Functionalisation of spruce O-acetyl-galactoglucomannans for barrier and composite applications

The increasing use of energy, food, and materials by the growing population in the world is leading to the situation where alternative solutions from renewable carbon resources are sought after. The growing use of plastics depends on the raw-oil production while oil refining are politically governed and required for the polymer manufacturing is not sustainable in terms of carbon footprint. The amount of packaging is also increasing. Packaging is not only utilising cardboard and paper, but also plastics. The synthetic petroleum-derived plastics and inner-coatings in food packaging can be substituted with polymeric material from the renewable resources. The trees in Finnish forests constitute a huge resource, which ought to be utilised more effectively than it is today. One underutilised component of the forests is the wood-derived hemicelluloses, although Spruce Oacetyl-galactoglucomannans (GGMs) have previously shown high potential for material applications and can be recovered in large scale. Hemicelluloses are hydrophilic in their native state, which restrains the use of them for food packaging as non-dry item. To cope with this challenge, we intended to make GGMs more hydrophobic or amphiphilic by chemical grafting and consequently with the focus of using them for barrier applications. Methods of esterification with anhydrides and cationic etherification with a trimethyl ammonium moiety were established. A method of controlled synthesis to obtain the desired properties by the means of altering temperature, reaction time, the quantity of the reagent, and even the solvent for purification of the products was developed. Numerous analytical tools, such as NMR, FTIR, SEC-MALLS/RI, MALDI-TOF-MS, RP-HPLC and polyelectrolyte titration were used to evaluate the products from different perspectives and to acquire parallel proofs of their chemical structure. Modified GGMs with different degree of substitution and the correlating level of hydrophobicity was applied as coatings on cartonboard and on nanofibrillated cellulose-GGM films to exhibit barrier functionality. The water dispersibility in processing was maintained with GGM esters with low DS. The use of chemically functionalised GGM was evaluated for the use as barriers against water, oxygen and grease for the food packaging purposes. The results show undoubtedly that GGM derivatives exhibit high potential to function as a barrier material in food packaging.

Chemical changes in biomass during torrefaction

Torrefaction is moderate thermal treatment (~200-300 °C) of biomass in an inert atmosphere. The torrefied fuel offers advantages to traditional biomass, such as higher heating value, reduced hydrophilic nature, increased its resistance to biological decay, and improved grindability. These factors could, for instance, lead to better handling and storage of biomass and increased use of biomass in pulverized combustors. In this work, we look at several aspects of changes in the biomass during torrefaction. We investigate the fate of carboxylic groups during torrefaction and its dependency to equilibrium moisture content. The changes in the wood components including carbohydrates, lignin, extractable materials and ashforming matters are also studied. And at last, the effect of K on torrefaction is investigated and then modeled. In biomass, carboxylic sites are partially responsible for its hydrophilic characteristic. These sites are degraded to varying extents during torrefaction. In this work, methylene blue sorption and potentiometric titration were applied to measure the concentration of carboxylic groups in torrefied spruce wood. The results from both methods were applicable and the values agreed well. A decrease in the equilibrium moisture content at different humidity was also measured for the torrefied wood samples, which is in good agreement with the decrease in carboxylic group contents. Thus, both methods offer a means of directly measuring the decomposition of carboxylic groups in biomass during torrefaction as a valuable parameter in evaluating the extent of torrefaction. This provides new information to the chemical changes occurring during torrefaction. The effect of torrefaction temperature on the chemistry of birch wood was investigated. The samples were from a pilot plant at Energy research Center of the Netherlands (ECN). And in that way they were representative of industrially produced samples. Sugar analysis was applied to analyze the hemicellulose and cellulose content during torrefaction. The results show a significant degradation of hemicellulose already at 240 °C, while cellulose degradation becomes significant above 270 °C torrefaction. Several methods including Klason lignin method, solid state NMR and Py-GC-MS analyses were applied to measure the changes in lignin during torrefaction. The changes in the ratio of phenyl, guaiacyl and syringyl units show that lignin degrades already at 240 °C to a small extent. To investigate the changes in the extractives from acetone extraction during torrefaction, gravimetric method, HP-SEC and GC-FID followed by GC-MS analysis were performed. The content of acetone-extractable material increases already at 240 °C torrefaction through the degradation of carbohydrate and lignin. The molecular weight of the acetone-extractable material decreases with increasing the torrefaction temperature. The formation of some valuable materials like syringaresinol or vanillin is also observed which is important from biorefinery perspective. To investigate the change in the chemical association of ash-forming elements in birch wood during torrefaction, chemical fractionation was performed on the original and torrefied birch samples. These results give a first understanding of the changes in the association of ashforming elements during torrefaction. The most significant changes can be seen in the distribution of calcium, magnesium and manganese, with some change in water solubility seen in potassium. These changes may in part be due to the destruction of carboxylic groups. In addition to some changes in water and acid solubility of phosphorous, a clear decrease in the concentration of both chlorine and sulfur was observed. This would be a significant additional benefit for the combustion of torrefied biomass. Another objective of this work is studying the impact of organically bound K, Na, Ca and Mn on mass loss of biomass during torrefaction. These elements were of interest because they have been shown to be catalytically active in solid fuels during pyrolysis and/or gasification. The biomasses were first acid washed to remove the ash-forming matters and then organic sites were doped with K, Na, Ca or Mn. The results show that K and Na bound to organic sites can significantly increase the mass loss during torrefaction. It is also seen that Mn bound to organic sites increases the mass loss and Ca addition does not influence the mass loss rate on torrefaction. This increase in mass loss during torrefaction with alkali addition is unlike what has been found in the case of pyrolysis where alkali addition resulted in a reduced mass loss. These results are important for the future operation of torrefaction plants, which will likely be designed to handle various biomasses with significantly different contents of K. The results imply that shorter retention times are possible for high K-containing biomasses. The mass loss of spruce wood with different content of K was modeled using a two-step reaction model based on four kinetic rate constants. The results show that it is possible to model the mass loss of spruce wood doped with different levels of K using the same activation energies but different pre-exponential factors for the rate constants. Three of the pre-exponential factors increased linearly with increasing K content, while one of the preexponential factors decreased with increasing K content. Therefore, a new torrefaction model was formulated using the hemicellulose and cellulose content and K content. The new torrefaction model was validated against the mass loss during the torrefaction of aspen, miscanthus, straw and bark. There is good agreement between the model and the experimental data for the other biomasses, except bark. For bark, the mass loss of acetone extractable material is also needed to be taken into account. The new model can describe the kinetics of mass loss during torrefaction of different types of biomass. This is important for considering fuel flexibility in torrefaction plants.

Sodaliittien Na8(AlSiO4)6(Cl,S)2 tenebresenssin ja luminesenssin tutkiminen NMR ja EPR spektroskopioita apuna käyttäen

Sodaliitit ovat mineraaleja, joiden ominaisuuksia ovat tenebresenssi, luminesenssi ja kestoluminesenssi. Sodaliitteja voidaan löytää luonnosta, mutta niitä pystytään valmistamaan myös laboratoriossa kiinteän olomuodon menetelmällä. Yksi sodaliittien erityistapauksista on hackmaniitti. Hackamiittiin tutustumalla voidaan helposti tutustua yleisesti sodaliitteihin. Hackamniitin rakenne perustuu rakennekaavaan Na8[AlSiO4]6[Cl,S]2. Rakenteeseen voidaan kuitenkin tehdä hienovaraisia muutoksia, joilla saadaan aikaan ominaisuuksien muutoksia syntyvissä tuotteissa. Työssä valmistettiin synteettisiä sodaliitteja, joiden kloori- ja rikkiatomien suhdetta ja vakanssien määrää muutettiin. Syntyneiden tuotteiden kiderakenne vastasi luonnollisen sodaliitin kiderakennetta. Kiderakenteen sisällä olevat muutokset vaikuttivat kuitenkin sodaliittien luminesenssin intensiteettiin ja tenebresenssissä syntyvän värin tummuuteen ja värin kestoon. Koska rakenne selkeästi vaikuttaa sodaliitin ominaisuuksiin, pyrittiin työssä löytämään parhaat menetelmät, joilla rakennetta voidaan tutkia. Perinteisten rakennetutkimusmenetelmien, (kuten XPD:n) lisäksi tutkittiin magneettiseen värähtelyyn perustuvien tekniikoiden (NMR ja EPR) käyttöä sodaliittien tutkimisessa. Sodaliitteja on tutkittu toistaiseksi kovin vähän. Tulevaisuudessa sodaliitit ovat kuitenkin mielenkiintoinen tutkimuskohde, sillä niissä saadaan aikaan useita optisia ominaisuuksia eri viritysaallonpituuksilla. Työssä esitettyjen tutkimusmenetelmien avulla sodaliitteja voidaan jatkossa tutkia entistä paremmin ja niiden rakenteesta

FT-IR and MAS NMR analysis of montmorillonite K10 supported MF2 reagents and their activity as catalysis /

ZnF2, CdF2, and CUF2 have been adsorbed onto the surface of montmorillonite K10, and the infrared and 19F, 27 AI, and 29Si MAS NMR spectra of the reagents over a range of loadings have been obtained. CUF2 was observed to attack the Si02 layer and form the complex CuSiF6, Zn F2 tends to attack the aluminium oxide layer, in which Zn isomorphously replaces AI, and forms AIF3 and AIF4 - complexes. All the spectroscopic evidence ruled out the formation of any AI-F and/or Si-F free species as CdF2 is adsorbed on the surface of montmorillonite K10. The reactivity of MF2-K10 reagents towards Friedel-Crafts benzylation of benzene with benzyl chloride varied from one reagent to another. ZnF2-K10 was observed to be the most reactive and CUF2 was the least reactive.

Extracting Ramachandran torsional angle distributions from 2D NMR data using Tikhonov regularization /

Solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful technique for studying structural and dynamical properties of disordered and partially ordered materials, such as glasses, polymers, liquid crystals, and biological materials. In particular, twodimensional( 2D) NMR methods such as ^^C-^^C correlation spectroscopy under the magicangle- spinning (MAS) conditions have been used to measure structural constraints on the secondary structure of proteins and polypeptides. Amyloid fibrils implicated in a broad class of diseases such as Alzheimer's are known to contain a particular repeating structural motif, called a /5-sheet. However, the details of such structures are poorly understood, primarily because the structural constraints extracted from the 2D NMR data in the form of the so-called Ramachandran (backbone torsion) angle distributions, g{^,'4)), are strongly model-dependent. Inverse theory methods are used to extract Ramachandran angle distributions from a set of 2D MAS and constant-time double-quantum-filtered dipolar recoupling (CTDQFD) data. This is a vastly underdetermined problem, and the stability of the inverse mapping is problematic. Tikhonov regularization is a well-known method of improving the stability of the inverse; in this work it is extended to use a new regularization functional based on the Laplacian rather than on the norm of the function itself. In this way, one makes use of the inherently two-dimensional nature of the underlying Ramachandran maps. In addition, a modification of the existing numerical procedure is performed, as appropriate for an underdetermined inverse problem. Stability of the algorithm with respect to the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio is examined using a simulated data set. The results show excellent convergence to the true angle distribution function g{(j),ii) for the S/N ratio above 100.

Chelated fluoroboron cations : synthesis and multinuclear nmr studies

The preparation of chelated difluoroboron cations (DD)BF2+, where DD is a saturated polydentate tertiary-amine or polydentate aromatic ligand, has been systematically studied by using multinuclear solution and solid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry. Three new methods of synthesis of (DD)BF2+ cations are reported, and compared with the previous method of reacting a chelating donor with Et20.BF3. The methods most effective for aromatic donors such as 1,1O-phenanthroline are ineffective for saturated polydentate tertiary-amines like N,N,N' ,Nil ,Nil-pentamethyldiethylenetriamine. Polydentate tertiary-amine donors that form 5-membered rings upon bidentate chelation were found to chelate effectively when the BF2 source contained two leaving groups (a heavy halide and a Lewis base such as pyridine =pyr or isoxazole =ISOX), i.e., pyr.BF2X (X = CI or Br), ISOX.BF2X and (pyr)2BF2+. Those that would form 6membered rings upon chelation do not chelate by any of the four methods. Polydentate aromatic ligands chelate effectively when the BF2 source contained a weak Lewis base, e.g., ISOX.BF3, ISOX.BF2X and Et20.BF3. Bidentate chelation by polydentate tertiaryamine and aromatic donors leads to nmr parameters that are significantly different then their (D)2BF2+ relatives (D =monod~ntate t-amines or pyridines). The chelated haloboron cations (DD)BFCI+, and (DD)BFBr+ were generated from D.BFX2 adducts for all ligands that form BF2+ cations above. In addition, the (DD)BCI2+ and (DD)BBr2+ cations were formed from D.BX3 adducts by the chelating aromatic ligands, except for the aromatic ligand 1,8-bis(dimethylamino)naphthalene, which formed only the (DD)BF2+ cation, apparently due to its extreme steric hindrance. Chelation by a donor is a two-step reaction. For polydentate tertiary-amine ligands, the two rates appear to be very dependent on the two possible leaving groups on the central boron atom. The order of increasing ease of displacement for the donors was: pyr < Cl < Br < ISOX. The rate of chelation by polydentate aromatic ligands appears to be dependent on the displacement of the first ligand from the boron. The order of increasing ease of displacement for the donors was: pyr < CI < ISOX ~ Br < Et20.

NMR studies of mixed tetrahaloborates and some related boron trihalide complexes /|nGary John Schrobilgen. -- 260 St. Catharines, Ont. : [s. n.],

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy has been used to study donor-acceptor complexes of boron trifluoride with several ureas, tetramethylthiourea, tetramethylselenourea, and tetramethylquanidine as well as adducts of tetramethyl- -urea with BF2Cl, BFC1 2 , and BC1 3 - A large number of mixed tetrahaloborate ions, including some of the ternary ones such as BF2CIBr-,have been obtained by ligand exchange reactions and studied by NMR techniques. The bonding in these ions is of the same inherent interest as the bonding in the isoelectronic tetrahalomethanes which have been the subject of many detailed studies and have been involved in a controversy concerning the existence of and the nature of "fluorine hyperconjugation" or C-F P1T- Pn bonding_ Ligand exchange reactions also gave rise to the difluoroboron cation, (TMU)20BF2+o The difluoroboron cation has been observed in solutions of TMU-BF3 , and has been proposed as a possible intermediate for fluorine exchange reactions in BF3 adducts.

NMR studies of strong hydrogen bond to fluoride ion

Systems such as MF/diol (M = alkali metal) and }1F/carboxylic acid were subjected to IH, I9F and 13C nmr study to investigate the nature of the very strong H-bonding of fluoride ions with these systems. Evidence indicates a strong H-bond in diol-fluoride systems (~H ~ -(56) kJ mol-I) which is stronger than most 'typical' H-bonds (~H = -(12-40) kJ mol-I), but weaker than that reported for carboxylic acid-fluoride systems (~H ~ -(120) kJ mol-I). Approximate fluoride H-bonded shifts (o(OH)OHF) were evaluated for MF/diol systems from IH chemical shift measurements. No direct correlation was observed between I9F chemical shift and H-bond strength. Thermodynamic parameters were calculated from temperature dependent IH and 19F shifts. Preliminary studies of BUn 4NF-acetylacetone by I9F nmr were conducted at low temperatures and a possible Jmax (ca. 400 Hz) is reported for the fluoride ion H-bonded to acetylacetone. Highfield shift for non-protonated carbons and downfield shift for protonated carbons were observed in carboxylic acid/KF systems. Significant decreas$in I3C TI due to strong H-bonding to fluoride ions were also detected in both diol and carboxylic acid systems. Anomalous results were obtained, such as increasing NOE with increasing temperature in neat 1,2-ethanediol (values above the theoretical maximum of 1.988) and in 1,2-ethanediol/KF. The large 13C NOE's for carboxy carbons in neat carboxylic acids which are. further enhanced by the addition of KF are also unusual.

NMR studies of the exchange reactions of CH3CN.BX3 with excess CH3CN /|nJoseph Fogelman. -- 260 St. Catharines, Ont. : [s. n.],

Exchange reactions between molecular complexes and excess acid or base are well known and have been extensively surveyed in the literature(l). Since the exchange mechanism will, in some way involve the breaking of the labile donor-acceptor bond, it follows that a discussion of the factors relating to bonding in molecular complexes will be relevant. In general, a strong Lewis base and a strong Lewis acid form a stable adduct provided that certain stereochemical requirements are met. A strong Lewis base has the following characteristics (1),(2) (i) high electron density at the donor site. (ii) a non-bonded electron pair which has a low ionization potential (iii) electron donating substituents at the donor atom site. (iv) facile approach of the site of the Lewis base to the acceptor site as dictated by the steric hindrance of the substituents. Examples of typical Lewis bases are ethers, nitriles, ketones, alcohols, amines and phosphines. For a strong Lewis acid, the following properties are important:( i) low electron density at the acceptor site. (ii) electron withdrawing substituents. (iii) substituents which do not interfere with the close approach of the Lewis base. (iv) availability of a vacant orbital capable of accepting the lone electron pair of the donor atom. Examples of Lewis acids are the group III and IV halides such (M=B, AI, Ga, In) and MX4 - (M=Si, Ge, Sn, Pb). The relative bond strengths of molecular complexes have been investigated by:- (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v] (vi) dipole moment measurements (3). shifts of the carbonyl peaks in the IIIR. (4) ,(5), (6) .. NMR chemical shift data (4),(7),(8),(9). D.V. and visible spectrophotometric shifts (10),(11). equilibrium constant data (12), (13). heats of dissociation and heats of reactions (l~), (16), (17), (18), (19). Many experiments have bben carried out on boron trihalides in order to determine their relative acid strengths. Using pyridine, nitrobenzene, acetonitrile and trimethylamine as reference Lewis bases, it was found that the acid strength varied in order:RBx3 > BC1 3 >BF 3 • For the acetonitrile-boron trihalide and trimethylamine boron trihalide complexes in nitrobenzene, an-NMR study (7) showed that the shift to lower field was. greatest for the BB~3 adduct ~n~ smallest for the BF 3 which is in agreement with the acid strengths. If electronegativities of the substituents were the only important effect, and since c~ Br ,one would expect the electron density at the boron nucleus to vary as BF3

Simultaneous extraction of order parameters and orientational distribution fuctions from 31[superscript]P NMR spectra of magnetically partially oriented phospholipid bilayers

Order parameter profiles extracted from the NMR spectra of model membranes are a valuable source of information about their structure and molecular motions. To al1alyze powder spectra the de-Pake-ing (numerical deconvolution) ~echnique can be used, but it assumes a random (spherical) dist.ribution of orientations in the sample. Multilamellar vesicles are known to deform and orient in the strong magnetic fields of NMR magnets, producing non-spherical orientation distributions. A recently developed technique for simultaneously extracting the anisotropies of the system as well as the orientation distributions is applied to the analysis of partially magnetically oriented 31p NMR spectra of phospholipids. A mixture of synthetic lipids, POPE and POPG, is analyzed to measure distortion of multilamellar vesicles in a magnetic field. In the analysis three models describing the shape of the distorted vesicles are examined. Ellipsoids of rotation with a semiaxis ratio of about 1.14 are found to provide a good approximation of the shape of the distorted vesicles. This is in reasonable agreement with published experimental work. All three models yield clearly non-spherical orientational distributions, as well as a precise measure of the anisotropy of the chemical shift. Noise in the experimental data prevented the analysis from concluding which of the three models is the best approximation. A discretization scheme for finding stability in the algorithm is outlined

Solid state NMR chemical shifts as an alternative to diffraction data in the determination of SIC polytypic structures

Silicon carbide, which has many polytypic modifications of a very simple and very symmetric structure, is an excellent model system for exploring, the relationship between chemical shift, long-range dipolar shielding, and crystal structure in network solids. A simple McConnell equation treatment of bond anisotropy effects in a poly type predicts chemical shifts for silicon and carbon sites which agree well with the experiment, provided that contributions from bonds up to 100 A are included in the calculation. The calculated chemical shifts depend on three factors: the layer stacking sequence, electrical centre of gravity, and the spacings between silicon and carbon layers. The assignment of peaks to lattice sites is proved possible for three polytypes (6H, 15R, and 3C). The fact that the calculated chemical shifts are very sensitive to layer spacings provides us a potential way to detennine and refine a crystal structure. In this work, the layer spacings of 6H SiC have been calculated and are within X-ray standard deviations. Under this premise, the layer spacings of 15R have been detennined. 29Si and 13C single crystal nmr studies of 6H SiC polytype indicate that all silicons and carbons are magnetically anisotropic. The relationship between a magnetic shielding tensor component and layer spacings has been derived. The comparisons between experimental and semi-empirical chemical shielding tensor components indicate that the paramagnetic shielding of silicon should be included in the single crystal chemical shift calculation.

NMR characterization of chlorhexidine in lipid-based formulations /

A mixture of Chlorhexidine digluconate (CHG) with glycerophospholipid 1,2-dimyristoyl- <^54-glycero-3-phospocholine (DMPC-rf54) was analysed using ^H nuclear magnetic resonance. To analyze powder spectra, the de-Pake-ing technique was used. The method is able to extract simultaneously both the orientation distribution function and the anisotropy distribution function. The spectral moments, average order parameter profiles, and longitudinal and transverse relaxation times were used to explore the structural phase behaviour of various DMPC/CHG mixtures in the temperature range 5-60°C.

A29 NMR spin-lattice relaxation study of paramagnetics -doped orthosilictes

A ~si MAS NMR study of spin-lattice relaxation behaviour in paramagnetic-doped crystalline silicates was undertaken, using synthetic magnesium orthosilicate (forsterite) and synthetic zinc orthosilicate (willemite) doped with 0.1% to 20% of Co(II), Ni(II), or CU(II), as experimental systems. All of the samples studied exhibited a longitudinal magnetization return to the Boltzmann distribution of nuclear spin states which followed a stretched-exponential function of time: Y=exp [- (tjTn) n], O

Bis-and tris (amidine) fluoroboron cations and related systems studies by Multinuclear NMR and fast atom bombardment mass spectometry

The formation and the isolation of fluoroboron salts, (D2BF2+)(PF6-), (DD'BF2+)(PF6-) and (D3BF2+)(PF6-)2, have been carried out. 1,8-Diazabicyclo [5,4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) and 1,5-diazabicyclo[4,3,O]non-5-ene (DBN), extremely strong organic bases, were introduced into the fluoroboron cation systems and induced a complicated redistribution reaction in the D/BF3/BC13 systems. The result was the formation of all BFnCI4-n-, D.BFnCI3-n and fluoroboron cation species which were detected by 19p and 11B NMR spectrometry. The displacement reaction of CI- from these D.BFnCI3-n (n = 1 and 2) species by the second entering ligand is much faster than in other nitrogen donor containing systems which have been previously studied. Tetramethylguanidine, oxazolines and thiazolines can also produce similar reactions in D/BF3/BCI3 systems, but no significant BFnC4-n- species were observed. As well as influences of their basicity and their steric hindrance, N=C-R(X) (X = N, 0 or S) and N=C( X)2 (X = N or S) structures of ligands have significant effects on the fonnationof fluoroboron cations and the related NMR parameters. D3BF2+ and some D2BF2+ show the expected inertness, but (DBU)2BF2+ shows an interestingly high reactivity. (D2BF2+)(X-) formed from weak organic bases such as pyridine can react with stronger organic bases and form DD'BF2+ and D'2BF2+ in acetone or nitromethane. Fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry is doubly meaningful to this work. Firstly, FABMS can be directly applied to the complicated fluoroboron cation containing solution systems as an excellent complementary technique to multinuclear NMR. Secondly, the gas-phase ion substitution reaction of (D2BF2+)(PF6-) with the strong organic bases is successfully observed in a FABMS ion source when the B-N bond is not too strong in these cations.