Efficient capture of phosphate from wastewater by a recyclable ionic liquid functionalized polyacrylonitrile fiber: A typical “Release and Catch” mechanism

The enrichment and separation of phosphorus-containing compounds from wastewater can prevent eutrophication and recycle non-renewable resource. Herein, we developed a recyclable functionalized polyacrylonitrile fiber (PANAF-Cl) capable of loading ionic liquid...

Synergy between supported ionic liquid-like phases and immobilized palladium N-heterocyclic carbene–phosphine complexes for the Negishi reaction under flow conditions

The combination of supported ionic liquids and immobilized NHC–Pd–RuPhos led to active and more stable systems for the Negishi reaction under continuous flow conditions than those solely based on NHC–Pd–RuPhos. The fine tuning of the NHC–Pd catalyst and the SILLPs is a key factor for the optimization of the release and catch mechanism leading to a catalytic system easily recoverable and reusable for a large number of catalytic cycles enhancing the long-term catalytic performance.

Thiol-Functionalized Ethylene Periodic Mesoporous Organosilica as an Efficient Scavenger for Palladium: Confirming the Homogeneous Character of the Suzuki Reaction

This work describes the synthesis of thiol-functionalized periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMOs) prepared using the precursor 1-thiol-1,2-bis(triethoxysilyl)ethane, alone or mixed with 1,2-bis(triethoxysilyl)ethane. The thiol groups incorporated into the structure were found to be efficient for palladium binding. This has allowed these materials to be used as catalysts in the Suzuki cross-coupling reaction of bromobenzene and phenylboronic acid. Their performance has been compared to palladium-supported periodic mesoporous (organo)silicas and important differences have been observed between them. The use of different heterogeneity tests, such as hot filtration test and poisoning experiments, has provided a deep insight into the reaction mechanism and has confirmed that the reaction occurs in the homogeneous phase following a “release and catch” mechanism. Furthermore, the thiol-functionalized periodic mesoporous organosilica, synthesized using only 1-thiol-1,2-bis(triethoxysilyl)ethane as a precursor, has proven to be an efficient palladium scavenger.

Evaluation of Shake-and-Catch Mechanism in Mechanical Harvesting of Apples

Damaged fruit is the most important barrier to success in the mechanical harvesting of fresh market apples using mass harvesting methods. To address fruit quality issues and expedite the commercialization of mechanical harvesting of fresh market apples, an innovative air suspension-based catching (ASC) mechanism was designed and fabricated to collect fruit detached with a mechanical shaking device (tree limb shaker). The objective of this study was to evaluate the shake-and-catch mechanism in mechanical harvesting of apples. Three apple varieties with different physical characteristics (‘Honeycrisp’, ‘Pacific Rose’, and ‘Pink Lady’) were used in the field trials. The air pressure settings for the ASC mechanism played an important role in reducing the risk of apple damage and improving fruit quality. The effect of the shaking frequency of the tree limb shaker on fruit quality was not significant. When the air pressure increased from 0 to 1030 kPa, the fruit quality greatly improved. Keywords: Air pressure, Air suspension-based catching mechanism, Fluidized bed technology, Fresh market apples, Fruit quality, Mass harvesting, Shaking efficiency.