A new aqueous method for recovering high quality oil and deoiled meal from pecan kernels

The extraction of oil by a new aqueous method has been promoted because it is environmentally friendly, safe and economical of cost. A new aqueous method using 1.4:10.0 water-to-pecan kernel slurry ratio was developed, which recovered 97.73% of oils from the kernel containing 70.47% crude oil content. The method had a higher oil recovery as compared to enzyme-assisted extraction or solvent extraction or cold pressing in terms of producing oil for safe consumption. The method recovered oils with 0.47 mg KOH/g acid value and 0.34 mmol/kg peroxide value which were identical to that obtained by enzyme-assisted aqueous method and lower than that obtained by solvent extraction. The de-oiled pecan meal obtained by the new aqueous method only contained 5.14% residual oils, which was edible since no harmful chemical was added during oil extraction. No waste water was produced during the aqueous extraction of oils.

An expedient, mild and aqueous method for Suzuki–Miyaura diversification of (hetero)aryl halides or (poly)chlorinated pharmaceuticals

Simple, aqueous and direct cross-coupling of diverse and complex (hetero)aromatic halides and active pharmaceutical agents.

Amphiphilic Polymer-Modified Uniform CuFeSe2 Nanoparticles for CT/MR Dual-Modal Imaging

Recently, magnetic photothermal nanomaterials have attracted much attention in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. In this study, we developed the ultrasmall magnetic CuFeSe2 nanoparticles for CT/MR dual-modal imaging. By controlling the reaction time and condition, CuFeSe2 nanoparticles were synthesized by a simple directly aqueous method. After modification with copolymer methoxy polyethylene glycol-polycaprolactone (MPEG-PCL), the obtained MPEG-PCL@CuFeSe2 nanoparticles showed excellent water solubility, colloidal stability, and biocompatibility. In addition, they also exhibited superparamagnetism and X-ray’s characteristics. For these properties, they will become ideal nanomaterials for CT/MR dual-modal imaging.

Fabrication of Branched Flower-Like ZnO/Si Hierarchical Heterostructure UV Detector by Aqueous Method

High performance ZnO/Si hierarchical heterostructure UV detector was fabricated using an aqueous method. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the hierarchical heterostructure were characterized. The heterostructural UV detector was composed of ZnO nanorods grown on Si nanowires to form a flower-like structure. The device results demonstrated that the as-grown ZnO/Si hierarchical heterostructure showed high UV response. The method provides a simple way to fabricate high-response UV photodetectors based on ZnO/Si heterostructure.