Characterization of FDR fly ash and brick/lime mixtures

The present research is concerning the characterization of FDR (fuel derived from residues) fly ash and mixtures with lime/brick hydraulic binder by DTA/TG/DTG thermo-analysis, X-ray diffractometry and chemical analysis. The use of hydraulic binder obtained from building brick rejects, which is less expensive than the usual solidifiers such as cementitious binder and silicates, allows us to reutilize, in the meantime, this wreckage material, to the advantage of environmental sustainability. Fly ash samples investigated in the present study were separated in a thermo-incineration plant. Mineralogical DTA/TG/DTG and XRD investigations reveal the presence of different phases as well as chemical analysis shows a moderate concentration of heavy metals and high content of chloride and sulphate. Results obtained from leaching tests with water carried out on hardened pastes containing fly ash lead to interesting results, which highlight behaviour to the release of contaminants. The whole of the results obtained in the present study make it possible to regard the objective of disposing such hardened materials in inert waste landfill sites as achievable.     

Synthesis and structure of iron(iii) diamine-bis(phenolate) complexes

The structures and properties of six new iron(iii) diamine-bis(phenolate) complexes are reported. Reaction of anhydrous FeX(3) salts (where X = Cl or Br) with the diprotonated tripodal tetradentate ligands 2-pyridylamino-N,N-bis(2-methylene-4-methyl-6-tert-butylphenol), H(2)[L(1)], and N,N-dimethyl-N',N'-bis(2-methylene-4-methyl-6-tert-butylphenol)ethylenediamine, H(2)[L(2)], produces the trigonal bipyramidal iron(iii) complexes, [L(1)]FeCl , [L(1)]FeBr , [L(2)]FeCl and [L(2)]FeBr . Reaction of FeX(3) with the related linear tetradentate ligand N,N'-bis(4,6-tert-butyl-2-methylphenol)-N,N'-bismethyl-1,2-diaminoethane, H(2)[L(3)], generates square pyramidal iron(iii) complexes, [L(3)]FeCl and [L(3)]FeBr . Complexes have been characterized using electronic absorption spectroscopy and magnetometry. Single crystal X-ray molecular structures have been determined for complexes 1, 3, 5 and 6.     

Thermally induced mixing of water dominated interstellar ices

Despite considerable attention in the literature being given to the desorption behaviour of smaller volatiles, the thermal properties of complex organics, such as ethanol (C(2)H(5)OH), which are predicted to be formed within interstellar ices, have yet to be characterized. With this in mind, reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) and temperature programmed desorption (TPD) have been used to probe the adsorption and desorption of C(2)H(5)OH deposited on top of water (H(2)O) films of various thicknesses grown on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) at 98 K. Unlike many other molecules detected within interstellar ices, C(2)H(5)OH has a comparable sublimation temperature to H(2)O and therefore gives rise to a complicated desorption profile. RAIRS and TPD show that C(2)H(5)OH is incorporated into the underlying ASW film during heating, due to a morphology change in both the C(2)H(5)OH and H(2)O ices. Desorption peaks assigned to C(2)H(5)OH co-desorption with amorphous, crystalline (CI) and hexagonal H(2)O-ice phases, in addition to C(2)H(5)OH multilayer desorption are observed in the TPD. When C(2)H(5)OH is deposited beneath ASW films, or is co-deposited as a mixture with H(2)O, complete co-desorption is observed, providing further evidence of thermally induced mixing between the ices. C(2)H(5)OH is also shown to modify the desorption of H(2)O at the ASW-CI phase transition. This behaviour has not been previously reported for more commonly studied volatiles found within astrophysical ices. These results are consistent with astronomical observations, which suggest that gas-phase C(2)H(5)OH is localized in hotter regions of the ISM, such as hot cores.     

Ammonium-directed dihydroxylation: metal-free synthesis of the diastereoisomers of 3-aminocyclohexane-1,2-diol

The ammonium-directed, metal-free oxidation of 3-(N,N-dibenzylamino)cyclohex-1-ene with mCPBA in the presence of either trichloroacetic acid or tosic acid has been used as the key step to facilitate the synthesis of all the diastereoisomers of 3-aminocyclohexane-1,2-diol, in >98% de in each case.     

High-accuracy extrapolated ab initio thermochemistry. III. Additional improvements and overview

Effects of increased basis-set size as well as a correlated treatment of the diagonal Born-Oppenheimer approximation are studied within the context of the high-accuracy extrapolated ab initio thermochemistry (HEAT) theoretical model chemistry. It is found that the addition of these ostensible improvements does little to increase the overall accuracy of HEAT for the determination of molecular atomization energies. Fortuitous cancellation of high-level effects is shown to give the overall HEAT strategy an accuracy that is, in fact, higher than most of its individual components. In addition, the issue of core-valence electron correlation separation is explored; it is found that approximate additive treatments of the two effects have limitations that are significant in the realm of <1 kJ mol(-1) theoretical thermochemistry.     

Luminescent nanocrystals in phospholipid micelles for bioconjugation: an optical and structural investigation

Organic capped luminescent CdSe@ZnS nanocrystals (NCs) have been incorporated in block copolymer micelles, formed by polyethylene glycol modified phospholipids (PEG lipids). The obtained water soluble NC including PEG lipid micelles have been conjugated with bovine serum albumine (BSA). The entire process has been investigated by using optical, structural and electrophoretic complementary techniques. Such an integrated approach has allowed to elucidate critical issues, such as the time and temperature effects on the phase behavior of the PEG lipid/NC aggregate structures, the emitting properties of the NCs before and after micelle formation and bio-conjugation and the effect of conjugation on the biological moiety. The overall results provide relevant insight on the fabrication of the bio-conjugates, on their stability and on preparative procedure reproducibility, in view of the use of the resulting protein decorated NCs as multifunctional hybrid building blocks for the fabrication of a variety of supramolecular assemblies to exploit in biological sensing and diagnostic applications.     

Thermal decomposition of methyl butanoate: ab initio study of a biodiesel fuel surrogate

In this paper, we report a detailed analysis of the breakdown kinetic mechanism for methyl butanoate (MB) using theoretical approaches. Electronic structures and structure-related molecular properties of reactants, intermediates, products, and transition states were explored at the BH&HLYP/cc-pVTZ level of theory. Rate constants for the unimolecular and bimolecular reactions in the temperature range of 300-2500 K were calculated using Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus and transition state theories, respectively. Thirteen pathways were identified leading to the formation of small compounds such as CH(3), C(2)H(3), CO, CO(2), and H(2)CO. For the initial formation of MB radicals, H, CH(3), and OH were considered as reactive radicals participating in hydrogen abstraction reactions. Kinetic simulation results for a high temperature pyrolysis environment show that MB radicals are mainly produced through hydrogen abstraction reactions by H atoms. In addition, the C(O)OCH(3) = CO + CH(3)O reaction is found to be the main source of CO formation. The newly computed kinetic sub-model for MB breakdown is recommended as a core component to study the combustion of oxygenated species.     

Homophymine A, an anti-HIV cyclodepsipeptide from the sponge Homophymia sp

A new anti-HIV cyclodepsipeptide, homophymine A, was isolated from a New Caledonian collection of the marine sponge Homophymia sp. The structure of homophymine A was determined by interpretation of spectroscopic data, acid hydrolysis, and LC-MS analysis. Homophymine A contains 11 amino acid residues and an amide-linked 3-hydroxy-2,4,6-trimethyloctanoic acid moiety. Along with four D-, two L-, and one N-methyl amino acids, it also contains four unusual amino acid residues: (2S,3S,4R)-3,4-diMe-Gln, (2R,3R,4S)-4-amino-2,3-dihydroxy-1,7-heptandioic acid, L-ThrOMe, and (2R,3R,4R)-2-amino-3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethylhexanoic acid. In a cell-based XTT assay, homophymine A exhibited cytoprotective activity against HIV-1 infection with a IC50 of 75 nM.     

Kinetics study of the OH + alkene --> H2O + alkenyl reaction class

In this paper we report on the kinetics of hydrogen abstraction for the OH + alkene reaction class, using the reaction class transition state theory (RC-TST) combined with the linear energy relationship (LER) and the barrier height grouping (BHG) approaches. Parameters for the RC-TST were derived from theoretical calculations using a set of 15 reactions representing the hydrogen abstractions from the terminal and nonterminal carbon sites of the double bond of alkene compounds. Both the RC-TST/LER, where only reaction energy is needed at either density functional theory BH&HLYP or semiempirical AM1 levels, and RC-TST/BHG, where no additional information is required, are found to be promising methods for predicting rate constants for a large number of reactions in this reaction class. Detailed error analyses show that, when compared to explicit theoretical calculations, the averaged systematic errors in the calculated rate constants using both the RC-TST/LER and RC-TST/BHG methods are less than 25% in the temperature range 300-3000 K. The estimated rate constants using these approaches are in good agreement with available data in the literature.     

A three-dimensional lanthanide-organic radical open-framework

The reaction of a 3-connecting PTMTC radical with Tb(III) ions forms a three-dimensional open-framework with the formula [Tb(PTMTC)(DMF)(3)] (1), which associates a lattice complex T topology with large channels, guest-induced reversible crystal to amorphous transformations and ferromagnetic metal-radical interactions.