Pd/sulfated alumina - a new effective catalyst for the selective catalytic reduction of NO with CH4

Sulfated alumina (SA) is firstly found to be an effective support for Pd catalyst used in the SCR of NO with methane. The sulfation is important to increase support's acidity which is essential for the reduction of NO over Pd catalysts. On consideration of the lower cost and easier availability of SA, we believe that SA is more promising to act as the commercial support for Pd catalyst used in the SCR of NO with methane.

Propulsive performance of a hypergolic H2O2/kerosene bipropellant

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)/kerosene is a prospective bipropellant due to its high-energy content, high storage density, and environmentally benign properties. The possibility of making it hypergolic renders this option even more attracting. Self-ignitable H2O2/kerosene bipropellants were prepared by combining different candidate catalysts and promoters. Preliminary screening evaluations were conducted by using a dropping-test method. Propulsive performances of the combinations having passed satisfying dropping-test requirements were then investigated on a specially designed thrust engine. The results revealed that short ignition delay and reliable propulsion performances could be acquired in both steady-state and pulse-mode operations, and the combination of kerosene with additives and H2O2 of 90% concentration could still have good performances after 3 months storage time. It is expected that the combination of H2O2 and kerosene can be an efficacious alternative for storable toxic propellants used currently.

Probing into the catalytic nature of Co/sulfated zirconia for selective reduction of NO with methane

In this work, the structural and surface properties of Co-loaded sulfated zirconia (SZ) catalysts were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N-2 adsorption, NH3-TPD, FT-IR spectroscopy, H-2-TPR, UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and NO-TPD. NH3-TPD and FT-IR spectra results of the catalysts showed that the sulfation process of the support resulted in the generation of strong Bronsted and Lewis acid sites, which is essential for the SCR of NO with methane. On the other hand, the N-2 adsorption, H-2-TPR, UV/vis DRS, and XPS of the catalysts demonstrated that the presence of the SO42- species promoted the dispersion of the Co species and prevented the formation Of Co3O4. Such an increased dispersion of Co species suppressed the combustion reaction of CH4 by O-2 and increased the selectivity toward NO reduction. The NO-TPD proved that the loading of Co increased the adsorption of NO over SZ catalysts, which is another reason for the promoting effect of Co. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Structural determinants of steroids for cytochrome P450 3A4-mediated metabolism

Cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4), a major member of cytochrome P450 isoenzymes, metabolizes the majority of steroids in 6beta-position. For the purpose of determining requisite structural features of a series of structurally related steroids for CYP3A4-mediated metabolism, three-dimensional pharmacophore modeling as well as electrotopological state map were conducted for 15 steroids. Though prior studies speculated that the chemical reactivity of the allylic 6beta-position might have a greater influence on CYP3A4 selective 6-hydroxylation than steric constraints in the enzyme, our results reveal that for CYP3A4 steroidal substrates, it is not the chemical reactivity of atoms at 6beta-site, but the pharmacophoric features, i.e. the two hydrophobic rings together with two H-bond donors, that act as the key factors responsible for detemining the CYP3A4 selective 6-hydroxylation of steroids. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Injection by hydrostatic pressure in conjunction with electrokinetic force on a microfluidic chip

A simple method was developed for injecting a sample on a cross-form microfluidic chip by means of hydrostatic pressure combined with electrokinetic forces. The hydrostatic pressure was generated simply by adjusting the liquid level in different reservoirs without any additional driven equipment such as a pump. Two dispensing strategies using a floating injection and a gated injection, coupled with hydrostatic pressure loading, were tested. The fluorescence observation verified the feasibility of hydrostatic pressure loading in the separation of a mixture of fluorescein sodium salt and fluorescein isothiocyanate. This method was proved to be effective in leading cells to a separation channel for single cell analysis.