Studies on manganese-nodule leached residues; 1. Physicochemical characterization and its adsorption behavior toward Ni(2+) in aqueous system

Physicochemical characterization of manganese-nodule leached residues was carried out by chemical analyses, XRD, TG-DTA, surface area measurement, and FTIR techniques. The material is very fine-grained (<75 microm), is cryptocrystalline to amorphous in nature, and contains mainly of delta-MnO(2), quartz (alpha-SiO(2)), and zeolite/feldspar minerals. Physically adsorbed sulfates in the leached residue are removed by repeated water washing and the washed sample shows an appreciable increase in surface area. This is indicated by the absence of 1387 and 1099 cm(-1) peaks in the IR spectrum of the washed sample. The adsorption behavior of the washed sample toward Ni(2+) was recorded as a function of time, pH, temperature, and concentrations of adsorbent and adsorbate.     

Scaling behavior of a nonlinear oscillator with additive noise,white and colored

We study analytically and numerically the problem of a nonlinear mechanical oscillator with additive noise in the absence of damping. We show that the amplitude, the velocity and the energy of the oscillator grow algebraically with time. For Gaussian white noise, an analytical expression for the probability distribution function of the energy is obtained in the long-time limit. In the case of colored, Ornstein-Uhlenbeck noise, a self-consistent calculation leads to (different) anomalous diffusion exponents. Dimensional analysis yields the qualitative behavior of the prefactors (generalized diffusion constants) as a function of the correlation time. Received 10 October 2002 Published online 6 March 2003 RID="a" ID="a"e-mail: mallick@spht.saclay.cea.fr     

Polyglycerol-bound phosphotriesterase enzyme model complexes for detection and hydrolysis of phosphorus species in aqueous solution

Phosphotriesterase models incorporating di(2-picolyl)amino ligands supported by m-xylylene or 2-hydroxy-m-xylylene scaffolds have been tethered to the periphery of a water-soluble hyperbranched polyglycerol (PG). In aqueous solution buffered at pH 7.4, the polymeric complexes of Zn²⁺ are useful receptors for polymeric indicator displacement assays for phosphate and pyrophosphate employing commercial complexometric indicators. Under the same conditions, the Co³⁺ effectively hydrolyze p-nitrophenylphosphate with approximately five orders of magnitude rate enhancement versus uncatalyzed hydrolysis. These systems offer promising results as mixed-metal dual detect-decontaminate materials for organophosphorus toxins under mild, neutral aqueous conditions.     

Salicylic-Acid-Mediated Enhanced Biological Treatment of Wastewater

Activated sludge represents a microbial community which is responsible for reduction in pollution load from wastewaters and whose performance depends upon the composition and the expression of degradative capacity. In the present study, the role of salicylic acid (SA) has been evaluated for acclimatization of activated sludge collected from a combined effluent treatment plant followed by analysis of the physiological performance and microbial community of the sludge. The biodegradative capacity of the acclimatized activated sludge was further evaluated for improvement in efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal from wastewater samples collected from industries manufacturing bulk drugs and dyes and dye intermediates (wastewater 1) and from dye industry (wastewater 2). An increase in COD removal efficiency from 50% to 58% and from 78% to 82% was observed for wastewater 1 and wastewater 2, respectively. Microbial community analysis data showed selective enrichment and change in composition due to acclimatization by SA, with 50% of the clones showing sequence homology to unidentified and uncultured bacteria. This was demonstrated by analysis of partial 16S rDNA sequence data generated from dominating clones representing the metagenome which also showed the appearance of a unique population of clones after acclimatization, which was distinct from those obtained before acclimatization and clustered away from the dominating population.     

Effect of mixed glass formers on the crystallization kinetics in AgI–Ag<Subscript>2</Subscript>O–V<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>5</Subscript>–MoO<Subscript>3</Subscript> glassy superionic system

The crystallization and glass transition kinetics using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in 50AgI–33.33Ag₂O–16.67[(V₂O₅)_1−x –(MoO₃) _x ] superionic glassy system is discussed. Thermal stability of glass, studied using various criteria, does not vary significantly with glass former variation. However, the activation energies for structural relaxation (E _s) at glass transition temperature and crystallization (E _c) obtained using Moynihan and Kissinger, Matusita-Sakka formulations found to exhibit interesting trends with MoO₃ substitution in the glass matrix. It is noticed that the electrical conductivity (σ)–temperature (T) cycles obtained at a typical heating rate of 1 °C/min do exhibit significant thermal events. The conductivity after first heating cycle at room temperature is found to be increasing with MoO₃ content and maximum for x = 0.3 (~10⁻³ Ω⁻¹ cm⁻¹ at 30 °C) which is comparable to that of the host 50AgI–33.33Ag₂O–16.67V₂O₅ glassy system. The parameters obtained from σ–T plots and DSC scans do complement each other in a particular range of composition.     

Azimuthal correlation and fractal study of compound hadrons (pions and protons) at Dubna and SPS energy

This paper presents an investigation of compound hadrons (pions and protons) distribution emitted from ²⁴Mg-AgBr and ¹²C-AgBr interactions both at 4.5 AGeV and ³²S-AgBr interactions at 200 AGeV. The study includes azimuthal correlations (two particle and three particle), azimuthal asymmetry and fractal behaviour. This paper reveals some interesting results.     

Kinetics and mechanisms of substitution of aqua-ligands in cis-diaqua-bis(bipyridyl)ruthenium(ll) ion by L-cysteine in aqueous medium

Transition Metal Chemistry - The title reaction has been studied spectrophotometrically and a rate-law established within the pH range 5.0 to 6.5, $$ {?...     

Norharmane: old yet highly selective dual channel ratiometric fluoride and hydrogen sulfate ion sensor

Norharmane provides a simple unexplored class of anion receptor, that allows for the ratiometric selective detection of F(-) and HSO(4)(-) ions. The presence of a strong base can easily form hydrogen bonds with the acidic hydrogen bond donor moiety and the relatively strong acid can easily protonate the basic hydrogen bond acceptor moiety, which can modulate the optical response and can detect the anions efficiently with high selectivity. In view of that, it is promising to conceive the use of these systems in various sensing applications as well as in other situations, such as anion transport and purification, where the availability of cheap and easy-to-make anion receptors, would be advantageous.     

A facile method for the synthesis of copper modified amine-functionalized mesoporous zirconia and its catalytic evaluation in C-S coupling reaction

A new copper modified amine functionalized zirconia has been synthesized by a co-condensation method using zirconium butoxide and aminopropyltriethoxy-silane (APTES) in the presence of a cationic surfactant CTAB followed by impregnation of copper. Nitrogen adsorption-desorption, X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), scanning electron micrography (SEM), transmittance electron micrography (TEM), thermo gravimetric analysis-differential thermal analysis (TGA-DTA), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and UV-vis DRS spectroscopic tools are used to characterize the materials. FT-IR and DRS results indicated the incorporation of Cu and amino groups on the surface of zirconia. This Cu-anchored mesoporous material acts as an efficient, reusable catalyst in the aryl-sulfur coupling reaction between aryl iodide and thiophenol for the synthesis of value added diarylsulfides.