Thermal analysis of glasses for proecological applications

Thermal behaviour and biochemical activity of potassium-silicate-phosphate glasses modified by addition of Ca, Mg, acting as ecological fertilisers of controlled release rate of the nutrients for plants were studied. It has been found that the biochemical activity of silicate-phosphate glasses depends on the nature and the number of components forming the glassy framework and is related to the thermal stability of glass demonstrated by the formation of new compounds during the process of crystallisation. It is proved that these seemingly different properties are determined by the same parameters which are the strengths bonds of glass network-formers and modifiers as well as their chemical affinity. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A differential scanning calorimetry method to determine the isothermal crystallization kinetics of cocoa butter

This research aimed to reduce the variability on the data obtained from differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) analysis of the isothermal crystallization kinetics of cocoa butter.

To enable transformation of the DSC crystallization peak to a sigmoid crystallization curve, the DSC peak area has to be integrated. Usually, the start and end points of the crystallization peak are determined visually. The result of this visual determination appeared to be very much dependent on the operator, but also differed considerably when the same operator performed the integration several times. By proposing an objective calculation algorithm to determine the start and end points of integration, the variability caused by the operator during the integration procedure could be eliminated. Furthermore, sample preparation and the DSC heating protocol to melt the sample prior to crystallization were studied. Three heating protocols (65 °C for 15 min, 65 °C for 30 min and 80 °C for 15 min) were compared and it was shown that holding at 65 °C for 15 min was sufficient to eliminate any influence of sample history. Two different sample preparation procedures were compared and it appeared that a change in sample preparation procedure had a significant influence on the measured crystallization process. It is thus important to keep this method constant to eliminate the variability caused by it.     

A Novel Model for Protein Immobilization on Microspheres

The immobilization of proteins, especially receptor proteins commonly used in high through-put screening of drugs (HTS), have received great attention in recent years. There are many successful isothermal models for describing the adsorption of protein onto solid surface, such as Langmuir model, Bi-Langmuir model, Fowler model, Freundlich model, Freundlich-Langmuir model and Tekmin model etc. In all these models, Langmuir model was the most favorable one model accepted by many researchers, but the experimental results showed that it was not entirely fit to all adsorption behaviors. So new models were required for describing protein adsorption onto microspheres in different conditions.In our research, a novel isothermal model, including Langmuir and other adsorbing behaviors was presented basing on the holding degree of surface active sites and the interaction styles of protein immobilization. In Langmuir model, the adsorbing amount of protein was described as [PS] =Km[P]/1 + K[P], where [PS] was the concentration of adsorbed protein, [P] was the concentration of freeprotein at equilibrium state, and Km and K was constant. According to the interactions of protein and ligands, there were three patterns in the interactions of protein and ligands. On the similar assumption that the interaction of protein and microspheres were three styles, and based on the definition of the holding degree of surface active sites (Y), three adsorption behaviors could be described as Y K[ P ]φ/ K[P]φ+1 or ln K + φ ln[P] =ln(Y/1-Y) in which [P] was the concentration of free protein at equilibrium state, and φ and K was constant. Different scale of φ presented different adsorption behaviors, especially when φ was 1, the adsorption behavior was Langmuir adsorbing model. Figure I indicated the different adsorbing results in different adsorption behaviors (φ＞1, φ＜1,and φ=1).     

An isothermal equation of state for solids

An isothermal equation of state (EOS) for solids, recently suggested by the authors in the realistic form, V/V₀=f(P), with relative volume as the dependent and the pressure as the independent variable, was shown to have an advantage for some close-packed materials in that it allows B′_∞=(∂B_s/∂P)_s(P→∞) to be fitted, and this is where the usual standard equations fail. In the present study, our EOS is applied to a number of inorganic as well as organic solids, including alloys, glasses, rubbers and plastics; varying widely in their bonding and structural characteristics, as well as in their bulk modulus values. A very good agreement is observed between the data and fits. The results obtained are compared with those from two well-known equations, expressible in the realistic form, proposed by Murnaghan and Luban. Further, the results are also compared with those from the widely used two- and three-parameter EOSs, expressible in the unrealistic form only, P=f(V/V₀), proposed by Birch—and also with those from the EOS model of Keane in which B′_∞ is explicitly expressed as an equation of state parameter. The results obtained from our model compare well to these EOSs. Our EOS, in general, yields the smallest mean-squared deviations between data and fits. The values of B′_∞calculated from our EOS are compared with those from Keane's model. Further, we have studied the variation of B′_∞with temperature using the experimental isotherms of Mo and W at 10 different temperatures ranging from 100 to 1000 K, and observed that the values of B′_∞ yielded by our model and that of Keane vary, as expected, within a narrow range. Furthermore, our EOS is applied to study the stability of the fit parameters with variation in the pressure ranges with reference to the isothermal compression data on Mo and W—and also to study the variation of isothermal bulk modulus with pressure, with reference to the ultrasonic data on NaCl and noted a very good agreement with experiment. In addition, our model is applied, with B₀ and B′₀ constrained to the theoretical values, to the five theoretical isotherms of MgO at 300, 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 K obtained on the basis of a first principles approach—a good agreement is observed with the predictions, and the values of B′_∞ inferred at different temperatures tend to converge to a constant value.     

Modeling high-pressure densities at wide temperature range with volume scaling: Cyclohexane + n-hexadecane mixtures

High-pressure density data for cyclohexane + n-hexadecane mixtures at a wide temperature range was modeled with several classical equations of state (EOS) and correlative models. A modification for softening the co-volume and another for a volume scaling of the Peng–Robinson EOS (VS-PR) were proposed. The VS-PR model is able to correlate the pure component experimental data employing only five adjustable parameters, with root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) between calculated and experimental densities essentially within the experimental error. This result is superior to widely used approaches, i.e., a six parameter Tait model and six parameter volume translations (temperature and pressure dependent) for Peng–Robinson and Patel–Teja EOS. The VS-PR model also represents well the isobaric thermal expansion and the isothermal compressibility coefficients of the pure cyclohexane, a small naphthenic substance as well as a long chain n-alkane hydrocarbon, n-hexadecane. When modeling the mixture data, the use of VS-PR model of pure components along with the Redlich–Kister expansion, truncated at the first term, the density was correlated within a RMSD only 60% greater than the experimental error. The proposed model is able to accurately represent all the tested mixture data with a relatively small number of parameters.     

尼龙66/蒙脱土复合材料结晶行为的研究

在密炼机中采用熔融共混法制备蒙脱土重量分数为 2 5 %、4 5 %的尼龙 6 6 /蒙脱土复合材料 .通过DSC法对非等温结晶行为及在 2 2 8～ 2 4 0℃范围内的等温结晶行为进行研究 ,并与纯尼龙 6 6进行比较 .从其等温和非等温结晶行为的研究表明 ,蒙脱土起成核剂的作用 ,它的填入使尼龙 6 6结晶速率提高 ,但填料与基体间的相互作用使其链段运动困难 ,结晶活化能提高 ;在研究的填料含量变化范围内 ,结晶行为变化不大 ,并且找到该复合材料在 2 2 8～ 2 34℃范围结晶对温度的不敏感区 ;对非等温结晶过程分析 ,刘结平 莫志深方程是适用的 ,而Ozawa方程则是不适用的 .     

Role of isoconversional methods in varying activation energies of solid-state kinetics: I. isothermal kinetic studies

Solid-state kinetics was developed from kinetic concepts for reactions in homogeneous phase systems, which has created considerable debate over issues such as variable activation energy. This behavior has been viewed by some as a violation of basic chemical kinetic principles. Variation in activation energy has been detected by isoconversional or ‘model-free’ calculation methods. The relationship between different calculation methods and the occurrence of variable activation energy was investigated in this work by employing model-fitting and isoconversional methods to analyze simulated isothermal data. In addition, these approaches were applied for sulfameter-dioxolane solvate desolvation data. We showed that variable activation energy is of two types—a true variation that results from the complex nature of the solid-state process and an artifactual one resulting from the use of some isoconversional methods.     

A new general-purpose isothermal microcalorimeter for use at temperatures up to 200 °C

The design and some properties of a new general-purpose isothermal microcalorimeter are reported. The instrument is a twin thermopile heat conduction calorimeter, which is designed for use up to 200 °C. The calorimetric units and surrounding heat sink are suspended inside a hollow aluminium construction, which is thermostated. Above that unit a second thermostated block is positioned and the whole assembly is suspended inside a Dewar vessel. When the instrument is used at room temperature and below, the thermostated units are cooled by use of an insertion Peltier effect cooler. The instrument can be used with a wide range of different reaction vessels (diameter 14 mm). Baseline experiments have been conducted in the temperature range 15-200 °C. Typical values obtained during 10 h periods at 200 °C are ±3 and ±10 nW for the baseline drift and baseline fluctuations, respectively. The heat detection limit, determined by release of electrical energy, is about 2 μJ. Preliminary stability measurements have been conducted at 100 °C on samples of stabilised and non-stabilised polyamide film.     

Interaction of water with the regenerated cellulose membrane studied by DSC

One to three endothermal peaks atributted to melting of bulk and interfacial water were observed by DSC in the regenerated cellulose — water system. The profiles of thermal effects depend on water content, time of conditioning, film pretreatment and the conditions applied during the preceding freezing-thawing cycles. The occurrence might be deduced of melting-crystallisation processes. A large amount of non-freezable strongly bounded water was also detected. Although cellulose absorbs water quickly after immersion, the structural changes consisting on ordering of polymer fraction occur during further conditioning due to increase in strength of water binding. Using the membranes in the separation module at 90°C causes weakening of these bonds. Differences between interaction of particular cellulose films with water can be detected during the first, the second and the third heating. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Volumetric properties of ethanol–water mixtures under high temperatures and pressures

The densities of ethanol and ethanol–water mixtures were measured with a vibrating tube densimeter at 25.0, 50.0 and 75.0 °C in the pressure range from 0.10 to 40.00 MPa. Densities were correlated using an empirical model. Partial molar volumes, excess molar volumes, isothermal compressibilities, cubic expansion coefficients and internal pressures were calculated from obtained densities. This study reports the dependence of densities, partial molar volumes, excess molar volumes, isothermal compressibilities, cubic expansion coefficients and internal pressures on composition, temperature and pressure.