Kinetic model for the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass in the ionic liquid, 1-ethyl-3-methyl-imidazolium chloride†

The kinetics of the acid-catalysed hydrolysis of cellobiose in the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [C(2)mim]Cl, was studied as a model for general lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysis in ionic liquid systems. The results show that the rate of the two competing reactions, polysaccharide hydrolysis and sugar decomposition, vary with acid strength, and that for acids with an aqueous pK(a) below approximately zero, the hydrolysis reaction is significantly faster than the degradation of glucose, thus allowing hydrolysis to be performed with a high selectivity in glucose. In tests with soluble cellulose, hemicellulose (xylan), and lignocellulosic biomass (Miscanthus grass), comparable hydrolysis rates were observed with bond scission occurring randomly along the biopolymer chains, in contrast to end-group hydrolysis observed with aqueous acids.

Causal conjunction fallacies: The roles of causal strength and mental resources

In two experiments we tested the prediction derived from Tversky and Kahneman's (1983) work on the causal conjunction fallacy that the strength of the causal connection between constituent events directly affects the magnitude of the causal conjunction fallacy. We also explored whether any effects of perceived causal strength were due to graded output from heuristic Type 1 reasoning processes or the result of analytic Type 2 reasoning processes. As predicted, Experiment 1 demonstrated that fallacy rates were higher for strongly than for weakly related conjunctions. Weakly related conjunctions in turn attracted higher rates of fallacious responding than did unrelated conjunctions. Experiment 2 showed that a concurrent memory load increased rates of fallacious responding for strongly related but not for weakly related conjunctions. We interpret these results as showing that manipulations of the strength of the perceived causal relationship between the conjuncts result in graded output from heuristic reasoning process and that additional mental resources are required to suppress strong heuristic output.