Phase Diagrams of Semicrystalline Polymer–Crystalline Substances: Polyolefins–1,2,4,5-Tetrachlorobenzene

The full phase diagrams of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and isotactic polypropylene (i-PP) mixtures with 1,2,4,5-tetrachlorobenzene (TeCB), including the solubility curve of TeCB in a solid polymer, were constructed by an optical method. The diagrams contain a eutectic point that corresponds to the situation when the crystallization of TeCB out of its solution in a polyolefin is accompanied by the crystallization of monomer units of the macromolecules. As a result, the polymer acquires a gel structure with crystallites as crosslinks and amorphous regions saturated with TeCB. It is demonstrated that the eutectic point position on the phase diagram can be used for ranking polymers with respect to their thermodynamic affinity to a solvent. For the studied systems, the affinity to TeCB was decreased in the order i-PP, HDPE, and LDPE. Direct experimental evidence was obtained that TeCB crystals can be dissolved in a solid polymer via a vapor phase mechanism, which leads to the polymer amorphization.     

Explicit–implicit mapping approach to nonlinear blind separation of sparse nonnegative dependent sources from a single mixture: pure component extraction from nonlinear mixture mass spectra

The nonlinear, nonnegative single‐mixture blind source separation problem consists of decomposing observed nonlinearly mixed multicomponent signal into nonnegative dependent component (source) signals. The problem is difficult and is a special case of the underdetermined blind source separation problem. However, it is practically relevant for the contemporary metabolic profiling of biological samples when only one sample is available for acquiring mass spectra; afterwards, the pure components are extracted. Herein, we present a method for the blind separation of nonnegative dependent sources from a single, nonlinear mixture. First, an explicit feature map is used to map a single mixture into a pseudo multi‐mixture. Second, an empirical kernel map is used for implicit mapping of a pseudo multi‐mixture into a high‐dimensional reproducible kernel Hilbert space. Under sparse probabilistic conditions that were previously imposed on sources, the single‐mixture nonlinear problem is converted into an equivalent linear, multiple‐mixture problem that consists of the original sources and their higher‐order monomials. These monomials are suppressed by robust principal component analysis and hard, soft, and trimmed thresholding. Sparseness‐constrained nonnegative matrix factorizations in reproducible kernel Hilbert space yield sets of separated components. Afterwards, separated components are annotated with the pure components from the library using the maximal correlation criterion. The proposed method is depicted with a numerical example that is related to the extraction of eight dependent components from one nonlinear mixture. The method is further demonstrated on three nonlinear chemical reactions of peptide synthesis in which 25, 19, and 28 dependent analytes are extracted from one nonlinear mixture mass spectra. The goal application of the proposed method is, in combination with other separation techniques, mass spectrometry‐based non‐targeted metabolic profiling, such as biomarker identification studies. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Low‐Transition‐Temperature Mixtures (LTTMs): A New Generation of Designer Solvents

A new generation of designer solvents emerged in the last decade as promising green media for multiple applications, including separation processes: the low‐transition‐temperature mixtures (LTTMs). They can be prepared by mixing natural high‐melting‐point starting materials, which form a liquid by hydrogen‐bond interactions. Among them, deep‐eutectic solvents (DESs) were presented as promising alternatives to conventional ionic liquids (ILs). Some limitations of ILs are overcome by LTTMs, which are cheap and easy to prepare from natural and readily available starting materials, biodegradable, and renewable.     

Deep eutectic solvents and glycerol: a simple,environmentally benign and efficient catalyst/reaction media for synthesis of N-aryl phthalimide derivatives

Abstract

Deep eutectic solvents (DES) and glycerol have been successfully employed as efficient catalysts/reaction media in the synthesis of N-aryl phthalimide derivatives from phthalic anhydride and primary aromatic amines. The DES prepared from choline chloride and malonic acid proved to be an efficient catalyst whereas glycerol and the DES of choline chloride and urea played a dual role of catalyst and solvent. These mixtures are biodegradable, nontoxic, and cost-effective thereby providing a good industrial alternative to conventional methods. These methods gave products in moderate to high yields with good recyclability of catalyst/solvent at least up to five consecutive runs.     

Natural deep eutectic solvents as new potential media for green technology

Developing new green solvents is one of the key subjects in Green Chemistry. Ionic liquids (ILs) and deep eutectic solvents, thus, have been paid great attention to replace current harsh organic solvents and have been applied to many chemical processing such as extraction and synthesis. However, current ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents have still limitations to be applied to a real chemical industry due to toxicity against human and environment and high cost of ILs and solid state of most deep eutectic solvents at room temperature. Recently we discovered that many plant abundant primary metabolites changed their state from solid to liquid when they were mixed in proper ratio. This finding made us hypothesize that natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) play a role as alternative media to water in living organisms and tested a wide range of natural products, which resulted in discovery of over 100 NADES from nature. In order to prove deep eutectic feature the interaction between the molecules was investigated by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. All the tested NADES show clear hydrogen bonding between components. As next step physical properties of NADES such as water activity, density, viscosity, polarity and thermal properties were measured as well as the effect of water on the physical properties. In the last stage the novel NADES were applied to the solubilization of wide range of biomolecules such as non-water soluble bioactive natural products, gluten, starch, and DNA. In most cases the solubility of the biomolecules evaluated in this study was greatly higher than water. Based on the results the novel NADES may be expected as potential green solvents at room temperature in diverse fields of chemistry.     

ZnCl2+Urea,the deep eutectic solvent promoted synthesis of the spirooxindolopyrans and xanthenes through a pseudo-three-component approach

Various spirooxindolopyrans and xanthenes were synthesized efficiently through a pseudo-three-component reaction by using deep eutectic solvent (DES) ZnCl₂+Urea. The remarkable advantages of this reaction are the usage of an environmentally benign solvent (DES), simple purification method, operational simplicity, less reaction time, and higher yields making the reaction a green protocol.     

Volumetric behaviour of the (2,2,4-trimethylpentane + methylbenzene + butan-1-ol) ternary system and its binary sub-systems within the temperature range (298.15–328.15) K

Densities and speeds of sound of the (2,2,4-trimethylpentane + methylbenzene + butan-1-ol) ternary system as well as all its binary sub-systems were measured at four temperatures, namely 298.15 K, 308.15 K, 318.15 K, and 328.15 K at atmospheric pressure by a vibrating-tube densimeter DSA 5000. The binary (isooctane + toluene) system was studied previously. Excess quantities (molar volume, adiabatic compressibility, and isobaric thermal expansivity) of the mixtures studied were calculated from the experimental densities and speed of sounds. The excess molar volume data were correlated using the Redlich–Kister equation. Both the positive and S-shaped excess molar volume curves were found for the systems studied. The excess molar volumes versus concentration of binary systems differed in the shape and temperature dependence. The experimental binary data were compared with literature data. The experimental excess molar volumes were analyzed by means of the Extended Real Associated Solution (ERAS) model. The experimental data and the ERAS model can help to estimate real behaviour of the systems studied.     

Dynamic Surface Elasticity of Polyelectrolyte/Surfactant Adsorption Films at the Air/Water Interface: Carboxylmethylchitosan and Cetyltrimethylammonium Bromide

The dynamic surface elasticity of the solution of carboxymethylchitosan (CMCH) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (C₁₆TAB) was measured as a function of the surfactant concentration and the surface age by the oscillating drop method. The results showed that the surface layer of the CMCH/C₁₆TAB solution transformed from loose to structured with the increase in the surfactant concentration. The surface elasticity versus the surface pressure curve during the adsorption showed different features at different surfactant concentration ranges, which was connected with the structural transformation of the surface layer. Our results show that the measurement of dynamic surface dilational properties is a powerful tool for studying the surface kinetics, which is helpful for dealing non-equilibrium systems in industry.     

Viscosities of Binary and Ternary Mixtures of Water,Alcohol, Acetone,and Hexane

This articles studied and determined the viscosities of the binary mixtures of water–methanol, water–ethanol, water–propanol, water–acetone, acetone–ethanol, methanol–ethanol, and acetone–hexane and the ternary mixtures of water–methanol–ethanol and water–ethanol–acetone at 20°C. It is shown that the mixing of water with the alcohols and acetone resulted in a positive deviation of viscosity, which reached the maximum value at the water mole fraction x ₁ ～ 0.7 for water–methanol, x ₁ ～ 0.72 for water–ethanol, x ₁ ～ 0.74 for water–propanol, and x ₁ ～ 0.83 for water–acetone binary mixture. This viscosity deviation can be mainly attributed to the formation of micelles of alcohol or acetone molecules in water because of the hydrophobic attraction between the hydrocarbon chains. The micelle surfaces are surrounded by hydration layers, leading to the positive viscosity deviation in the liquid mixtures because the water in hydration layers has a much higher viscosity than bulk water. Also, the contrary observation was found in the binary mixtures of acetone–ethanol and acetone–hexane, having a negative viscosity deviation.     

Fast polarisation-insensitive optical shutter supported by backflow in dichroic dye-doped dual-frequency liquid crystal

This paper describes a novel implementation of a dual-frequency liquid crystal optical shutter of the guest–host type. The transmissive state of the filter is obtained by applying a low-frequency electric field that brings the dichroic dye in a homeotropic orientation. The light-absorbing state is realised by a twisted planar configuration for which the absorption is quasi-independent of the polarisation. Switching between the two states occurs in about 1 ms and the devices show no scattering for wavelengths inside or outside the absorption band of the dichroic dye. Simulations and experiments reveal how a twisted state is obtained through the backflow phenomenon.