Adsorption and electropolymerization of toluidine blue on the nano structured octakis(hydridodimethylsiloxy)-octasilsesquioxane surface

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Microscopic evidence supports the hypothesis of high cellulose degradation capacity by the symbiotic fungus of leaf-cutting ants

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Preparation of hierarchically structured porous aluminas by a dual soft template method

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Alkene epoxidation with iodosylbenzene catalysed by polyionic manganese porphyrins electrostatically bound to counter-charged supports

Manganese(III) complexes of tetra-anionic and tetra-cationic porphyrins have been immobilised on counter-charged, surface-modified silica supports and on organic ion-exchange resins. The reactions of these supported manganese(III) porphyrin systems and analogous uncharged homogeneous systems have been examined using cyclooctene and (E)- and (Z)-4- methylpent-2-ene epoxidations, with iodosylbenzene (PhIO) as the oxygen donor.Comparisons using the manganese porphyrin systems as catalysts for the epoxidation of cyclooctene in acetonitrile reveal that, in low turnover reactions (maximum 136 turnovers), they all give an essentially quantitative yield of epoxide although the heterogeneous reactions are significantly slower than the homogeneous analogues. In large scale repeat-use experiments, however, the supported catalysts are clearly superior, giving markedly better yields.The epoxidations of (E)- and (Z)-4- methylpent-2-ene with all the catalysts show a very high stereoretention, with the (Z)-alkene reacting faster than the (E)-isomer. The sterically hindered manganese(III) 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(2,6-dichloro-3-sulfonatophenyl)porphyrin (MnTDCSPP) shows the highest selectivity for the (Z)-isomer; by contrast the supported manganese(III) 5,10,15,20-tetrakis[2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-4-(trimethylammonio)phenyl]porphyrin on Dowex (MnTF(4)TMAPP-Dowex) reacts with the two alkenes at effectively the same rate.The mechanism of the epoxidations and the influence of the porphyrin ligand and support on the substrate selectivity are discussed.

Microstructural and electric properties of bismuth-layered structured ceramics - SrBi2(Ta1-xNbx)O-9

Ceramic samples of SrBi2(Nb1-xTax)O-9 (0 less than or equal to x less than or equal to 1) were prepared by the solid state reaction method in order to investigate their structural and electrical features as well as obtain useful information to improve the properties of SrBi2(Nb1-xTax)O-9 as a thin film. The X-ray diffraction patterns and the scanning electronic microscopy photomicrographs show no secondary phases but the formation of a solid-state solution for all the composition. The ac conductivity of the samples, measured at 25 degreesC and 100 kHz frequency, decreases with the increase of Ta content. Such results were explained by intrinsic conductivity of pure components.

Sol-gel synthesis of titania-alumina catalyst supports

Titanium oxide is a good candidate as new support for hydrotreating (HDT) catalysts, but has the inconvenience of presenting small surface area and poor thermal stability. To overcome these handicaps TiO2-Al2O3 mixed oxides were proposed as catalyst support. Here, the results concerning the preparation, characterization and testing of molybdenum catalyst supported on titania-alumina are presented. The support was prepared by sol-gel route using titanium and aluminum isopropoxides, chelated with acetylacetone (acac) to promote similar hydrolysis ratio for both the alcoxides. The effect of nominal complexing ratios [acac]/[Ti] and of sol aging temperature on the structural features of nanometric particles was analyzed by quasi-elastic light scattering (QELS) and N-2 adsorption isotherm measurements. These characterizations have shown that the addition of acac and the increase of aging temperature favor the full dispersion of primary nanoparticles in mother acid solution. The dried powder presents a monomodal distribution of slit-shaped micropores, formed by irregular packing of platelet primary particles, surface area superior to 200 m(2) g(-1) and mean pore size of about 1 nm. These characteristics of porous texture are preserved after firing at 673 K. The diffraction patterns of sample fired above 973 K show only the presence of anatase crystalline phase. The crystalline structure of the support remained unaltered after molybdenum adsorption, but the surface area and the micropore volume were drastically reduced. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier B.V. B.V.

Mechanically activating formation of layered structured bismuth titanate

Bismuth titanatc-Bi(4)Ti(3)O(12) (BIT) with wide application in the electronic industry as capacitors, memory devices and sensors is the simplest compound in the Aurivillius family, which consists of (Bi(2)O(2))(2+) sheets alternating with (Bi(2)T(i)3O(10))(2-) perovskite-like layers. The synthesis of more resistive BIT ceramics would be preferable advance in obtaining of well-densified ceramic with small grains randomly oriented to limit the conductivity along the (Bi(2)O(2))(2+) layers. Having in mind that the conventional ceramic route for the synthesis can lead to non-stoichiometry in composition, in consequence of the undesirable loss in bismuth content through volatilization of Bi(2)O(3) at elevated temperature, our efforts were addressed to preparation of BIT by mechanical activation the constituent oxides. The nucleation and phase formation of BIT, crystal structure, microstructure, powder particle size and specific surface area were followed by XRD, Rietveld refinement analysis, thermal analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the BET specific surface area measurements. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Screening of supports for the immobilization of pectinmethylesterase from acerola (Malpighia glabra L)

A partially purified extract of pectinmethylesterase (PME) from acerola fruit was immobilized on various supports: glass, celite, chrysotile, agarose, concanavalin A Sepharose 4B, egg shell, polyacrylamide and gelatin. In addition, reticulation with glutaraldehyde was assessed, as well as the use of gelatin in the presence of celite, glass and silica. The highest immobilization yields were obtained when the pectinmethylesterase was immobilized in concanavalin A Sepharose 4B (81.7%) and in gelatin-water (78.0%). (C) 2004 Society of Chemical Industry.

A comparative study of the electrogeneration of hydrogen peroxide using Vulcan and Printex carbon supports

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Intercalation processes and diffusion paths of lithium ions in spinel-type structured Li(1+x)Ti(2)O(4): Density functional theory study

Intercalation processes and corresponding diffusion paths of Li ions into spinel-type structured Li(1+x)Ti(2)O(4) (0 <= x <= 0.375) are systematically studied by means of periodic density functional theory calculations for different compositions and arrangements. An analysis of the site preference for intercalation processes is carried out, while energy barriers for the diffusion paths have been computed in detail. Our results indicate that the Li insertion is thermodynamically favorable at octahedral sites 16c in the studied composition range, and Li migration from tetrahedral sites 8a to octahedral sites 16c stabilizes the structure and becomes favorable for compositions x >= 0.25. Diffusion paths from less stable arrangements involving Li migrations between tetrahedral and octahedral sites exhibit the lowest energy barrier since the corresponding trajectories and energy profiles take place across a triangle made by three neighboring oxygen anions without structural modification. Theoretical and experimental diffusion coefficients are in reasonable agreement.

A new application of humic substances: Activation of supports for invertase immobilization

Invertase was immobilized on aminopropyl silica (APTS-SiO2) activated with humic substances (APTS-SiO2-HS) and on aminopropyl silica activated with glutaraldehyde (APTS-SiO2-GA). The resulting activity of both systems was compared. Humic substances (HS) used for the activation of the silica were extracted from soil of Cananéia, São Paulo State, Brazil, according to the procedure recommended by the International Humic Substances Society. Activity was determined by measuring the rate of formation of reduced sugars using the reaction with dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS). The amount of HS bound on the APTS-SiO2 was equal to 50 mg. The maximum amount of invertase immobilized on APTS-SiO2-HS was 15200 U/g while in the system APTS-SiO2-GA it was 13400 U/g. The experimental enzymatic activity was 3700 and 3300 U/g, for the systems APTS-SiO2-HS and APTS-SiO2-GA, respectively. Considering the increased amount and activity of immobilized enzyme compared with the glutaraldehyde method, it was concluded that this technique opens a new perspective in the preparation of supports for enzyme immobilization employing humic substances. © Springer-Verlag 2000.

A low cost structured light system

The aim of this paper is to present the current development status of a low cost system for surface reconstruction with structured light. The acquisition system is composed of a single off-the-shelf digital camera and a pattern projector. A pattern codification strategy was developed to allow the pattern recognition automatically and a calibration methodology ensures the determination of the direction vector of each pattern. The experiments indicated that an accuracy of 0.5mm in depth could be achieved for typical applications.

Transposon display supports transpositional activity of P elements in species of the saltans group of Drosophila

Mobilization of two P element subfamilies (canonical and O-type) from Drosophila sturtevanti and D. saltans was evaluated for copy number and transposition activity using the transposon display (TD) technique. Pairwise distances between strains regarding the insertion polymorphism profile were estimated. Amplification of the P element based on copy number estimates was highly variable among the strains (D. sturtevanti, canonical 20.11, O-type 9.00; D. saltans, canonical 16.4, O-type 12.60 insertions, on average). The larger values obtained by TD compared to our previous data by Southern blotting support the higher sensitivity of TD over Southern analysis for estimating transposable element copy numbers. The higher numbers of the canonical P element and the greater divergence in its distribution within the genome of D. sturtevanti (24.8%) compared to the O-type (16.7%), as well as the greater divergence in the distribution of the canonical P element, between the D. sturtevanti (24.8%) and the D. saltans (18.3%) strains, suggest that the canonical element occupies more sites within the D. sturtevanti genome, most probably due to recent transposition activity. These data corroborate the hypothesis that the O-type is the oldest subfamily of P elements in the saltans group and suggest that the canonical P element is or has been transpositionally active until more recently in D. sturtevanti. © Indian Academy of Sciences.

Pattern recognition structured heuristics methods for image processing in mobile robot navigation

In this project, the main focus is to apply image processing techniques in computer vision through an omnidirectional vision system to agricultural mobile robots (AMR) used for trajectory navigation problems, as well as localization matters. To carry through this task, computational methods based on the JSEG algorithm were used to provide the classification and the characterization of such problems, together with Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) for pattern recognition. Therefore, it was possible to run simulations and carry out analyses of the performance of JSEG image segmentation technique through Matlab/Octave platforms, along with the application of customized Back-propagation algorithm and statistical methods as structured heuristics methods in a Simulink environment. Having the aforementioned procedures been done, it was practicable to classify and also characterize the HSV space color segments, not to mention allow the recognition of patterns in which reasonably accurate results were obtained. ©2010 IEEE.

Thermal tunability of photonic bandgaps in photonic crystal fibers selectively filled with nematic liquid crystal

We address the bandgap effect and the thermo-optical response of high-index liquid crystal (LC) infiltrated in photonic crystal fibers (PCF) and in hybrid photonic crystal fibers (HPCF). The PCF and HPCF consist of solid-core microstructured optical fibers with hexagonal lattice of air-holes or holes filled with LC. The HPCF is built from the PCF design by changing its cladding microstructure only in a horizontal central line by including large holes filled with high-index material. The HPCF supports propagating optical modes by two physical effects: the modified total internal reflection (mTIR) and the photonic bandgap (PBG). Nevertheless conventional PCF propagates light by the mTIR effect if holes are filled with low refractive index material or by the bandgap effect if the microstructure of holes is filled with high refractive-index material. The presence of a line of holes with high-index LC determines that low-loss optical propagation only occurs on the bandgap condition. The considered nematic liquid crystal E7 is an anisotropic uniaxial media with large thermo-optic coefficient; consequently temperature changes cause remarkable shifts in the transmission spectrums allowing thermal tunability of the bandgaps. Photonic bandgap guidance and thermally induced changes in the transmission spectrum were numerically investigated by using a computational program based on the beam propagation method. © 2010 SPIE.