Study of a reduction step during the continuous synthesis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-amino-3-azabicyclo[3.3.0]octane. Kinetics,modelling, and optimization

The reduction of N-chloro-3-azabicyclo[3.3.0]octane with sodium borohydride at different pH values and variable concentrations of the haloamine and reducing agent was studied. The reaction was found to be second order and exhibited a specific acid catalysis. The enthalpy and entropy of activation were determined at pH 12.89. A mathematical treatment of the kinetic data allowed a complete characterization of the final state and the determination of percentage of haloamine reduced as a function of temperature, [NaBH₄]/[haloamine] ratio, arid pH. A reaction mechanism is proposed.     

Experimental investigation of slip factors in centrifugal pumps

The phenomenon of slip is known to strongly influence the performance of centrifugal pumps. In the present work, the slip phenomenon at the impeller outlet is studied experimentally for five industrial pumps at different flow rates and the slip factor is estimated for each of these cases. Theoretical slip factors are calculated using several existing methods taking into consideration the main geometric parameters of the impeller. Then the experimental slip factors are compared with the calculated theoretical values.It was observed that in the design-point condition of the pumps, the experimental values are in a good agreement with the theoretical values. However, there are significant disagreements between the theoretical and experimental values at off-design regiments. The difference is more apparent at low flow rates. It is also found that the slip factor depends on the impeller-outlet velocity profile. By defining a flow distortion coefficient, a correlation is derived for evaluating the slip-factor value for off-design conditions.Finally, a slip factor table is provided to calculate the slip factor in centrifugal pumps, using the geometry of impeller.     

Influence of nozzle area ratio on the gas-particle flow for single-hose dry ice blasting nozzle

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In this paper, a numerical study was performed to examine the effect of divergent nozzle length of single-hose dry ice blasting on the development of...     

Separation of BTEX compounds (benzene,toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes) from aqueous solutions using adsorption process

A commercial synthetic zeolite (Na-ZSM-5) was modified with an organic surfactant, HDTMA-Br. Then both unmodified and modified zeolite (SMZ-100) were tested to adsorb Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene (BTEX) compounds from water solution. Adsorption tests were done in batch conditions at the ambient temperature (20?°C) and pressure. Adsorbents were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), N₂ adsorption-desorption isotherms and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and characterization results proved the existence of surfactant on the surface of the adsorbent. In all cases, the modified zeolite sample, because of increasing the hydrophobicity of its surface, exhibited higher adsorption capacity in comparison with unmodified zeolite. Also, for each adsorbent, the adsorption capacity follows the order: E?>?X?>?T?>?B. In equilibrium experiments, Langmuir isotherm model fitted the equilibrium data better than the Freundlich model. In kinetic experiments, the pseudo-second order model described the kinetic data better than the other models.     

Band Gap Modulation by Two-Dimensional h-BN Nanostructure

Physics of the Solid State - Two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) as a graphene-like material was investigated due to its impending applications in electronics. The h-BN band gap Eg as an...     

Novel silicon super bases at DFT level of theory: effects of fused benzene rings on the basicity of 2,4,6-cycloheptatrienesilylene

Research on Chemical Intermediates - Super bases are extremely important compounds with high proton affinities (PAs) and many applications in organic, inorganic, polymer, and photochemistry. Here,...     

Reactive kinetics of carbon dioxide loaded aqueous blend of 2-amino-2-ethyl-1,3-propanediol and piperazine using a pressure drop method

In this study, a new pressure drop method has been used to investigate the kinetics of carbon dioxide reaction with aqueous blend of 2-amino-2-ethyl-1,3-propanediol (AEPD) with piperazine (PZ). The blending of a small amount of PZ with AEPD has a significant effect on the observed rate constant, k_obs. It was observed that k_obs values of the blend increased more than twice than the summation of k_obs values of individual alkanolamines. The reaction kinetics in this study were modeled by assuming a termolecular mechanism. The addition of 0.1 mol/L of PZ to 1 mol/L AEPD exhibited an observed rate constant, k_obs of 8824.1 s⁻¹, which is comparable to other alkanolamine mixtures. Hence, PZ/AEPD mixtures can be potentially used for rapid carbon dioxide capture.     

Layered Crystalline and Amorphous Platinum Disulfide (PtS2): Contrasting Electrochemistry

Group 6 transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), such as MoS₂ and WS₂ have been extensively studied for various applications while few studies have delved into other TMDs such as platinum dichalcogenides. In this work, layered crystalline and amorphous platinum disulfide (PtS₂) were synthesized, characterised and their fundamental electrochemical properties were investigated. Both materials exhibited inherent oxidation and reduction reactions which would limit their operating potential window for sensing applications. Amorphous phase materials are considered to be promising electrocatalysts due to the porous, and nanostructured morphology with high concentration of unsaturated active sites. The electrocatalytic performances towards oxygen reduction (ORR) and hydrogen evolution reactions (HER) of crystalline and amorphous PtS₂ were analysed. Amorphous PtS₂ was found to exhibit superior electrocatalytic performances towards ORR and HER as compared to crystalline PtS₂. For HER, amorphous and crystalline PtS₂ have overpotential values of 0.30 V and 0.70 V (vs. RHE) at current density of 10 mA cm⁻², respectively. The influence of electrochemical reduction pre-treatment on their catalytic behaviours was also investigated. Electrochemical reduction pre-treatment on both crystalline and amorphous PtS₂ removed the oxidized sulfate groups and increased the proportion of Pt⁰ oxidation state which exposed more catalytic sites. As such, these materials were activated and displayed improved ORR and HER performances. Electrochemically reduced amorphous PtS₂ outperformed the untreated counterparts and exhibited the best HER performance with overpotential of 0.17 V (vs. RHE) at current density of −10 mA cm⁻². These findings provide insights into the electrochemical properties of noble metal PtS₂ in both crystalline and amorphous states which can be activated by electrochemical reduction pre-treatment.     

Cross-link network of polydimethylsiloxane via addition and condensation (RTV) mechanisms. Part I: Synthesis and thermal properties

A series of highly cross-linked polysiloxane was synthesised via hydrosilylation and condensation reaction. Structural identification using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and ¹H-NMR confirmed their chemical structures. Their thermal and, mechanical properties, and crystallinity, were analysed and related to the level of cross-link density. These systems displayed elevated thermal and hardness properties at an increased cross-link density. Furthermore, the level of crystallinity was reduced as displayed by XRD analysis. Along with this observation, the calculated fractional free volume (FFV) showed a decreasing trend leading to the ‘densification’ effect. It was envisaged that the linear polysiloxane chain segments aligned parallel to each other in a triclinic crystal system to generate a crystalline domain. The spacing between these stacking chains was found to be about 7.2 Å as measured from simulated XRD pattern.