Thermal transformation of micro-crystalline cellulose in phosphoric acid

Use of crude oil derivatives such as diesel and gasoline is becoming unsuitable due to their detriment to environment and to the increasing worldwide energy demand which is driving crude oil reservoirs towards exhaustion. Replacement of diesel and gasoline with biofuels (i.e. biodiesel and bioethanol, respectively) is very desirable. In fact, biofuels are not only environmentally sustainable, but also potentially inexhaustible due to the large amounts of waste biomasses from which they can be retrieved. In the present study, a model compound (micro-crystalline cellulose) was dissolved in phosphoric acid and converted at 80 °C to glucose, thereby providing the possible substrate for fermentation to bioethanol. Results revealed that after 1 h heating, the reaction had the largest glucose yield as compared to similar studies done by using other acid catalysts. In addition, the temperature applied here was from 40 to 60 °C lower than those already reported in literature for acid-driven cellulose degradations. Phosphoric acid allowed both glucose and levulinic acid achievement. The latter is usually used to synthesize fuel additives, catalysts, solvents and herbicides, thereby enhancing the added value of the conversion of cellulose to glucose in phosphoric acid. Finally, ¹H T₁ NMR relaxometry showed its suitability to monitor cellulose degradation. The advantages of relaxomety are its quickness since only few minutes are needed to obtain relaxograms, and the possibility to use raw mixtures without the needing of sample preparation.     

Nonlinear optical properties of benzofurobenzofurans

The geometric structure, dipole moment, μ, linear polarizability, α and first hyperpolarizability, β, of symmetrically substituted amino-and cyanobenzofurobenzofurans and dihydrobenzofurobenzofurans have been calculated by ab initio coupled perturbed Hartree-Fock methods. Singlet electronic transition energies and excited state dipole moments have been calculated by the AMI program. The benzofurobenzofuran derivatives are planar, while dihydrobenzofurobenzofuran derivatives have a V-shaped form, in agreement with experimental X-ray data. The molecular structure is rather unaffected by substitution. The linear polarizability is weakly sensitive to the substituent and substituent position, while β value changes over about 1 order of magnitude. Although both series of compounds have relatively modest hyperpolarizability, reaching ca. 60% β of para-nitroaniline, they have good properties for second harmonic generation devices: transparency in the visible spectral region, thermal stability and conformational rigidity.     

Investigation of FIB irradiation damage in La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 thin films

In this work we analyse systematically how morphological and magnetotransport properties of manganite thin films are affected by the damage induced by focused ion beam (FIB) irradiation. We irradiate different areas of the same sample with doses ranging from 5×10¹² to 3×10¹⁷ ions/cm² and we find that the film becomes swollen for doses up to 10¹⁶ ions/cm² and is eventually eroded by ion milling for further irradiation. On the other hand, transport properties are much more sensitive to FIB irradiation: the metal–insulator transition temperature is found to decrease monotonically with increasing doses up to 1.8×10¹³ ions/cm². At doses higher than 5.6×10¹³ ions/cm² the metallic state is completely suppressed and likely, also ferromagnetism.     

Constitutive modeling of fiber composites with a soft hyperelastic matrix

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study of unidirectional carbon fiber composites with a silicone matrix, loaded transversally to the fibers. The experiments show nonlinear behavior with significant strain softening under cyclic loading. The numerical study uses a plane-strain finite element continuum model of the composite material in which the fiber distribution is based on experimental observations and cohesive elements allow debonding to take place at the fiber/matrix interfaces. It is found that accurate estimates of the initial tangent stiffness measured in the experiments can be obtained without allowing for debonding, but this feature has to be included to capture the non-linear and strain-softening behavior.     

Simple extraction method and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in the selective ion monitoring mode for the determination of phenols in wine

The concentrations of 22 components of wine, including most of those that have been shown to possess significant biological properties, have been determined by a fast and simple analytical method based on gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection in the selective ion monitoring mode (GC/MS-SIM). The procedure involves an easy liquid-liquid extraction and derivatization methods of flavanols, phenols and carboxylic acid, using a very small wine volume. The average recovery (Rcv) ranged from 73 to 107% and linear regression coefficients (r(2)) were in a range of 0.981or=0.999. The GC/MS-SIM technique gives good specificity and sensitivity, and can therefore be suitable for routine monitoring of the concentration of individual phenolic antioxidants during winemaking and the aging process.     

Alpha,gamma-diamino acids: asymmetric synthesis of new constrained 6-amino-3-azabicyclo[3.2.1]octane-6-carboxylic acids

The synthesis of two new diastereomeric 6-amino-3-azabicyclo[3.2.1]octane-6-carboxylic acids exo- and endo-8,9 is reported using exo- and endo-norbornene amino acids as chiral building blocks. This method provides a fast access to optically pure amino acids 8 and 9 which can be considered both alpha,gamma- and alpha,delta-diamino acids containing sterical constraints and characterized by alpha,alpha-disubstitution.     

Pietsch's factorization theorem for dominated polynomials

We prove that, like in the linear case, there is a canonical prototype of a p-dominated homogeneous polynomial through which every p-dominated polynomial between Banach spaces factors.     

Optimal Hardy-Littlewood type inequalities for polynomials and multilinear operators

In this paper we obtain quite general and definitive forms for Hardy-Littlewood type inequalities. Moreover, when restricted to the original particular cases, our approach provides much simpler and straightforward proofs and we are able to show that in most cases the exponents involved are optimal. The technique we used is a combination of probabilistic tools and of an interpolative approach; this former technique is also employed in this paper to improve the constants for vector-valued Bohnenblust-Hilletype inequalities.     

Summability of multilinear mappings: Littlewood, Orlicz and beyond

In this paper we prove new results concerning summability properties of multilinear mappings between Banach spaces, such as an extension of Littlewood’s 4/3 Theorem. The role of the Littlewood–Orlicz property in the theory is established, especially in the question of determining when multilinear mappings are (1; 2, . . . , 2)-summing.