Biosorption of radiostrontium by alginate beads: application of isotherm models and thermodynamic studies

Radioactive strontium is one of the major radioactive contaminant and its contamination is a very serious concern. Therefore, there is a need for economic, effective, non-toxic, readily available and abundant adsorbent or biosorbent to remove strontium from solutions. In this study, biosorption of ⁸⁵Sr as a surrogate for ⁹⁰Sr onto alginate beads was investigated in a batch system. Alginate beads were prepared from Na-alginate via cross-linking with divalent calcium ions according to the egg box model. The effect of several parameters such as pH, initial strontium concentration, contact time, dosage of alginate beads and temperature were investigated. In order to optimize the design of biosorption system for the removal of strontium, it is important to establish the most appropriate correlation for equilibrium curves. The experimental isotherm data were described by 6 different biosorption isotherm models, namely Langmuir, Freundlich, Dubinin–Radushkevich, Temkin, Flory–Huggins and Brunauer, Emmer and Teller, with constants obtained from linear and non-linear regression methods. The thermodynamic parameters (?H°, ?S° and ?G°) for strontium biosorption were also determined. The results indicate that these alginate beads have a good potential for the biosorption of strontium from solutions.     

Convenient Synthesis of 1,2-Diamines from β-Chloro Amines: Precursors of New Substituted Piperazin-2-ones

A practical synthesis of 1,2-diamines from β-chloro amines is reported. The reaction proceeds through the intermediacy of an aziridinium ion opening by amines. The conversion of these diamines into polysubstituted piperazinones is also investigated.

Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Synthetic Communications® to view the free supplemental file.     

A One-Pot Synthesis of trans-N-Alkylaziridine-2-carboxylates from Amino Alcohol Esters

A series of new trans-N-alkylaziridine-2-carboxylates 3 was conveniently synthesized in a one-pot reaction by treatment of 1,2-amino alcohol mono and diesters 1 with methanesulfonyl chloride in the presence of (iPr)₂NEt. The products were obtained in good to excellent yields with high trans-selectivity.

Carbon nanotube-chitosan modified disposable pencil graphite electrode for vitamin B12 analysis

A single walled carbon nanotube-chitosan (SWCNT-chitosan) modified disposable pencil graphite electrode (PGE) was used in this study for the electrochemical detection of Vitamin B(12). Electrochemical behaviors of SWCNT-chitosan PGE and chitosan modified PGE were compared by using cyclic voltammetry (CV), square-wave voltammetry (SWV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. SWCNT-chitosan modified electrode was also used for the quantification of Vitamin B(12) in pharmaceutical products. The results show that this electrode system is suitable for sensitive Vitamin B(12) analysis giving good recovery results. The surface morphologies of the SWCNT-chitosan PGE, chitosan modified PGE and unmodified PGE were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">I</Emphasis>–<Emphasis Type="Italic">V</Emphasis>–<Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis> analysing an inhomogeneous Au/Poly(4-vinyl phenol)/p-Si structure with a double Gaussian distribution of barrier heights

In this study, the current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of Au/Poly(4-vinyl phenol)/p-Si structures have been measured over a wide temperature range (100–300 K). These structures have been analyzed according to thermionic emission (TE) theory, as a result of which an abnormal decrease occurred in the zero-bias barrier height (f_b0 \phi_{b0} ) and an increase in the ideality factor (n) was observed with temperature decrease and nonlinearity in the activation energy plot. By assuming a Gaussian distribution (GD) of barrier heights of the Au/Poly(4-vinyl phenol)/p-Si structures, barrier inhomogeneities are believed to responsible for this behavior. Evidence is given for the existence of a double GD with mean barrier heights ([`(f)]<sub>b0</sub> \bar{\phi }_{b0} ) of 1.042 and 0.623 eV, standard deviations of 0.138 and 0.081 V, and ideality factors 2.76 and 7.26, which remain effective in the temperature ranges of 180–300 and 100–160 K, respectively. As a result, without using the temperature coefficient of the barrier height, the modified ln(I <sub>o</sub> /T <sup>2</sup>) − q <sup>2</sup> σ <sub>o</sub> <sup>2</sup>/2(kT)<sup>2</sup> vs. q/kT plot gives [`(f)]_b0 \bar{\phi }_{b0} values and Richardson constants (A ^* ) as 1.036 and 0.623 eV, and 36.20 and 19.99 A/cm² K², respectively. The effective Richardson constant value of 36.20 A/cm² K² is very similar to the theoretical value of 32 A/cm²K² for p-Si. Consequently, the temperature dependence of the forward bias I–V characteristics of Au/Poly(4-vinyl phenol)//p-Si (MIS) structure could be attributed to the thermionic emission (TE) mechanism with double GD of the barrier heights.     

Angular dependence of the critical current density and the temperature scaling of the flux pinning force in YBCO thin film

In this paper, the critical current J_c(Θ) have been investigated as a function of magnetic-field angle Θ. Θ is the angle between the c-axis and the applied magnetic field direction. This investigation concerned three temperature values (60?K, 78?K and 81?K). The normalized pinning force f_p versus the normalized magnetic field h was also studied (f_p?=?F_p / F_pmax and h?=?H / H_max). The F_p expression was determined based on the Kramer model.The studied sample was a single crystal of YBaCuO thin film deposited by the ablation laser method on the surface (100) of a SrTiO₃ substrate.The results of this work show the existence of point core pinning of the normal centers in the low field regime and the occurrence of the flux creep in high field regime.     

Evaluation of the UFXC32k photon‐counting detector for pump–probe experiments using synchrotron radiation

This paper presents the performance of a single‐photon‐counting hybrid pixel X‐ray detector with synchrotron radiation. The camera was evaluated with respect to time‐resolved experiments, namely pump–probe–probe experiments held at SOLEIL. The UFXC camera shows very good energy resolution of around 1.5 keV and allows the minimum threshold setting to be as low as 3 keV keeping the high‐count‐rate capabilities. Measurements of a synchrotron characteristic filling mode prove the proper separation of an isolated bunch of photons and the usability of the detector in time‐resolved experiments.     

A Zwitterionic Tetrastanna(II) Cyclic Crown

A 12-membered zwitterionic tetrastanna(II) cycle 1 having a crown ether-like topology has been isolated from the deprotonation of 1,1′-methylenediimidazole ( B ) with two equivalents of Sn[N(SiMe₃)₂]₂ ( A ). The solid-state structure and NMR analysis confirms the tetrastanna(II) cycle 1 to be comprised of two stannate(II) and two stannyliumylidene ion pairs in alternating positions of the heterocycle. Computational analysis shows greater nucleophilicity at the proximally located stannate(II) centers. Nonetheless, the tetrastanna(II) cycle 1 remains poorly reactive due to engagement of Sn^II lone pair electrons in intramolecular donor-acceptor interactions. Simple deprotonation reaction between Sn[N(SiMe₃)₂]₂ ( A ) and N-(diisopropylphenyl)imidazole ( C ) in equimolar ratio has led to a stannylene 2 , involving the formation of a Sn−C covalent bond with the anionic imidazol-2-yl carbon center along with the release of NH(SiMe₃)₂. Compound 2 exists as a dimer, where the unsubstituted ring nitrogen atom coordinated intermolecularly to the other stannylene center.     

Equiatomic binary phases of Copper-Rare Earth Elements. An overview of monocuprides from first-principles calculations

Equiatomic binary phases of copper with rare earth (RE) elements exhibit either primitive cubic ( ) or orthorhombic (Pnma) structures and in some cases both. By using density functional theory (DFT), we calculated the enthalpies of formation along the series of RE elements combined equimolarly with copper. For RE from Sc to Lu, the calculated enthalpies of formation fall in the range −49.8 kJ/mol for LuCu to −9.1 kJ/mol for the least thermodynamically stable CeCu. Except NdCu, all the other cubic or orthorhombic compounds exhibit lattice stability. Either forms of NdCu indicated lattice instability. Along the Sc-group, the hypothetical primitive cubic and orthorhombic forms of LuCu are found thermodynamically and mechanically stable. The overall trend of the formation enthalpies as a function of the Meyer Periodic Number is consistent with the energy trend of the 4 f-orbital filling as moving from Sc to Lu monocuprides. In addition, the calculated Gibbs free energies indicate that the thermodynamic stability is largely due to the entropic contributions. All standard DFT calculations were also repeated with DFT+U to better describe the correlation between the 5d–4f and 3d shells of RECu compounds. It has been found that DFT+U slightly affects the enthalpies of formation of RECu binaries. Moreover, DFT+U shifts up the f-band energies of RECu with light RE elements (such as La, Ce and Pr) and in contrast lowers them in the case of RECu with heavy RE elements from Nd to Lu.     

A General Synthetic Route to High-Quality Perovskite Oxide Nanoparticles and Their Enhanced Solar Photocatalytic Activity

The main limitations of current methods for synthesizing perovskite oxide (ABO₃) nanoparticles (NPs), e.g., the high reagent costs and sophisticated equipment, the long time and high-temperature processing, or multiple post-processing and thermal treatment steps, hamper their full study and potential application. Here, we use a facile low temperature (50 °C) chemical bath synthesis and only one annealing step to successfully produce high phase purity and crystalline quality nano-shaped rare-earth-based REMO₃ NPs (RE=La, Nd, Sm, Gd; M=Fe, Mn, Al). We also show the versatility of this approach by fabricating La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃ solid solution and non-RE-based BiFeO₃ perovskite. To assess the potential of the as-prepared REFeO₃ and REMnO₃ NPs, they are used for photocatalytic degradation of the norfloxacin antibiotic and show high efficiency. We believe this easy, robust, versatile, and general route for synthesizing ABO₃-based NPs can be further explored in the vast perovskite family and beyond.