clavukerin A and isoclavukerin A, starting from (R)-limonene employing an RCM reaction as the key step, are described.     

Evaluation and Optimization of Organic Acid Pretreatment of Cotton Gin Waste for Enzymatic Hydrolysis and Bioethanol Production

This paper investigates the efficiency of the organic acids on the pretreatment of an industrially generated cotton gin waste for the removal of lignin, thereby releasing cellulose and hemicellulose as fermentable sugar components. Cotton gin waste was pretreated with various organic acids namely lactic acid, oxalic acid, citric acid, and maleic acid. Among these, maleic acid was found to be the most efficient producing maximum xylose sugar (126.05?±?0.74 g/g) at the optimum pretreatment condition of 150 °C, 500 mM, and 45 min. The pretreatment efficiency was comparable to the conventional dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment. A lignin removal of 88% was achieved by treating maleic acid pretreated biomass in a mixture of sodium sulfite and sodium chlorite. The pretreated biomass was further evaluated for the release of sugar by enzymatic hydrolysis and subsequently bioethanol production from hydrolysates. The maximum 686.13 g/g saccharification yield was achieved with maleic acid pretreated biomass which was slightly higher than the sulfuric acid (675.26 g/g) pretreated waste. The fermentation of mixed hydrolysates(41.75 g/l) produced 18.74 g/l bioethanol concentration with 2.25 g/l/h ethanol productivity and 0.48 g/g ethanol yield using sequential use of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia stipitis yeast strains. The production of bioethanol was higher than the ethanol produced using co-culture in comparison to sequential culture. Thus, it has been demonstrated that the maleic acid pretreatment and fermentation using sequential use of yeast strains are efficient for bioethanol production from cotton gin waste.     

Carbon nanoparticles as chromophores for photon harvesting and photoconversion

Carbon nanomaterials have generated a tremendous amount of attention in the scientific community. While most of the research and development efforts have been on fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and graphene sheets, carbon nanoparticles (which are often considered as impurities or unwanted complications in the other carbon nanomaterials) have recently emerged as a unique class of highly fluorescent nano-dots. However, little or no attention has been paid to potential uses of carbon nanoparticles as chromophores in photochemical reactions or for photon harvesting and photoconversion in general. In the study reported herein we demonstrate the chromophore-equivalent functions of aqueous-suspended small carbon nanoparticles in harvesting visible photons for the reductive coating of the nanoparticles with silver and gold and, as a result, the preparation of unique carbon-noble-metal core-shell nanostructures.     

Probing the surface states in nano ZnO powder synthesized by sonication method: Photo and thermo-luminescence studies

Zinc oxide, a transparent conducting oxide, has been synthesized in a novel route by application of continuous and pulsed mode ultrasonication. The powders prepared in this method are found to be nano particles of 24 and 20 nm respectively. The behaviour of two powders is found to be different when X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, and Fourier transform infrared spectra were recorded. The thermo luminescence behaviour was also found to be different. It has been possible to incorporate H ion into the system by sonication process. Surface states created by sonication process are found to influence the photo and thermo luminescence of the system.     

Ultrafast photoinduced electron transfer from dimethylaniline to coumarin dyes in sodium dodecyl sulfate and triton X-100 micelles

The primary steps of photoinduced electron transfer (PET) from N,N-dimethylaniline (DMA) to five coumarin dyes are studied in an anionic micelle [sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)] and a neutral micelle [triton X-100 (TX-100)] using femtosecond upconversion. The rate of PET in micelle is found to be highly nonexponential. In both the micelles, PET displays components much faster (approximately 10 ps) than the slow components (180-2900 ps) of solvation dynamics. The ultrafast components of electron transfer exhibit a bell-shaped dependence on the free energy change. This is similar to Marcus inversion. The rates of PET in TX-100 and SDS micelle are, in general, faster than those in cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) micelle. In the SDS and TX-100 micelle, the Marcus inversion occurs at -DeltaG0 approximately 0.7 eV which is lower than that (approximately 1.2 eV) in CTAB micelle. Possible causes of variation of PET in different micelles are discussed.