Doped Nanostructured Manganese Ferrites: Synthesis, Characterization, and Magnetic Properties

Nanocrystalline aluminum-doped manganese ferrite was synthesized by facile thermal treatment method. Nanostructure-doped ferrite with crystalline size that ranged between 3.71 and 6.35 nm was characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and vibrating-sample magnetometry (VSM). The Scherrer and Williamson-Hall hypothesis techniques were utilized to determine lattice constants and strain. Various types of structural properties including octahedral and tetrahedral site radius, bond lengths and angles, hopping parameter, oxygen positional parameters, site bonds, and edge lengths were determined from XRD spectrum analysis. Discrepancy in the hypothetically expected angle indicates improvement of A-B superexchange intercommunication. Furthermore, magnetic-hysteresis (M-H) and XPS analysis support the claim of enhancement. The presence of the ionic nature of iron and manganese in ferrite is FeII, FeIII, MnII, and MnIV as revealed by the results of XPS. Moreover, XPS assists in an excellent way to understand the properties such as configuration, chemical nature, and average inversion degree of doped ferrite samples. The spin noncollinearity and exquisite interaction amid the sublattice are responsible for the decrease in the saturation and remnant magnetization determined from the hysteresis loop at ambient temperature with maximum magnetic field of 1.8 T.

The Role of Alkaline/alkaline Earth Metal Oxides in CO2 Capture: A Concise Review

Reducing the concentration of CO2 from the atmosphere has attracted a lot of attention given the rapid level of industrialization in the world. Process Industries are one of the major contributors to this pollution in terms of the incessant release of CO2 from flue gas streams. In recent times metal oxides have received a lot of attention as potential adsorbents for solving this problem.They find application in post-, pre-, and oxy-combustion conditions. Their basic sites plus a lower charge to radius ratio increase their ionic nature and site basicity and facilitate the capture of this pernicious gas from flue gas streams by reacting to form carbonates, which when heated liberates an almost pure stream of CO2 which can be sequestered, thereby, aiding the release of environmentally benign flue gas streams to the atmosphere. This work takes a concise review of these metal oxides that have been widely studied.

Cryo-Electron Microscopy and Biochemical Analysis Offer Insights Into the Effects of Acidic pH, Such as Occur During Acidosis, on the Complement Binding Properties of C-Reactive Protein

The pentraxin family of proteins includes C-reactive protein (CRP), a canonical marker for the acute phase inflammatory response. As compared to normal physiological conditions in human serum, under conditions associated with damage and inflammation, such as acidosis and the oxidative burst, CRP exhibits modulated biochemical properties that may have a structural basis. Here, we explore how pH and ligand binding affect the structure and biochemical properties of CRP. Cryo-electron microscopy was used to solve structures of CRP at pH 7.5 or pH 5 and in the presence or absence of the ligand phosphocholine (PCh), which yielded 7 new high-resolution structures of CRP, including pentameric and decameric complexes. Structures previously derived from crystallography were imperfect pentagons, as shown by the variable angles between each subunit, whereas pentameric CRP derived from cryoEM was found to have C5 symmetry, with subunits forming a regular pentagon with equal angles. This discrepancy indicates flexibility at the interfaces of monomers that may relate to activation of the complement system by the C1 complex. CRP also appears to readily decamerise in solution into dimers of pentamers, which obscures the postulated binding sites for C1. Subtle structural rearrangements were observed between the conditions tested, including a putative change in histidine protonation that may prime the disulphide bridges for reduction and enhanced ability to activate the immune system. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays showed that CRP had markedly increased association to the C1 complex and immunoglobulins under conditions associated with acidosis, whilst a reduction in the Ca2+ concentration lowered this pH-sensitivity for C1q, but not immunoglobulins, suggesting different modes of binding. These data suggest a model whereby a change in the ionic nature of CRP and immunological proteins can make it more adhesive to potential ligands without large structural rearrangements.

Morphological and magnetic features of columnar nanostructures CuO

Columnar nanostructures (CNS) were grown by plasma chemical synthesis at a gas mixture pressure of 90% He + 10% O2 200 Pa and substrate temperatures of 340K (sample 1) and 370K (sample 2). The effect of substrate temperature on the morphological, crystalline, magnetic, and impedance properties of CNS was studied. Scanning microscopy (SEM) showed that the morphology of CNS varies significantly from dendritic to wire structure. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) showed a change in the stoichiometry of the deficiency samples (Cu52O48) to an excess of oxygen (Cu42O58). X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and Rietveld fitting showed that samples 1 and 2 have a monoclinic crystal structure with a large proportion of the amorphous phase, the size of coherent scattering regions (CSR) was 26 nm (sample 1). Magnetic measurements showed that sample 1 exhibits ferromagnetic behavior, and at 6 K a magnetic hysteresis loop appears. Sample 2 from 250 K to room temperature exhibits diamagnetic behavior. A connection was found between the appearance of diamagnetism and a jump in the dielectric constant of sample 2. An assumption was made about the electron-ionic nature of the diamagnetism of sample 2.

SEPARATION OF OIL-WATER EMULSIONS

Статья посвящена исследованию разделения водонефтяных эмульсий. Большинство существующих месторождений находятся на завершающей стадии разработки, что характеризуется ростом обводненности добываемой нефтяной фракции. При наличии высокоустойчивых «застарелых» ловушечных нефтей для повышения эффективности и надежности процессов их обезвоживания используют методы разделения с применением деэмульгаторов. Наибольшее распространение, в настоящее время получили деэмульгаторы неионогенной природы. В работе была оценена эффективность трех деэмульгаторов, соответствующих государственным санитарно-эпидемиологическим правилам и нормативам: Эмалсатрон R2601-A, Химтехно-527, СНПХ-4114. Исследуемые деэмульгаторы успешно прошли испытания и могут быть рекомендованы к промышленному применению, так как обладают рядом преимуществ. The article is devoted to the study of the separation of oil-water emulsions. Most of the existing fields are at the final stage of development, which is characterized by an increase in the water content of the extracted oil fraction. In the presence of highly stable "old" trap oils, separation methods with the use of demulsifiers are used to increase the efficiency and reliability of their dewatering processes. The most widespread, at present, are demulsifiers of a non-ionic nature. The work evaluated the effectiveness of three demulsifiers that comply with state sanitary and epidemiological rules and regulations: Emalsatron R2601-A, Chemtechno-527, SNPH-4114. The studied demulsifiers have been successfully tested and can be recommended for industrial use, as they have a number of advantages.

Development of a CNS-permeable reactivator for nerve agent exposure: an iterative, multi-disciplinary approach

Nerve agents have experienced a resurgence in recent times with their use against civilian targets during the attacks in Syria (2012), the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the United Kingdom (2018) and Alexei Navalny in Russia (2020), strongly renewing the importance of antidote development against these lethal substances. The current standard treatment against their effects relies on the use of small molecule-based oximes that can efficiently restore acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity. Despite their efficacy in reactivating AChE, the action of drugs like 2-pralidoxime (2-PAM) is primarily limited to the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and, thus, provides no significant protection to the central nervous system (CNS). This lack of action in the CNS stems from their ionic nature that, on one end makes them very powerful reactivators and on the other renders them ineffective at crossing the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) to reach the CNS. In this report, we describe the use of an iterative approach composed of parallel chemical and in silico syntheses, computational modeling, and a battery of detailed in vitro and in vivo assays that resulted in the identification of a promising, novel CNS-permeable oxime reactivator. Additional experiments to determine acute and chronic toxicity are ongoing.

Interfacial ferroelectricity by van der Waals sliding

Despite their partial ionic nature, many layered diatomic crystals avoid internal electric polarization by forming a centrosymmetric lattice at their optimal van-der-Waals stacking. Here, we report a stable ferroelectric order emerging at the interface between two naturally-grown flakes of hexagonal-boron-nitride, which are stacked together in a metastable non-centrosymmetric parallel orientation. We observe alternating domains of inverted normal polarization, caused by a lateral shift of one lattice site between the domains. Reversible polarization switching coupled to lateral sliding is achieved by scanning a biased tip above the surface. Our calculations trace the origin of the phenomenon to a subtle interplay between charge redistribution and ionic displacement, and provide intuitive insights to explore the interfacial polarization and its unique “slidetronics” switching mechanism.

Development of a CNS-permeable reactivator for nerve agent exposure: An iterative, multi-disciplinary approach

Nerve agents have experienced a resurgence in recent times with their use against civilian targets during the attacks in Syria (2012), the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in the United Kingdom (2018) and Alexei Navalny in Russia (2020), strongly renewing the importance of antidote development against these lethal substances. The current standard treatment against their effects relies on the use of small molecule-based oximes that can efficiently restore acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity. Despite their efficacy in reactivating AChE, the action of drugs like 2-pralidoxime (2-PAM) is primarily limited to the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and, thus, provides no significant protection to the central nervous system (CNS). This lack of action in the CNS stems from their ionic nature that, on one end makes them very powerful reactivators and on the other renders them ineffective at crossing the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) to reach the CNS. In this report, we describe the use of an iterative approach composed of parallel chemical and in silico syntheses, computational modeling, and a battery of detailed in vitro and in vivo assays that resulted in the identification of a promising, novel CNS-permeable oxime reactivator. Additional experiments to determine acute and chronic toxicity are ongoing.

Three-component radical homo Mannich reaction

Aliphatic amine, especially tertiary aliphatic amine, is one of the most popular functionalities found in pharmaceutical agents. The Mannich reaction is a classical and widely used transformation for the synthesis of β-amino-carbonyl products. Due to an ionic nature of the mechanism, the Mannich reaction can only use non-enolizable aldehydes as substrates, which significantly limits the further applications of this powerful approach. Here we show, by employing a radical process, we are able to utilize enolizable aldehydes as substrates and develop the three-component radical homo Mannich reaction for the streamlined synthesis of γ-amino-carbonyl compounds. The electrophilic radicals are generated from thiols via the desulfurization process facilitated by visible-light, and then add to the electron-rich double bonds of the in-situ formed enamines to provide the products in a single step. The broad scope, mild conditions, high functional group tolerance, and modularity of this metal-free approach for the synthesis of complex tertiary amine scaffolds will likely be of great utility to chemists in both academia and industry.

Crystal structure of 2-[(naphthalen-2-yl)methyl]isothiouronium bromide

Herein we report the crystal structure of 2-[(naphthalen-2-yl)methyl]isothiouronium bromide, C12H13N2S+·Br−, which crystallizes in the monoclinic P21/c centrosymmetric space group. The asymmetric unit contains one 2-[(naphthalen-2-yl)methyl]isothiouronium cation and one bromide anion. The methylene carbon lies in plane of the naphthalene core. In comparison with reference structures, elongation of C—S bonds as well as tilting of the isothiouronium group is observed. Given the ionic nature of the compound, the structure is held by charge-assisted N—H...Br hydrogen bonds, with a noteworthy contribution of dipole–dipole interactions, which form bilayers in the structure. The bilayers are held by the weak London forces.