Heat capacities of concentrated multicomponent aqueous electrolyte solutions at various temperatures

The specific heat capacities of the aqueous multicomponent system NaCl +KCl+MgCl₂+CaCl₂ with ionic strength between 8.3 and 9.6 (resembling Dead Sea waters) were measured between 15°C and 45°C. The obtained data were fitted to an empirical equation as a function of concentration and temperature. The thermodynamic functions of the studied multicomponent system were found to be strongly influenced by changes in MgCl₂ concentrations. The application of Young's rule to such concentrated systems was checked at 25°C. The calculated (by Young's rule) specific heat capacitiesC _p and apparent molar heat capacities C_p, of these multicomponent electrolyte solutions were in reasonable agreement with the measured values (–0.008 J-g^–1-K^–1 and –2.6 J-mol^–1-K^–1, respectively).     

Esters flash point prediction using artificial neural networks

In this article, an artificial neural network to predict the flash point of 95 esters was implemented. Four variables were used for its development. A neural network with 4‐5‐8‐5‐1 topology was encountered to gain the best agreement of the experimental results with those predicted (square correlation coefficient (R²) and root mean square error were 0.99 and 5.46 K for the training phase and 0.96 and 13.02 K for the testing set). © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Refolding of detergent‐denatured lysozyme using β‐cyclodextrin‐assisted ion exchange chromatography

Chromatography‐based protein refolding is widely used. Detergent is increasingly used for protein solubilization from inclusion bodies. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a refolding method for detergent‐denatured/solubilized proteins based on liquid chromatography. In the present work, sarkosyl‐denatured/dithiothreitol‐reduced lysozyme was used as a model, and a refolding method based on ion exchange chromatography, assisted by β‐cyclodextrin, was developed for refolding detergent‐denatured proteins. Many factors affecting the refolding, such as concentration of urea, concentration of β‐cyclodextrin, pH and flow rate of mobile phases, were investigated to optimize the refolding conditions for sarkosyl‐denatured lysozymes. The results showed that the sarkosyl‐denatured lysozyme could be successfully refolded using β‐cyclodextrin‐assisted ion exchange chromatography. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Perfect controlled joint remote state preparation independent of entanglement degree of the quantum channel

We construct a quantum circuit to produce a task-oriented partially entangled state and use it as the quantum channel for controlled joint remote state preparation. Unlike most previous works, where the parameters of the quantum channel are given to the receiver who can accomplish the task only probabilistically by consuming auxiliary resource, operation and measurement, here we give them to the supervisor. Thanks to the knowledge of the task-oriented quantum channel parameters, the supervisor can carry out proper complete projective measurement, which, combined with the feed-forward technique adapted by the preparers, not only much economizes (simplifies) the receiver's resource (operation) but also yields unit total success probability. Notably, such apparent perfection does not depend on the entanglement degree of the shared quantum channel. Our protocol is within the reach of current quantum technologies.     

State of the art and research development prospects of energy and resource-efficient environmentally safe chemical process systems engineering

In this focus overview, the main types and directions of engineering, methods and techniques of intensification of chemical process systems (CPS) and process optimization of energy- and resource-efficient processes for the representative production of titanium compounds, mining waste processing systems, electrochemical coating technologies, combined technologies for the treatment of industrial effluents and energy-and resource-efficient technologies for cleaning soils from petroleum and chemical pollution products are reviewed. The following issues have been discussed: methods of complex assessment of production energy efficiency and software and information support for automated synthesis of optimal energy-efficient regenerative heat exchange systems using pinch analysis; methods and algorithms for fractal-statistical characteristics analysis of nonstationary gas flows in complex gas pipelines; methods of ecological and economic optimization of production, infrastructure supply chains; methods for assessing and preventing the dangerous environmental impact assessment of chemical pollution; organization and logistics management of business processes engineering for improving the energy efficiency of plants; engineering of problem oriented computer systems, heuristic-computational models and algorithms for intelligent integrated logistics support of the equipment life cycle; engineering developments in the field of digital transformation of energy-efficient CPS and technological production systems; application of methods for optimizing reliability factors optimization, digitalized risk and safety management in the engineering of energy- and resource efficient CPS.     

Effect of Al2O3 nanoparticles on the steel-glass/epoxy composite joint bonded by a two-component structural acrylic adhesive

This paper reports a study on the effect of Al₂O₃ nanoparticles on the adhesion strength of steel-glass/epoxy composite joints bonded by a two-component structural acrylic adhesive. The addition of Al₂O₃ nanoparticles to the two-component acrylic adhesive led to a remarkable enhancement in the shear and tensile strength of the composite joints. The shear and tensile strength of the adhesive joints increased by addition of Al₂O₃ up to 1.5 wt%, which decreased by further addition of the nanofiller. Introduction of the nanoparticles caused a reduction in the peel strength of the joints. DSC analysis revealed that the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the adhesives rose by increasing the nanofiller content. The advancing water contact angle was decreased for adhesives containing nanoparticles. SEM micrographs indicated good dispersions of the Al₂O₃ nanoparticles within the acrylic matrix in the specimens with up to 1.5 wt% Al₂O₃ and revealed that addition of nanoparticles altered the fracture morphology from smooth to rough fracture surfaces.     

A Bait-and-Switch Method for the Construction of Artificial Esterases for Substrate-Selective Hydrolysis

Outcomes of chemical reactions are generally dominated by the intrinsic reactivities of reaction partners, but enzymes frequently override such constraints to transform less reactive molecules in the presence of more reactive ones. Despite the attractiveness of such catalysis, it is difficult to build synthetic catalysts with these features. Micellar imprinting is a powerful method to create template-complementary binding sites inside protein-sized water-soluble nanoparticles. When a photocleavable functional monomer was used to bind two phosphonate/phosphate templates as transition-state analogues, active sites with predetermined size and shape were formed inside doubly cross-linked micelles through molecular imprinting. Postmodification replaced the binding group with a catalytic pyridyl group, forming highly selective artificial esterases. The catalysts displayed enzyme-like kinetics and turnover numbers that were in the hundreds. The selectivity of the catalysts, derived from the substrate-complementary imprinted active sites, enabled transformation of less reactive esters in the presence of more reactive ones.